US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2028 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

I’m sure the NL parents aren’t happy but where can they go?

Cute troll. Anyone who knows lacrosse and has been paying attention the past few years knows that the NL 27s and 28s are both loaded with talent and don’t need big infusions to be competitive (or even, in the case of NL 2026, to play in elite). More likely, a piece here and there over the next couple of years to remain a championship contender / top 3 in HoCo—and to replace the 2-3 talented kids who are technically playing up and will need to play with their current grades in HS.

Owens heroes look older than 13 prove me wrong

Great question! BTW - Where was that defensiveness when NL was hanging15 goals on Madlax in the playoffs? But whatevs.

This is correct. NL 2028 and 2029 are going to be pretty stacked. NL 2029 will end up with at least 3 and perhaps more of the impact players on the current NL 2028. NL 2028 will be gaining 4-6 from NL 2027 at the end of the year. So NL just needs to retain its reclasses within the program to add talent. But I wouldn’t be surprised if a few Madlax players make the jump this off-season to add to the cupboard.

Not a single 2026 NL player reclassed to the 2027's. NL 2027 has plenty of holdbacks but no reclasses. They did cut a couple of true reclasses during summer tryouts. No current 2027 player is considering reclassing prior to high school.

What spring tournaments are teams doing?

Even though NL 2027 has several that conceivably could holdback with true '09 bdays...talent wins the day, ultimately

What's the over/under for 2027 Crabs reclassing to 2028 come summer?

The crabs operate under “we are considering a reclass so he’s eligible.”

This crabs 2028 team is probably the youngest crabs 7th grade team in a long time.

Will see what happens.

Next Level beats MadLax consistently in both 2027 and 2028 because they dominate at the three most important positions - coaching, face offs, and goaltending. But plenty of players on all four teams will be getting recruited, which is what really matters.

With the 2027’s out of the way. It will be interesting to see where these 2028’s land for HS in a couple years.

How many players are on the 27 and 28 NlL teams?

The 27 team is too big. They are in the mid twenties, plus they have several kids who never come off the field. That leaves 8-10 kids who play little or zero in games. Don’t know about 2028.
Btw, 2026 will be just like 2027, only worse.

With the disclaimers of "I could be wrong," "not sure about DC suburbs" and "I'm not saying that Cannons players are the same as Hawks players"....

.....it sure seems like the bulk of AAA and elite lax kids in both AACO and Balt County are already in MIAA schools. I would attribute that to the performance of most of the area's public schools during the 1st year of covid (that should not be a controversial statement), and the fact that those parents were looking at the MIAA transition "at some point" anyway. Gilman (especially if you combine its feeder school, Calvert), McD, BL, LB, and SP seem to be holding a good spread of FCA, 91, Hawks, Crabs, Sidewinders, Predators, Blue Claws, etc players. Unfortunately I think this will "justify" CHC's and BL's focus on recruiting boarders this summer and next fall for 9th grade recruitment. CHC is already working WAY up into PA this spring for this purpose.

From AACO family friends, it seems this is kind of the case at St Marys and Severn too, with Hawks, Cannons, Sidewinders players already attending. Some great athletes at the smaller Catholic schools, and AACO/HOCO public schools anticipate going to Spalding of course.

Another smaller group of great players, as always, will head to the best lax programs in public schools, and I think those parents' minds are pretty set at this point, as the dream of "full ride to MIAA" focuses in to the reality of "maybe $3K off the top" and the fact that Balt Poly, Centennial, Severna Park, etc are more or less "great" public schools on the whole.

Curious if this is the case w the DC private schools? Are the ML, NL, and Hawks kids pretty much dialed in to where they're most likely spending HS already?

Another question is, with so many Baltimore lax kids already "locked in," will they or their parents be lured away to other schools in 9th grade?

The 26s moved their extra players to the “practice squad” I guess the 27s and the 28s will eventually do the same.

It's a little different with IAC/WCAC in the DMV since most schools are 9-12. In the IAC, Landon and Bullis are (I think) K-12 so some kids are already locked in there. Same to some extent for St. Andrews in the MAC. But for Gonzaga, Prep, St Johns, and Good Counsel are grades 9-12. So there's still a lot in flux.

Thanks, yeah, that's actually completely different from what's going on in Baltimore with the 2028s. Good data point.

I will add my 2 cents re HS in the DMV.

Landon: L goes from 3rd grade thru 12th. It's a healthy mix of NL and ML kids there (I would wager more NL at the younger ages just from the optics, but I could be wrong). Kids usually stay there for the duration.

St. Albans: St. Albans runs from 4th thru 12. A sizeable chunk of kids come from Beauvoir (PK thru 3rd). You have kids on both the main clubs at StA. It's a very rigorous academically and they have already begun actively trying to pull in kids from the 28 class that fit their mold.

Prep/Gonzaga: These schools pull from a pretty wide area (mostly catholic schools). The main feeder for Gprep is Mater Dei (1st thru 8th). Pretty decent mix of NL, ML, BLC and DCE It's BLC heavy at the younger ages and then they shift to ML or NL. Then a % to DCE. Gonzaga also gets fed a lot of MD kids, but at a slightly lower % than Gprep, but that has been changing over the years. You do have a number of kids that go to St. johns, StA or leave for boarding....but a small percentage.

StJCH: They pull from a wide area. As you know from this thread, many kids start ML and switch to NL there. Many reasons for this, but mostly because an NL coach coaches StJ. But there is a mix. You get other clubs there too...even some Hawks, etc.

I'm not up to speed on Bullis, but whatever they are doing from a lacrosse perspective is working. They are good.

Great insights and refreshingly civil thread. Thank you!

I'm sure that will be rectified soon enough with some disaffected real estate appraiser posting from his company's Tahoe that he tells everyone belongs to him, "Clown!" "You know nothing!" Do you even know the coaches?"

But yes this is super interesting and informative, as very few/none of us dads/dad coaches have ALL the info on the region from the PA line down to Fairfax/Loudon and east to Kent Island (Hawks / St. Marys kids).

Bullis used to have a pretty strong pipeline from DCE. Unfortunately the last strong class was the 25s, which they have a lot of.

DC scouting report:

Landon: Strong and deep class already at the school across several positions - NL, ML, and even a couple BLC. Also very strong 27 class. Current leader in terms of talent. Could a Landon resurgence be in the cards?

Bullis: Very thin, but a key specialist is part of the 28 class. Will need to get some kids to come at 9th admissions.

Prep/Gonzaga/SJC: largely competing for the same group of Mater Dei and catholic K8 kids. SJC also goes after Southern MD pretty hard and occasionally AA county. Hard to handicap as there are good players with connections to all three schools, but Prep probably best positioned with a couple of key players.

STA: some club players but this isn’t like their 23 class. Will need to add at 9th admissions.

St. Stephens: Very weak so far, need to add in 9th admissions.

DeMatha: Will DM convince any of his 28s to come with him? Hard to know, but seems like not a ton of those families will go with him to DeMatha.

PVI: No idea what there is out in LC.

Because of the Anzelone connection.

Will DCE diminish once his son graduates?

Landon could field a 28 team with kids currently attending that would be competitive in HoCo elite. Absolutely the strongest class in DC. Prep will be very strong as I think they’ll get the bulk of the Mater Dei kids. Gonzaga not as deep a class as those two, but next best. SJC the x-factor because they throw the most money around.

This is a good point. I would think they could get some VA-based Madlax kids maybe. VLC at the 2028 level isn't currently in elite, Cavs I think has imploded, no idea about Evergreen. You have to think there's some sort of opportunity to build a western Fairfax/Loudon County club pipeline. Are Top Caliber or TRW represented at 2028? A lot of people seem to moving out to that area where PVI is so long term they should scoop up those kids, it's just the short and medium term could be difficult.

I assume these are predictions about Prep and Gonzaga based on older siblings, alumni parents, etc. Because Landon has a lower school (junior high), it’s easier to predict. Have to think that the bulk of the talented Landon 7th graders stay there for HS. But it’s just way too early absent some amazing inside scoop to say anything definitive about GP, GZ, SJC.

Yeah it’s just guessing based on family connections to the schools. Lots of wild cards and most of these families will apply to at least two of the three so no one should take too seriously.

Any thoughts/predictions for the March kickoff classic in a few weeks? Does anyone know what 2028 teams will be competing? Hopefully this 80 degree spring weather will continue a bit longer.

In the past, local teams have been NL, Bethesda, and FCA. I think they’ll all be there.

Last year had a last minute snow cancellation, but Mad Dog and BBL had signed up.

Will be interesting to watch - sounds from previous chatter on here that BLC has been adding players, which probably has something to do with people positioning themselves for DCE.

That didn't happen with the 27's. Not sure what is going on over there based on the web site and other social media outlets.

Speaking of the 26s. The NL team is way too large. Perhaps some of those boys will move over to DCE.

Hearing the brackets for HoCo got released. Any word on the alignments?

Rumors...........Should prob move Hawks Black and Forest Hill down and Predators and Next Level Red up.

2028
AAA
Hawks Black
Blue Claws
FCA White
Sidewinders
Team MD
Team $
VLC Talon
Wolfpack

AA
Cannons Select
HLC
HOCO
Next Level Red
Predators
ProStart Lacrosse
True Annapolis
Ville

I can only assume that the person in charge of that decision hates the Predators and hates Forest Hill hahahahaha. Because both will be miserable in that alignment. Though congrats to the Preds kids for their upcoming total domination highlight reels against clubs that no HS coach cares about.

And Forest Hill lost two goalies to Predators and FCA so good luck w all that against Team MD and company.

March Kickoff games are out. Some great early spring matchups. Teams likely pretty rusty, but always fun to see where teams have improved. Next Level, Freedom, Madlax, Leading Edge, Team 91, BLC, Red Hots National, Teue Chesapeake, True MD (who is this???), VLC, Cannons (is this the old Cutters team?)…

Usual caveat that US Club Lax rankings mean nothing but in spite of that they're all we have--here are the top teams from the March Kickoff:

Leading Edge (14)
Freedom (20)
Madlax (26)
Next Level (30)
True Chesapeake (39)
BLC (43)
Red Hots (52)
Team 91 MD (62)
Cannons (181)
VLC Tallon (121)
True MD (didn't see/unranked)

Matchups to watch:

Madlax (26) v Freedom (20); Madlax "Monuments"--are we bringing in our out of towners for this one, guys? Madlax beat this team 5-4 in November so we'll see how this one goes.
NL (30) v Freedom (20) and NL (30) v Leading Edge (14): Two tough ones for NL. Need to show improvement from a lackluster fall where the offense was stagnant.
True Chesapeake (39) v BLC (43): If "True Chesapeake" = "True Annapolis" from last spring, this will be a battle to see if either team has improved from last year's one win seasons in Hoco Elite.
Team 91 MD (62) vs Red Hots (52): This is a team that 91 needs to be competitive with if they're going to come up to Hoco Elite this spring.

I will be available before/after this event to talk smack and tell all of you why your team is terrible and my son's is the best of all time.