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

People really have to stop the 91 slander. Good grief it’s almost as old as the reclass talk.

So, I mean, they should stop because it's old and tired and boring. Talking to you, Predators / Swarm / HoCo Pink Dad.

But not because it's slander, because, well, it's fairly accurate.

Is Bored MD Dad in jail? It’s been a year or so since we had the pleasure… where art thou?

He might be around....

FCA beat BLC 9-7 in 2022
FCA beat BLC 11-6 in 2023

I'm struggling to find the BLC improvement.

Hey Sherlock— did you consider the fact that the 3-4 FCA holdbacks might have made them a LOT better than 2022???

exactly. rumor is that both FCA and BLC are substantially improved since 2022. But it is hard to gauge whether one or both actually have improved when their only game is against each other. They play the Hawks and Next Level, respectively, this Saturday who are both good teams and relatively known quantities. Those games will be great opportunities for FCA and BLC to show what they've got.

Not sure that I’d say that either of those teams are known Quantities. Very much still TBD with both NL and Hawks.


Hawks added several kids in their own right. They had a terrible fall. They look to have corrected things however and are back to normal. Normal being very very good. They blew out three weak teams in their tuneup tournament.

Next level also had a terrible fall and added a big holdback of their own who will likely drive their offense all spring. Their coach logs on to the board occasionally to espouse how well coached they are.

FCA has been crowned world beaters for some reason. A lot of that crowning came from the whiny ML parents after they were smoked in the fall. But then ML lost to a west coast B team. Other than that, FCA hasn’t beaten anybody. So who knows how good FCA actually is.

BLC is however definitely better. Not sure how much better - but they showed well against leading edge who is a nice team and then tied True Chesapeake who is awful.

Crabs aren’t there and the kids have labeled them as playing dirty. No bueno.

We hear every year that BLC is one season away from winning some big games. We will see.

But let’s be clear. If they are better, it is absolutely not because they developed their players. It is because they have poached from other teams. It is ok. Other teams do it. But this is not player development from the club. Same with many NL teams though the 28s are largely home grown

This is all true, but conflates several separate issues.

We're talking about whether a BLC team who tied with Predators 4 months ago, has improved on par with FCA Blue. Sit with that for a second, as Predators have never even beaten FCA White.

BLC arguably does a great job of developing talent at the younger ages. But this is true for the upper 50% of clubs, including the better rec clubs.

I would argue that at the middle school ages, very few clubs are "developing" players past the current season's needs/system/plays unless the coach is extremely invested in the roster. You can see it when kids change clubs and look completely lost. I'm talking about last year's Crabs, Kelly Post, etc players who were supposed to "dominate" on new rosters this year but mostly look confused because they learned a specific system/set/look at their old club. They were not really "developed."

And finally, if you think the "what are those new names on the roster - in March - ???" phenomenon is problematic now, you need to make peace with it for the HS years unless your sons are playing very low level lacrosse in HS. For every kid added to the roster in tryouts, another one shows up at practice in February and is suddenly on the teamsnap roster. And hey, if the kid showed up for just one practice, then a tournament, then the coach can claim "we have no fly-in players! All these kids work out with the team!" As if the kid in a FL or MA boarding school is flying down for Wednesday night practices.

What we should really do is set up some kind of league somewhere nearby, maybe in Howard County or something, where all of these teams could just play each other so people wouldn't have to spend hours trying to handicap and prognosticate the outlooks for 7th grade lacrosse teams.

This is spot on. None of the top programs "develop" players on middle school teams. Families hire private coaches and attend elite camps and clinics for that. In 7th and 8th grade, teams are trying to add the right players to their roster, so that by 9th and 10th grade their team will be ranked 10-15 nationally, and college coaches will watch their games. College coaches are unlikely to watch a game between two teams ranked below top 20. The way to find players who will bring team into the top 10-15 is to recruit new, athletic kids who are dominant athletes, and yes, many are holdbacks and/or fly ins. The time to develop incumbent players is mostly in 3rd to 6th grade, and if a player is still a third line middie of fifth pole by 7th grade, the program will look to outsiders to take that spot. Turning the discussion back to BLC, if BLC now has a 2028 team that is competitive with Next Level and Madlax, it is because they have beaten those two programs at their own game by bringing in good, big, fast, new players in middle school. I am skeptical that they have done so, but we will find out soon enough. But if BLC has succeeded in upgrading its roster with new players, that is not grounds to criticize them. They are just playing the same game as other elite level teams.

That’s a lot of words to say teams will look to get better every year.

Meh, sort of, but in the effort of being brief, yes, "teams look to field an increasingly competitive roster each year, however that is achieved."

When you say "teams look to get better" that's just promotional language to convince parents "we'll make your kids better every year." Which is only partially true, and most certainly not a priority for any team past 6th grade. Your kid may not get cut, but he may be the 4th LSM or 5th goalie. Which is basically, take a hint.

Teams can try to get out of a kid the most potential they have. But every kid has a ceiling.


If by 7th grade your kid is the 4th LSM or the 5th goalie on any team, that’s your fault as a parent.

The most likely scenario is your child can’t compete at the level he is at and should be moved down to a lower level. More fun for the kid. Less stress for parents. Less resentment towards clubs for “not developing kids” (whatever that even means).


Put your son in the best place to play and improve at his pace and have fun.

Need Bored MD Dad’s picks for the weekend.
And it looks like we might need to wait another 2 weeks for Madlax to show up to HoCo. Maybe they’ve lost so many kids to other teams that they can’t field a team of their own??

What happened to MadLax? I thought they had a game scheduled for this weekend?

BLC beats NL in a thriller 7-6. You’ve heard it here 1st. Dad coach has a plan to shut down the his old attackman. Emotions will be high and NL will break.

Cabell's in his underground bunker researching how he's going to pitch "Yeah we placed 4th/5th in HoCo, but true lax eliteness is really about the fall tournaments! LFG Madlax Monuments Fall 2023.a.1.c!"

Not my son's team but guessing they had to postpone due to not enough bodies b/c of Landon spring break. NL and BLC have a bunch of Landon kids as well but are somehow managing to play weeks 1 and 2. Oh well.

It shouldn't be allowed. Spring break dates are set in stone months prior. Every other team in this league also has spring break at some point or another during the HOCO season. Why does Cabell get to change, postpone, cancel dates? Are the other age group Madlax teams postponing also?

Not enough bodies? Forfeit.

Tons of my sons team are going away during the week... but care enough to be back for the weekend games. Maybe Madlaxs' vacations are just much much nicer than ours.

The point is HOW they get better in certain years relative to others. In grades 3-6, they do it by developing the players they've got, but starting in 7th they do it by recruiting new players, including holdbacks. Hope the cliff notes are helpful.

ML must be the only club in the nation with children that have spring break AND play multiple sports.

Something weird is going on, especially when you consider how weak an opponent (Team 91) MadLax was scheduled to play. 91 was in AAA last year and lost in the first round of the playoffs, and started 0-1 this year. Madlax ought to be able to handle Team 91 pretty easily, even with a depleted roster. And the Landon vacation excuse doesn't really hold up. Landon kids make up a relatively small percentage of the team, and it is hard to imagine that they would all schedule family vacations that conflict with HoCo games. These are veteran lacrosse families and Cabell is good about telling people to hold dates. Can someone from MadLax (or 91) chime in as to the reason why the game was canceled?

Got to be more than spring break otherwise should definitely a forfeit. All teams have Spring break. Hawks had 5 players out will Covid and lost two games at the end of last year including playoffs. Lace em up Cab, the league is better with madlax competing.

I'm not a MadLax parent, but seriously? Shouldn't be allowed?

Most families are lucky to get a couple of chances a year to take a vacation together, and as the parent of a high schooler I can assure you that those opportunities only shrink as they get older, especially if they play high school sports. If both teams can find a more convenient time to play, why do you care? If your entire family is planning its life around 7th grade HOCO, you may want to reconsider your priorities.

Not happening. If Dad coach is getting emotional and looking to settle a score with a seventh grader, that helps explain why none of the good teams in HoCo have Dad coaches.

Pretty much all of the good teams have dad coaches in HoCo 2028.

Are we sure it’s Madlax who requested postponement and not 91??
If Madlax— yeah, super lame. They have very few kids from Landon, maybe 2-3 at most. If it’s indeed Madlax, it’s likely because they’re coach can’t miss an opportunity to make a complete fool of himself for 50 minutes on the sideline.

Someone already hitting the gummies for the weekend. Dad Coach from BLC is a complete clown show. NL has plenty of options

Not the PP, but I care because if every team followed that reasoning, the league would be chaos. Many teams are missing players week to week but they play with who they've got and do their best. Madlax has a history of shady behavior on the sidelines, with rosters, and with scheduling, so in within circles of people who care about 7th grade lacrosse (which I admit is a small subset of the US population, but I assume everyone reading this board is within) this sort of shadiness is both infuriating and comical. that is why people care.

yes, seriously. it shouldn't be allowed for teams to call up the league and cancel games that are already scheduled because some of their kids are away on vacation. if a 7th grade lacrosse game is such life or death that you can't go ahead with a depleted roster and maybe (gasp) take a loss, then you need to think about YOUR priorities.

So you’re saying hoco games can be postponed or re-scheduled?

Agree with this.

And very ironic that Dad coach would be mad at a player moving to a clearly better team at the same time he is bringing in multiple new players (and kicking his old ones to the curb).

Hawks and FCA are dad coaches. Stay over there in BLC land not knowing a thing.

Heard it was 91 who postponed

Good point! MadLax too! But let's just say that some Dad coaches manage their emotions better than others.

Good point, it could have been 91 or a HoCo issue not related to either team. Can someone who knows the answer or wants to pretend that they know please fill us in?

Next Level has been eating MadLax's lunch on the on the field and in player movement in the 2024, 2026, and 2027 classes. it's hard to see how it won't happen relatively soon in 2028.

BLC is becoming the main benefactor of Madlax’s decline. They’ve picked up 3-4 of their kids recently, and likely several more on the way. They won’t be going to NL, that 28 team is a dumpster fire on the parent sideline