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

Maybe check their gloves, too

True will be defunct completely in this area in a few years - if not sooner.

But in the meantime - how many kids are on the roster for HoCo?

True will be defunct completely in this area in a few years - if not sooner.

But in the meantime - how many kids are on the roster for HoCo?

This could be an interesting competitive twist to the HOCO playoffs. Can someone shed light on the number of out of town kids that have been playing. Have these same kids played in each game, or does it vary depending on other circumstances? Said differently, did FCA play the same team as NL and Crabs?

Do us a favor and ask the "Baltimore" Crabs if all their players are from there or if the Hawks have some Pittsburgh kids

They have plenty of "imports" - true didnt start it but they are sure are following the blue print laid out by other clubs for HoCo

cry more so people dont see you doing it too

Totally agree. Good game, good for the kids on both teams, good for the sport, which grows beyond the northeast and a few pockets elsewhere or dies. Was at the UVA MD game a few weeks back, and the announcer regularly reminded the crowd to get out immediately after the game to make room for the revenue-generating basketball game right after. They never make announcements like that to football or basketball crowds, for whom 3000 is a very bad day but for lax is a record. Top lax game, record crowd, and all the university thought was “ok great now get out bc the money makers need the space.” So, again, grow the game or die.

As long as the players are rostered and are 2028s in school then the True experiment is allowed. Flights, hotels etc likely run 1-2k or more per weekend for little lax ditka to play in a league of Md and Va teams so I would not say this is growing the game (10k per family, 90k for all fly-ins for 13 yr olds). Competition is good for the league and the sport and crabs 91 Madlax and others have had 1-2 fly-ins in the past. Nothing like the 8-9 rumored to be coming in for true “Chesapeake” who lost by 9 to FCA.

Madlax finally played a game and looks to have had a pretty resounding result against an improved BLC team. Can anyone provide some color, preferably from the BLC side of the field? Any new players?

As a neutral party here, it’s really comical to watch this conversation unfold. On one hand, people say this is the best league in the country. On the other, people say holdbacks, fly ins are ruining the league. Then you have others bashing national programs, non MD,DC,VA players participating. Reeks of NIMBYism.

Listen, times change and situations are fluid. If ANY of you think any of these clubs are doing things “the right way” or “by the book” then you are naive. Some have to do things in order to level the playing field and they’ll have to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze on that one. The fact that some come here to pontificate about moral obligation to keep things on the up and up, that’s your choice and you are screaming into the abyss on that one. No one is doing it by the book, I can promise you that much. I feel a lot of detest is being spewed because a national brand is now in the race and the Good ‘Ole boys club is upset.

It makes the competition great and I think that’s what everyone is after. Let’s continue to push this league to maintain the reputation of the best competition in the country.

Listen, my kid enjoys playing, but will likely never play at an elite level and that’s ok. I love that he is excited to play against kids from Illinois, Bethesda, or wherever. If they are good enough, then what does it matter what zip code they are in. Take your own bias out of the equation and think wouldn’t I want my kid to play against the best competition, or are you just trying to bulldoze the situation to control the conversation at the donors party?

The national team participation in HoCo does not grow the game or help kids get better. If you watch the HoCo elite games, the kids play tight and are focused on not making mistakes so they don’t get pulled. For development and growth of the game both the elite players and average players would be better off if there were more teams of more mixed ability where good players could get playing time and have the freedom to experiment with more creativity. The iron sharpens iron is a marketing tactic of clubs. But in reality it just encourages safe, uncreative, soulless lacrosse.

And before people comment something along the lines of hit the wall, my son had a secure place on a good team, but I don’t think his club team is a key part of his development. If anything it is a detriment but he has friends on the team. The Illinois people are wasting their time and money. Instead of flying here they should be spending more time playing with their friends without parents yelling at them in these notIntelligent “elite” youth games.

The is argument is silly. Mostly all of the HoCo teams teams have played true national black in tournaments. No one care about playing true’s national team. They are just a team in a tournament.

But the rhetoric about flying kids in to “grow the game” is complete true marketing and a money grab from the out of town parents. If true actually cared about growing the game, at least one or two of there 868 teams all over the country wouldn’t be awful. But they have to literally form a national team to compete with kids from Annapolis or Towson.

Again fly your national team all over and play as much as you want.

But call it what it is - an admission that none (very few) of the top kids in this area want to play for true.

Why fly in more.

nobody who reads and posts on this board is neutral. just saying.

BLC kids have worked hard, but the rumors of improvement are exaggerated a bit. Most of our new players are kids who were pushed off other teams. An 11-3 win by Madlax does not tell you much about where they are. Wait until ML plays the Hawks, NL, FCA, and True, that will give you a better reading.

It’s a fair and reasonable point that the expense of traveling so far to compete doesn’t grow the game, especially when that displaces local kids. But growing in Maryland isn’t the challenge of course, it’s growing it in the places from which the kids travel. They go home, get to talk up doing well in a hotbed, proselytize to good athlete friends to say hey this is an option for you, etc. That this obviously aligns with a program’s profit motive doesn’t make it not true (pun intended), it makes more likely to stick (pun also intended).

Madlax dominated possession, good at FO, really good clearing from the back. Offense mostly comes from midfield. Strong team but beatable, BLC just made too many mistakes and turnovers.

ML defense from the midfield down was very solid. Harassed us the entire time. Their goalie was also very good and stopped a bunch of shots (note of disclosure... he is friends with my son). On offense they had some problems on the left side. Wasn't sure if it was their attack or midfield, but a number of dropped passes and poor throws that led to turnovers. Other than that their ball movement on offense was fast.

I know most of the kids and it doesn't look like ML had any new blood, but they have grown. Their big midi, who is often discussed on this page, is no longer the biggest kid on their team but he can still drop the hammer. fwiw

All around a bunch of turnovers from both teams, we just don't have the firepower and skilled flow offensively to take advantage against a very improved ML D. We spent too much time focusing on their big middie and that opened up our otherwise solid D to their cuts and ball movement. We did better just playing normal D, shut them down in 2nd. When we started close shadowing that middie, even man down, the entire 2nd half we got opened up. Is that kid able to beat you singlehandedly? Our coach obviously thinks so and he is quite a handful, beating slides and doubles. We're much improved but not contending just yet, need time to develop some chemistry with all of the new kids. Future is promising.

This absolutely is growing the game. The illinois boys have never had the opportunity to play high level spring lacrosse. Illinois does not play club in the spring kids are forced to play rec ball for three months with kids that have never picked up a stik or only pick it up in spring. The best team in our spring league coud not compete in HoCo b division..While this is great for trying to grow the sport it is not so great for the 5% of boys that want high level lacrosse. The lacrosse landscape is not the same in illinois and northeast. You should feel blessed that you don't have to travel to get great competition for your kids. The boys that are coming out practice more than any kid should but they live and breath lacrosse. They go back after the game with pen and paper and analysis the game they just played. They are honored to be playing in this league with so much talent. detest true if you want but please leave the boys out of it and let them enjoy the experience. See you next Saturday

true remains the Walmart of lacrosse.

It’s everywhere. Mostly offers low quality products. Is generally bad for the ecosystems in which it exists.

And have ugly uniforms.

Pretty even parallel. Only difference is while Walmart is cheap - true is the opposite.

true remains the Walmart of lacrosse.

It’s everywhere. Mostly offers low quality products. Is generally bad for the ecosystems in which it exists.

And have ugly uniforms.

Pretty even parallel. Only difference is while Walmart is cheap - true is the opposite.

Madlax has never flown a kid in for HoCo in 2028. Youre a clown.

Unlike these other fools, I welcome you and your kid to HoCo. Great to have a competitive True team. My kid’s team is one of the top teams in Elite, and I love the fact that the True game will actually get the juices flowing. Makes our kids better. Keep coming out East!

Then bring a team from Illinois and play! Why hide behind the national team cloth? True is bringing kids in from more than Illinois....The part that all the True clowns are missing is that you have local kids on that team that practice every week that get sat on Saturdays because the National Black team comes in to play in their place. All so True can try and win a Rec league??? If you want your Illinois kids to compete, enter a team from Illinois and bring them every week to play...its that simple.

I will agree with this previous post— Madlax D is very good, from Middies back to the goalie. On-ball defense was really solid, sophisticated slide traps on our middies, 3 big and physical D Poles, and while small, a very fundamentally sound goalie who made a bunch of stops. Teams will have a tough time scoring on Madlax this year— just a matter of them being able to score against the other Big 3. Nobody stood out on offense, even their big Middie 47. He’s a lot to handle, but he’s a well rounded player who shares the ball. They will win most of their games through their D.

I love that boys from non-hotbeds are getting to experience what we’re so blessed to have. Seriously. And if the other coaches and the league are fine with the True national team playing in HoCo, then there’s nothing to complain about here. Take your beef to your respective coaches who agreed to it. If they haven’t agreed, then this weekend’s games should be counted as glorified scrimmages and not toward the rankings. (I did notice that True and MadLax aren’t scheduled to play in the regular season. Maybe that’s not an error or oversight… Would love to know more if it doesn’t happen.)

But I’ll say this: For the integrity of competition (I know how quaint that sounds, trust me) True has an obligation to play each week of HoCo regular season—and playoffs—with a *relatively* consistent roster. Consider: If True makes the four-team HoCo playoff but shows up to the semifinal with the same roster that got torched by FCA, or on the flip side rolls in with a roster filled with even more fly-in ringers than this weekend, then shame on everyone involved.

FCA, Hawks, Next Level and Crabs are loaded with holdbacks. True is just making the playing field even flying kids in. This will probably knock Crabs out of the top 4....what a shame. I'm sure they will reload with more holdbacks next year. Folks....this is why this division is called "Elite". You don't see these issues at AAA and AA and there are solid players on some of these teams on age. What is up with 91? Watching the Predators was more entertaining.

Yes, I have to agree with this. Some teams definitely have more holdbacks and fly-ins than others, but when you enter the elite division, you are signing up for a league where every team is going to do everything they can to put the best team on the field that they possibly can. If your son relishes that, then he is in the right division. None of this happens in the other divisions. Like everything in life, be happy you have choices.

That said, the only people with standing to complain are the families on the local True team. Did they know this was going to happen?

100%

I would be interested to know exactly what the rules are. I am assuming that (a) every player needs to be rostered at the start of the HoCo season, (b) there is no geographic limit, and (c) there is no cap on roster size. So True must have submitted a 30-40 man roster, with roughly 20 local kids, plus all potential fly ins, and then they decide week to week who can be there?

Question for the Eastside/True DC/True Chesapeake/True MD/True Illinois/True Nationals Black/True Japan team parents.....if your kid works his [Censored] off at practice every week, contributes and plays and then all of a sudden gets his spot taken from a fly-in.....are you irate or just happy to get the W? I would imagine this is happening to 10-12 kids who will be shopping new teams before summer. But maybe i'm wrong.

Define loaded lol

First "True Japan"....out loud chuckle. I only know one True 28 parent well. So I'm not sure it qualifies as team consensus, but they are irritated with the constant fly ins. I did not ask if their son was impacted. I just let them talk. fwiw

Did Hoco agree to this before the season? Did the True parents know this was going to happen when they tried out? If not, completely unprofessional and everyone should boycott True. This is what the national teams do and why the same kids are on 3 different national teams. Take your national team to The Circus, I mean The Circuit. Or start buying decent clubs with decent players. If True can’t field a competitive team in MD, don’t sign up and dilute the elite division like 91 does. At least be honest with yourselves and sign up in elite as True National and not True DC,Md,cheasapeake,Susquehanna….. maybe you will get some elite players to come play with your elite True players from all over.

Define loaded lol

Lol at true entering it’s national team in HoCo.

Talk about desperation.

Or maybe you are more upset about it then they are. Which is weird.

If they’re shopping new teams, they’re shopping AAA and AA. The bottom half of True Chesapeake are simply not elite level players, which is fine. Thisnis 7th grade, plenty of time to develop. But those 10-12 sets of parents need to face the reality that if their positions on a bottom level elite team are taken by out of towners, they best look downward

3-5 dominant players will change the complexion of a game, so that is loaded. (think what a difference just one player makes for MadLax). it's sorta funny that True hand picked NINE (9) new players from around the country yet only won by 2.

Got it. If that’s your definition - you know nothing.

Keep trying true dad and or true coach with the whiny voice.

Reality check - at this point there really isn’t that much more time to develop.

In 6 months the kids with any prospect to play MIAA will all be slotted to their high school teams.

You either can play or you can’t by 8th grade and for these boys that’s in about 60 days.