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

Thanks for the update former Madlax goalie dad!

BOTC participants had an agreement not to talk about specific kids. This doesn’t seem to apply to goalies. As the parent of a goalie, I sure hope my son doesn’t come on this forum. Let’s clean this stuff up.

As for goalies....I don't see any openings at goalie on Elite teams. 91 goalie can probably start at FCA Blue or maybe a lower team; then 91 would have an opening at goalie. I'm sure FCA Blue will filter more kids down to White team. Some of those parents wouldn't be able to take being labeled on the "B" team and would rather be a playmaker somewhere else.

if your son is a 2028 goalie, and he came on this forum, I bet he would be happy to see how many people called baloney on the Madlax goalie Dad.

Or a local HS goalie, or a D like on Madlax, also known as “scoopers” according to True goalie dad. Managed to insult a lot of people all at once, can’t imagine what fellow parents at True have to say about this clown

There are always openings for good goalies. And if 2028 parents weren't familiar with kids playing down before they will be in 8th grade year as MIAA parents jockey to position their special kids before HS.

Crabs want to cut half their team.

Not sure if they will get that many kids to show up who are upgrades though.

I do know they are casting a wide net for kids to come though.

Where do they practice?

They have already told players new players will be joining them in CT this weekend and will be in the team after.

That's a sad fact if it's a lot of kids. Saw the new coaches for next year will be two college-age kids.

Why do parents pay $5-6k per year to these club directories to have college or recent college graduates coaching their boys? It’s just nuts…

LOL 10 guys walking out of an elite team don't saunter off to tryouts to see what happens next. Dads have made sure they have somewhere to go. Tryouts...yeah right.

It's all about wearing the yellow helmet.

Got that right...And it does come with recognition from peers and bigtime bragging rights !

In all honesty....how can you not know and accept this, by this point?

The best MD clubs at the HS level recruit who they want, any state, 5-10 new kids per year and rarely add more than a few kids they don't know, as a result of the tryouts.

If you believed the promise that paying 5+ years of elite youth lax dues would either develop your son's skill to keep his spot at the club in HS, or otherwise entitle him to a spot on that club's team in HS, you are mistaken. Now they'll probably not cut him, and take your money. But if there's a double holdbsck from MA with elite skills available for the next tourney, your son will absolutely sit. Time to mentally adjust to that reality.

That's a sad fact if it's a lot of kids. Saw the new coaches for next year will be two college-age kids.[/quote
Guest players from what clubs? How many?

No team adds 10 kids a year im high school.

Interesting to hear MadLax got beat by Freedom again 7-2. Which made me look at USClub Lax and I noticed MadLax played (and beat) FCA National the week before.

Who is FCA national?

Let the try out season begin. Hearing secret spots have already been secured.

Shocking news.

Thank you for this post.

Now that sounds scary, bragging about a scary team

they are okay, but I don't think they are scaring the pants off of anybody.

Cool story, NL dad.

No one else is thinking let along talking about this.

How many holdbacks from other clubs at Crabs try-outs tonight?

We’ve been on a team without a lot of turnover so can someone remind me if it’s normal to have a tournament after tryouts for the next year’s team? Maybe that’s normal and it just wasn’t notable, but with some of the reshuffling that seems to be going on it seems like that could create some weird situations this year.

I wouldn't call it normal, but I can see how it happens. Every year teams hold tryouts earlier and earlier, trying to get a jump on each other. They used to be August, but now are mostly July. Plus, "guest players" are a common occurrence at summer tournaments. So it is inevitable that tryouts and summer tournaments will bleed into each other. Of course there are wierd situations. Welcome to middle school travel lacrosse.

The comment that NL is "scary good" was 2-3 years ago, and it was a bit of a stretch both then and now. Not sure why somebody would resurrect a silly comment from so long ago.

But anyhow, things could get interesting for NL with MadLax supposedly imploding, and DCE trying to make a mediocre BLC team into an elite team. Those three teams pull from the same pool, so I wonder what they will look like in September.

I feel like the DMV area for 2028 has had issues every season....

The core of NL is staying, and there are supposed to be a lot of other elite players trying out. At least that’s what my 13 year old says…

That is not what my 13 year old is hearing. Because of N’s less than stellar year, they are now in play for poaching to other clubs, including, gasp, ML.

It is a total mess and it is anyone’s guess what is going to happen.

Any updates on Crabs try outs? Hearing the talent is not what parents expected.

Gonna be lots of churn this summer. Madlax losing a bunch, NL likely losing a bunch. DC Express building from scratch. Madlax offering free to NL kids to convince them to do the unimaginable… play for Madlax. In the end, Madlax will likely remain the top DMV team, but I’d expect to see DC Express move past NL. NL the big lost

Agree with you.

"free" is a great selling point for some things in life, but not travel lacrosse. Nobody is going to put their son on a team that is a dumpster fire just because it is free.

Madlax is going to suffer from the same root cause of its problems: the coach. He is giving himself a new title (GM) hoping that parents and players will fall for it.

DCE is recruiting heavily but it’s pulling from the same DMV pool of players, so unless they get the best from ML and NL, then it’s just BLC with a new name and new coaches. (Coaches look like they have good resumes though)

NL is keeping its core players and has over 85 signed up for tryouts. Remains to be seen how many top players from other clubs come over.

Who says DCE won't just be Hit Squad, who did more the NL, ML and BLC could individually? I think other than 2 or 3 Freedom players and 1 FCA player they were just NL, BLC and some randoms.

I have no inside knowledge, but it seems like all 3 of the existing squads have negative connotations while DCE is new and in the same pool. If I were to take my kid to one (we won't, he's in Baltimore), it would be DCE.

Why is NL having so much negative talk? Guessing i need to look on previous pages..

Any kid playing for free is a “rental.” He will leave at the first opportunity to improve his standing. Typical of Cabbell Maddux

NL is going to be the biggest lost in the Fall. Hands down.

last year's champs crashed to 3-4 and missed the Hoco playoffs, haven't done much in the summer tourneys. People not happy with coaching, head coach is juggling multiple age groups, a HS team, and for some reason just launched a national team. Adding new players randomly. At other age groups (2026, 2030) people have taken notes that at any time 10 or more new players poached from other programs can result in a player who's accepted an offer and paid for the year being unceremoniously pushed to the B team, and that same scenario could definitely happen for the 2028 team. There's only so much of that behavior that people will put up with before they leave.