US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2027 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

Random question. Are there still strong alignments between clubs and MIAA schools?

[
My kid is looking here and now I am second guessing it. I know the guy in Illinois has a divisive reputation. The local people do as well?

Everyone has to make their own assessment, our experience is they only care about your payments.

Breakers and True Baltimore.

You should see the 2028 thread...

Our experience was similar. It's the Globo Gym of lax.
Where are you located? There are some good options out there.

See how many clubs let you play for free. It's a transaction.

IMHO bigger questions are transparency and value. How is this club team going to elevate my son's skill, Lax IQ, exposure, and his love for the game?

If it were me I'd have to believe the coach at True was highly interested in my kid. Otherwise no.

The True products in MD will:
1. Offer tons of workouts.....some worthwhile, some not
2. Offer some state or national opportunities to some players, for a fee
3. Never hesitate to replace an experienced coach w a 23 year old, w no explanation
4. Offer no refunds ever.
5. Be very eager to fly in LI kids to add to your roster
6. Commit roster violations at events.. accident or otherwise, it's a True trend.
7. Collapse and rebrand teams with no notice. Sorry Johnny you're on True Richmond now!

Brutal. Accurate but brutal.

Worth noting that (at least) the 27 team doesn’t have a single returning player.

Thanks for sharing experiences!

]

Worth noting that (at least) the 27 team doesn’t have a single returning player.[/quote]


Wow

Good summary, but your forgot to mention cramming 4-6 teams onto one field for practice, so they run line drills for 90 minutes. I am sure that there are some kids on some True team somewhere in the country that are having a good experience, but the vast majority are having a bad experience, and the good ones are likely to turn bad soon. The program is doing too many things wrong and cutting too many corners. Even a well run, well coached team that is doing all the right things is still going to have a lot of unhappy customers. It is the nature of competitive travel sports. every family wants the best experience for their son/daughter, but it is a zero sum game (playing time, winning/losing, etc) and it is impossible for everyone to be happy. So from that starting point, think about a program like True that is a nationwide chain trying to make money any way it can, and has a bad reputation spreading like wildfire, run by shady characters, in a business that is shady to begin with. what could possibly go wrong? I can practically guarantee your son will not have a good experience on True. can any parent from any True team, at any age level, any state/region, reply that their son has been on a True team for several years, is getting good coaching, and is really happy with the overall experience? Even the "bad" programs like MadLax have plenty of families who are happy there. Not so much with True.

Our experience with True is that their players do not improve for the simple reason that True doesn't coach. Their philosophy is simply more reps = skill improvement w/o coaching or correction. That is if your son has bad shooting mechanics, no one at True is going to help them fix the underlying fundamentals, rather just tell them "hey, go take 100 shots and you'll figure it out". True is a waste of time, money and effort.

Exactly this!!!

Go check out the 2028 thread to see what kind of response your from the co-founder when you simply choose to move on after expectations are unmet. A real piece of work, that one.

I would love to hear from just one family who is having a good experience on a True team. Tell us which team, how long your son has been on the team, why you chose True, and what you like about it.

To be fair, out of 40? Hoco club teams in this age group, you might find 10 at most who would take time on a players shooting mechanics. But yeah, True's random coaches are surely not them.

The model works fine in the Midwest. Different style of lacrosse. Lower level skill (the average lax player in MD plays AA Hoco, the average player in OH or IL would play B or C). No skill coaches to point out how bad the club coaching is. No Kyle Harrisons or Predators to compete with Trues social media. Few parents willing to try teams multiple states away.


They succeed because everything is different. The sooner they move their snake oil wagon out of MD, the better.

That ship has sailed. True had a few good teams and structure at beginning,,,,no more.

Now they are trying to sell it on Long Island with a questionable director in an already saturated market. don’t know any kids that tried out.

Parents seem to have taken notice in MD

Has anyone heard who VLC is doing setting up a 2027 team?

BLC does not have a 2027 team.

It's VLC not BLC and yes. I believe VLC is trying to get a 2027 team back. They didn't have one this past year.

Who is running vlc now? Who is bobkat90 email?

A former Cavaliers mom

So this iteration won’t last long. Hammers, TC, even NL could try even though they failed with the PG County thing. Even one of the good rec clubs could try and step up like blc does it in md

I heard True Chesapeake is only 29 and below now. Did the 27 team survive or there's only one team now?

Pretty sure the 26s survived. There may be a 2027 team this year but it will be a AA level team at best.

Keep the faith. They are offering the seventh round of tryouts now.

When should this class start going to some showcases? My guess is Soph year? Then JR year the recruiting goes more full swing? How do you navigate all the bs showcases as opposed to the good ones.

They are all bs showcases
For every 1 good one, there are 9 lousy ones.

This is a very difficult questions to answer anonymously. We don’t know what club or high school your kid plays for and if he gets real minutes on those teams. We also don’t know his grades or what schools he’s looking to attend. If he’s on one of the stronger teams and gets minutes he may not need any of the prospect days because he gets enough exposure.

The Crabs goalie? I think he landed at ProStart.

Crabs cleaned house.

[Censored]

There isn’t a whole lot of 27 talent out there. I’m not sure where they got all the replacements from.

OK

Goalie came from True Chesapeake.

I thought that goalie went to the Hawks.

One to Hawks, one to Crabs.