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

Sure, such a great place that nine long-time starters left and more tried to leave. And let's not talk about individual players, but ML's 1-3 NLF pool play record suggests they're very far from a shutdown unit despite dad posts here, and it seems unlikely that a pipeline of kids from a team that had to fly in players to be moderately competitive in HOCO is going to turn things around. Sounds awesome.

Pretty sure the previous poster was being facetious. “They’re gonna won so much the kids will get tired of winning.”
Well, the top half of their team just bounced, and the team was fairly average before that happened. They couldn’t muster more than 3-4 goals in any of their higher quality games this summer. Good luck in 2024

lol don't want to dox myself but have one kid in elite and one on a second team. B team quality can vary wildly and being a good player on a second team surrounded by kids who can't throw/catch can be just as bad for your development as being on elite but riding the bench. But I have pretty good visibility into both the NL and DCE B teams and know for a fact there are multiple kids on both who can play. And as I wrote being just one level below Elite isn't a terrible outcome, there's good teams in AAA. It's still a big jump to elite from there but a kid can develop pretty well, hit puberty, and grow and come out on the other end of the season ready to make a move up, either at his current club or some other elite club. If your kid got dropped down just make sure he knows it's a speedbump, it doesn't have to be the end of the world. Def a blow to the ego but the parents tend to care more about that than the kids.

why did all those kids leave MadLax. The pros and cons of that team have been known to everyone for years. why now?

Is this three non-hammerhead dad posts in a row? You might break BOTC. There was a far amount of movement this summer with kids moving up and down across HoCo brackets for a variety of different reasons. Honestly I think it reflects good parenting. But let's also back up here.

Almost 60% of kids quit sports before age 12, and of the remaining 40%, almost half quit by the end of 9th grade.

Then at the private school lax tryouts in 9th grade, 20% get cut, 50% make Fresh/Soph, 25% make JV, and 5% make Varsity where generally they will not get serious PT....maybe not until 11th grade.

I'm sure that anyone's kid who's reading this won't end up on the "hard" end of those stats (LOLOLOLOL) but the "If you ain't first you're last" Ricky Bobby Lax Club mentality is ridiculous. In 9th grade no one will ask you or your son what level he played in the Hoco league for 8th grade or any other year.

I am guessing the Head Coach/ Owner stepping away to be GM and not having a Coach to replace him. Right now they are just having "guest" coaching.

The shortest answer is probably a word for some phenomenon, but I'm not a sociologist, so, you'll have to take the semi-short answer (and I have two).

1. People will follow a toxic leader and accept whatever bizarre behaviors or excuses, as long as the leader keeps winning, and other less weird market options (teams) seem less successful aka "NL is a chump team, they'll never win HoCo." ML being nowhere near a HoCo championship for 2 years straight, and neither of those at the hands of their accepted rival (Hawks) was definitely "more than enough" for the families to see, given the absurd level of talent they have.

2. To the sadness and surprise of club directors everywhere, given the out of control pricing of everything in our lives, most families are evaluating how they spend their money, which I know for a fact impacted a lot of roster changes (and a lot of half-full camps) this summer. "Why am I paying $3K for this guy to yell bad instructions at my kid every week?" and "why wasn't this covered at practice last week?" is a valid question in the case of many club teams including ML.

You are correct in my opinion which is sad. As if winning the 3rd grade HOCO championship was reason enough to put aside your better judgement. It reflects really poorly on the MadLax parents. They've always been the worst sideline stooges.

After watching some games before/after my kids at HOCO, it is entertaining to watch Madlax and Hawks parents go at each other.

Haaaa. He stepped away in effort to keep the team together. Wasn’t enough, he had been given opportunity after opportunity change his ways, which are as public as the eye can see. Anyone who has played against Madlax knows what I’m talking about. Parents just got fed up. And the time was right with a new team popping up at this pivot point (DCE).

refusing to return and finish the Red Hots game at Naptown after the rain delay was pretty bad. the kids on the different teams all know each other and the MadLax kids were abused pretty badly over that. I'm not saying that people left over one incident, but I bet a lot of families were uncertain that pushed them over the edge.

To be fair to Cabell, this is a phenomenon I've seen repeatedly in the workplace, especially with executive leadership.........but also in families and obviously in politics. We ignore the evidence of our eyes and ears until it's clear that the weirdo/narcissist in charge is not protecting our interests.

the 2028 families probably looked at the older MadLax teams and didn't like what they saw. 2027 has daddy ball, toxic culture, and high turnover. 2026 imploded completely because nobody wanted to be on the team. 2024, also coached by Cabell, had its best players leave. the good news is that MadLax has backfilled these teams with fly ins and guest players, but Madlax teams have become a revolving door. but if you have alternative options to be on a real team, with real coaches, and the same lineup for practices, games, tournaments, most families will take that. honestly, once the dust settles after tryouts, I would expect some further quiet migration to NL or DCE over the course of the fall and winter. a player good enough to get a roster spot on one of those teams would be nuts not to do so.

will Crabs be better than DCE or NL?

Wondering who is shaping up as the third strongest team.

No

BLC beat NL at the end of the summer, and the new DCE is the 10 best kids from BLC and 15 solid players from Madlax, VLC, True, etc. DCE should be the best of the 3 DMV teams.

Well, we know who will NOT be the best DMV team. In fact, they might not even be able to beat Top Caliber: Madlax.

Lol

Nope. New Crabs coach made some inexplicable decisions for tryouts. Solid, existing players were cut for lesser skilled players. Surprised this hasn’t been mentioned yet. Some of the new kids will get cut next year when the BL boarders arrive.

Does crabs have a B team? What happens to the kids who are cut?

Funny that Madlax isn’t even in the convo for who is top 5 in HoCo at 2028. They might need to get relegated to AAA.

If ML does move to AAA, what team would mostly move up to Elite division? Or would they just play with fewer teams?

New players are not Elite. They will be one year and done and won’t get much PT.

True Chesapeake is also disbanded, so there will likely be one moving up— Team Maryland. Zero chance Madlax moves down. Pretty sure everyone on this board would thoroughly enjoy seeing them get crushed in Elite.

I would say based on what I’ve heard on rosters it will shape out like this:

1. Hawks
2. FCA
3. DCE
4. NL
5. Crabs
6. 91
7. Madlax

I would agree. Maybe add in Team MD either above Madlax or below if they do move them up.

Team MD always hoping their team will move up and it never happens. Every few years a Team MD moves up and gets waxed in elite. They go back down. Team MD wants to win more games than they lose and that's okay. But stop pretending it's a desire of the club to play against tough competition.

Sorry your son was cut.

The. Who will be the 8th team? There will be an 8th.

Sorry Team MD mom. Could they compete? Maybe, they're above average in talent and very well.coached.

But we all know the Club has chosen the easy path and the Aloha Championships over the years instead. Embrace it.

Was told Hawks has 26 players on the roster plus 2 goalies, just curious if that’s considered a large roster. Not what we are used to w previous club. Haven’t seen final roster yet

Pretty standard. Smaller than a lot actually, especially as high school approaches.

28 is a big roster. Most are 24 including the goalies.

You should definitely leave, plenty of boys would love your space

28 kids on a roster? Hard no- unless your kid is first or second string

It depends on the team -- I bet third and fourth line middies on Hawks get a decent amount of run with the team is ahead by 10 in the second half.

24 max including goalies. Hard to play more than 20 every week.

26 not 28 on the roster

poster said 26 plus 2 goalies.

Who did FCA Blue, Hawks, or Crabs add that made them better?