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

True only makes sense if you can have guaranteed spot on national team, which is all the owner cares about.

For the same reason they have done so in previous years. DCE is the best program in the DMV (not counting Anap/Baltimore in that statement. Polls/rankings support that statement. 21, 22, 25, 26 teams…. NL and Madlax not even in the same zip code with those teams . Madlax had a pretty sick 23 team but they were bought

Only a matter of time before they end up at DCE..

And even then, buyer beware. Those teams are pretty watered down now too. What are there like 7 per age group now? Mom writes a check, you get a chance to travel around the country to play some of the best teams in the country with sub par talent alongside you. But shiny helmets

True National is to elite lacrosse what the XFL is to pro football.

It's probably a good opportunity for a few kids.

Can anyone confirm this about Madlax? We’re about to make the jump and want to know what we’re walking into.

Here’s what you are walking into. Three years ago they hired a parent coach, and the players who came with that coach brought a toxic culture of kids tearing each other down and cyber bullying. Some kids left as a result, and others left through natural attrition, but they have done a pretty good job of backfilling with new players. many of the new players are out of town kids, which is generally the MadLax model nowadays, and tells you something about the team’s reputation among locals. If your son is at the offensive end of the field, he will be subject to toxicity and nepotism. At the defensive end, he will be competing with a lot of strong players and will have trouble getting on the field unless he is exceptionally good. So far the team has avoided outright imploding like the MadLax 2028 and 2026 teams, but they have fallen pretty far behind Next Level and Hawks, and will probably be surpassed by DCE in 9th grade. That’s what you’re walking into. Best of luck.

Actually, as much as I dislike Madlax, that team is pretty darn good and getting better. I don't think they are falling behind; rather gaining. Just an observation without any inside knowledge.

They were very good in 5-6th grade. As the previous poster pointed out, the BLC coach brought his kid and about 10 others, and it’s been a steady bleed since. 3/4 of their best players went to NL, who is now a much better team. There’s a pretty bad case of daddy ball happening on this team, and it’s the root cause for the 3-4 top players going to NL couple years back.

There are two other great options in town. And a couple of really good options just below Elite. This team will slowly (or rapidly as was the case with 24, 26, and 28 Madlax teams) churn players to other clubs and not draw any new interest past 6th grade. It’s a one way street, which is why thy have to rely on players from outside the area to come guest play in the summer (which in itself is just a [Censored] model). Just a terribly run program. Run the other way. NL, DCE, Hawks, or if not needing Elite, check out Hammers in VA.

ML 2027 was good but nothing special when the kids were younger. The team didn't improve or go down after the BLC kids joined during covid. NL got 1 good player from ML and have gotten slightly worse as the team gets older, primarily because the coach plays huge favorites. BLC got a couple of ok players and aren't very good as DCE. Maybe they got a few players for the upcoming year. Hammers is out of business. Team VA is the newest group trying to make a go of it in NOVA and slightly beyond.

Hammers IS Team VA, it was just a name change. So they are not a new group..

Kind of sort of. The Hammers director moved to Carolina and things shut down. They re-organized as Team VA but most of the 2027's moved on and tried to make ML, NL and DCE. Don't know if they will go back to the re-brand Team VA.

pretty accurate summary and suggests an overall weak class in the DMV. getting back to the "what a I getting myself into" question about ML 2027, I wouldn't want my son anywhere near that team for the reasons that the PP said.

I am a Madlax parent. Keep in mind that the disparaging Madlax comments are all coming from the same one or two Next Level parents. They thought their son was slighted by Madlax, and haven’t been able to move on. Like all club programs, Madlax is not perfect, but the 27 team is a great group of kids (many who have been together for 4+ years) and has great group of coaches (including a Dad coach) who genuinely care for the well-being of the players and their families. Are some parents frustrated that the team doesn’t win more? Of course. Are some parents frustrated that their son doesn’t play enough or is playing the wrong position? Of course. But you get that everywhere you go.

And regarding departures from Madlax… one player left at the end of this summer. He went to play at Next Level because more of his friends play there. He will be missed. All the boys liked him.

How many kids has Madlax picked up from NL over the last 2-3 years? How many have they lost?
And second question, how many flyins are they using? I know their goalie is from Kentucky.

Enough. Stop. Keep that sensible, level-headed [Censored] out of BoTC!
It's disgusting.

ML has lost players to NL but only 1 was really good. The young man leaving for NL this year didn't play much but he was a nice kid with nice parents. Did ML lose others to DCE or the new Team VA?

ML remains pretty good because they play in really good tournaments and have been around a long time with lots of programs and clinics. They attract players from Kentucky and Richmond because those players get to play right away at tournaments they could never achieve in their home towns. ML will also cheat and allow older players like this year's 2027 team at Naptown or even whole teams like at Hershey or HoCo without impunity.

Nice comments from Next Level mom about cheating and fly-ins. Last I heard, Next Level has a goalie from Richmond on their 27 team.

But who really cares and why the “fly-in” detest anyway? Don’t you want your kids to play with the best players? Doesn’t that make everyone better? Should your kid get to keep his spot because of his zip code or how long he has been on the team?

And we should get used to it anyway. Madlax, Next Level and DCE all have out of town kids playing on the high school aged teams. If my son ever complains about it, I’ll feel sorry for him, but I’ll also tell him that all he can do is work harder to get better.

fly ins are part of the game, but but over-age cheating is a different story. I've heard that other madLax teams have done that for years but I was not aware of 2027 doing so - are they doing that now too?

Madlax had a kid who was a 26 last year play on their 27 National team at Naptown this summer. He’s reclassing to 27, but Naptown doesn’t allow kids who didn’t play 27 during the school year play 27 in their summer tournament. It was discovered after the first day of games, and the kid had to stop playing.

The kid was a defender - a pretty good one - but not really a game changer. notIntelligent and embarrassing, but I don’t think there was an intent to cheat.Next Level mom has gotten a lot of traction out of it though.

No tournaments allow this practice and haven't for several years. If it makes you feel better, Naptown had the worst cheating from any tournament ever. This tournament was the one pushing NLF and now everyone else into going to an age based system. Hogan was told about ML, started to look at many of the teams and concluded he wouldn't have a 2nd day if he started forfeiting teams.

Here is the very first rule of eligibility for Naptown (and most other tournaments)
1) All players must compete in the division with the class they were in during the 2022-2023 Academic year.

To say there was no intent is completely laughable but if it makes you feel better about your club you roll with that. Every director and head coach knows that rule and to play dense and pretend otherwise is even worse. Stay classy Madlax.

Next Level mom is not going to let it go.

Not NLM and would have let it go except for the "I don't think there was an intent to cheat" statement. So director and coach clearly cheat, then lie to the families about it, and the [Censored] believe them. At some point the parents need to be better and demand better. And no - not all clubs/teams cheat.

I wish you were right.

I haven't seen this type of "haven't held back yet" cheating in the DMV but it is rampant in LI, WNY, and CT with the boarding school kids. Saw it with S2S and Igloo? maybe. They hold them back early elementary age in lacrosse (for the parents' ego) and then do the actual academic holdback in 8th grade. And unlike MD elementary / middle school holdback parents who shout "holdbacks are fine, it's within the rules" but also hide the fact that THEIR kid is a holdback, the NY and CT parents are quite open about it - similar to how MIAA parents are open about it, once Jonny makes varsity and it's a better look.

Also, some of the lower level tournaments (including some MDLX events) have a proffer for allowing teams into events based on the AVERAGE AGE OF THE PLAYERS AS LONG AS THE TOTAL DIFFERENCE IS TWO YEARS (for 2028, that would be ages 12-14 on most teams at this moment). Yes this is meant to encourage rec travel teams who use "14U" and "U14" to sign up and send a check, but I've personally seen it blatantly abused by the types of teams you have never heard of until you get to the event, like Black Bear (PA) and 757 Select (VA).

Not NLM either, nor am I a fan of MadLax, but I gotta admit that playing down in the summer before repeating a grade is pretty common. It happens all the time, even in tournaments like Naptown that have clear rules against it. But that doesn't make it right, and the fact that the daddy coach deliberately broke the rule is one more example of what he is about.

ML 2027 parent here. Our son told us after the fact that they knew they had an illegal roster. Not only was it the older player, there were also a bunch of unregistered players who were on the field. They were 27's but not on the official roster. The kids were told by the coaches not to say anything about the 26 and other players but it got out.

Yep, 2Way is notorious for this practice… their best 2027 player (#8) played down on the 2028 team all last summer and dominated. He was telling kids that he was going to reclass to Brunswick in the fall (and even if it had, it violates this rule). But it never happened. Fortunately, he and his team got rolled in the championship game at NLF.

His parents are a coaches' nightmare..the kid is nice enough.. Then again, the parents there are all LI Storm the Capitol types so maybe nobody cares.

That is awful. Typically when teams roster cheat, the coaches don’t tell the boys, and they have a cover story in case they get caught. For example, when the MadLax 2026 dmv team was caught by HoCo using 2025’s and disqualified, they claimed that they thought HoCo had given them permission. Nobody believed that, but at least they did not admit to the players that the team was a fraud. I have never before heard of a coach telling the team “okay guys, we have some illegal player so let’s keep it quiet”. Great ethics. I’ve heard nothing but bad stuff about the daddy coach but that is by far the worst. Serious question, why would you keep their son on a team when those are the lessons being taught?

That is awful. Typically when teams roster cheat, the coaches don’t tell the boys, and they have a cover story in case they get caught. For example, when the MadLax 2026 dmv team was caught by HoCo using 2025’s and disqualified, they claimed that they thought HoCo had given them permission. Nobody believed that, but at least they did not admit to the players that the team was a fraud. I have never before heard of a coach telling the team “okay guys, we have some illegal player so let’s keep it quiet”. Great ethics. I’ve heard nothing but bad stuff about the daddy coach but that is by far the worst. Serious question, why would you keep their son on a team when those are the lessons being taught?

Typical!

Because that story is not true.

Moderator - are we all ok with people impersonating parents from an opposing team and making up stories?

I wrote that comment and I changed my mind, I’m ok with it.

How do you know it's someone impersonating a parent?

I've met enough disgruntled parents on the sidelines who wouldn't think twice about burning down their son's team's shady practices. Especially if it hurts their kids playing time.

Everyone relax…two good teams for the area each with its own issues…I’m just sorry that they are unlikely to play each other much over the next few years, if at all

I know because I know many of the parents from that team, and if that had happened, they would have left in droves.

News flash. They have been and more left at the end of summer. It’s not a coincidence VLC, NL and DCE players don’t migrate to ML.

Nope