US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2029 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

Not sure what big deal is, MD has holdbacks, And many are the best players on their teams. Is everyone a Holdback on MD teams..of course not, But we all know, without our holdbacks or prefirsts many teams would be average at best.

MIAA is loaded with holdbacks who go on to a successful college career. Not a big deal to admit it works for MD and their teams.

It’s just not nearly as rampant as you insinuate in 2029. It typically happens after 8th grade down in Md. not prior.

Yes there is a spike in 8th grade as many need to go against other holdbacks/prefirsts in MIAA schools. But it actually starts in kindergarten with the huge amount of prefirsts now. All are full in most K-12 MIAA schools. Then the next spike is 6th to 7th as many MIAA let in more students at this time.

So sorry , but MD 2029 has many holdbacks and prefirsts, and yes, there are more coming in next two years.

My kid is playing on a MD 2029 Elite club. We lost exactly two players to age verification of which, only one was a meaningful loss. 20 other kids were unaffected. From what I hear from friends on other elite 2029 clubs, the effect is pretty similar for them.... no more than 10% of the team was impacted and those players weren't necessarily the difference makers.

To me there's two "big deals" as they pertain to bonehead lax parents.

1) In MD: The classified spy-ops of not admitting their kids are holdbacks until they've comfortably made Varsity in 10th-11th grade. Parents who will say out loud that there's no benefit to holdbacks, but secretly, have held their own kids back.

2) In NY, CT, RI: MA: The whining about MD holdbacks when it's nearly as prevalent in that region.


What I think you'll see in MD over the next 2 years is a decline in pre-firsts, a decline in 6th-grade holdbacks, and no change in 8th grade holdbacks. Think you'll see an uptick in post-grad / Prep / Juco attendance to get average MIAA / IAC players to a better recruiting position at age 19-20 instead of being recruited after sophomore year at age 16.

US Lacrosse didn’t go far enough. They should have made the cutoff Sept 1st. If they did, you would see a much bigger roster impact in MD.

I agree with the limited number of holdbacks on Md teams at the 29 level. The difference will be how teams that had difference makers adjust.

On a side note, from all the parents i have gotten to know only one parent has openly admitted that their son was a holdback prior to him being reclassed to his appropriate age. Why has it been such a task among parents to keep it a secret, because right now it's pretty obvious who was and wasn't. It was a ok back then you weren't breaking rules. SMH

I agree with the decline in pre-firsts and before 8th grade given the new age verification.

You mean NLF.

US Lacrosse has always been 9/1

Man get over it. As soon as your kid hits high school and college he/she/it/they/them will be playing against older kids anyways. Stop the whining and crying about holdbacks

Any idea which teams will be playing at Fall Brawl in Annapolis

Hey Bud don't be p!@#$d about the fact that the new rule will affect your bottom line. Your boy will be just fine in his age group if he really is that good. Doesn't matter where he plays. right? He's that good. Beats younger kids, can beat his own age kids, and I am sure he is so good he can play up. Right? So why do you care about the new rule, right? Your son is a D1 prospect all ready. Why do you really care about the new rule? Let's be honest (please refer to the first sentence). Have a nice day.

Thanks Holdback Dad! The main point here is this is NOT High School or College and doing this at the younger ages is absolutely a safety thing. Your kid will have his chance to shine in High School but in the meantime nothing wrong with him playing with his on age peers. Honestly if he is that good have him play up in age since as you stated that will be expected of him later, but having him dominate younger kids makes zero sense and is contrary to your whole argument.

“In High School he will be playing against older kids anyway”

The holdback kid won’t! That’s the whole purpose of holding a kid back. Your holdback kid will NEVER play up in age.

Freshman yr on JV he’s the age of a sophomore
Sophomore yr on JV he’s the age of a Junior
Junior Yr on Varsity he’s the age of a Senior
Senior yr on Varsity he’s the age of a College Freshman

It’s done to gain an unfair advantage. In other words CHEATING.

Looks like the LWSC has a 9/1 cutoff. How do folks think that will impact the teams (assuming they send a team)?

The 9/1 cutoff will definitely hit any Maryland WSYL team because many kids who have later birthdays will do the "pre-first" route with private schools.

Also, Maryland simply doesn't have the same number of kids playing lax that long island does. Consider that LI's population of 7.8M is almost 30% larger than Maryland's 6.1M. Subtract the 600K people in Baltimore City who aren't playing lax and that difference grows even more stark.

Finally, Maryland is really two lax markets.... Baltimore County and Metro DC. Because of traffic, kids rarely travel past the closest market. Many of southern maryland's best players actually play in Virginia for programs like Madlax and VLC.

Take into account that the only great MD players are holdbacks too. See all your past and recent “stars”, all holdbacks!

All the northern states, as well.

This happens in every sport, every state! Tired of your guys (or moms) whining. Take it to the holdback forum and write your letters to MD legislators (who created the 9/1 date that has been in place for 50+ years, or for as long as I’ve been alive). There are stars at Duke and Syracuse who you guys (or moms) love to claim as your own, but never mention their age. Now your B tournament that you love just moved to Minnesota,with?? Congrats to 91 Minneapolis, true Minnesota, Ice pluckers lc, Viking lc, gopher lc, and all the rest.

Case in Point.... Joey Spallina was born in January of 2003. That makes him a 20 year old Freshman.

I just heard the mic hitting the floor…

He isnt a holdback, just ask anyone that played with him. LOL

All the Stanwick's were older. Worked for them. Lacrosse in MD is for Holdbacks. Lets move on and embrace it.

Does anyone know whether VLC is dropping to AAA or AA in hoco?

Hahhahahha! Watch the LI families line up to throw $10,000 in the hole for this one.

A fool and his money are soon parted.

My understanding is that the VLC Elite team completely folded and that VLC will only have one 2029 team. There "B" team was not very good, so my guess would be AA. Someone can confirm.....but this is what I have heard from a couple people now.

The top guys all left and went to Team Chesapeake 2029 as part of a lot of cross relationships established through Nationals Lacrosse Club.

What is a cross relationship mean and the coach agreed to it? Doesn’t true have its own national team they should play for?

It means kids from True and VLC who both played on Nationals team decided they wanted to ply together or at least that’s the way it seems the poster was suggesting.

True doesn’t want them on their national team and is ok with this? Why train kids on your team, to play for another team to play against the team with the kids you practice with weekly? Plus, abandoning your weekly teammates during games and tournaments to play with another team that plays against the True teams.

Just playing together on the regional team.

Kids can play on whatever National teams they want. It’s an extra cost either way so I would assume kids/parents will choose option that works best for them.

Because True's focus is dollars. If you don't make their national team, why would they care that you're willing to spend another $1500 + to be on another national team? Now.....if kids who were able to make the True national team(s), declined and went to other national teams, yes True would be mad about that, because money.

You can play for whatever national team you want. It's above and beyond.

These kids would easily make True's top National Team. They are high end players on National LC which is the #1 ranked team in the 2029 class.

What fall tournaments or one day scrimmages are teams going to?

If you care so much start with which ones your team is playing in

Meow.....

Ok, whatever you say mom! Since you mentioned rankings, how are kids from teams ranked #35+ (or somewhere close) all of a sudden high end players? With so many high end players, you’d think their regular teams would be much better(last year), since most of the good teams are only using a couple kids anyway.
And. Let’s not forget, the high end players on that #1 team were all the 13 yo and the couple 14 yo as shown by the parents and team IG posts. You parents did a fantastic job, now if only your sons cared as much as you do. As a 11 yo, my son learned from the beating he took from the #1 team and he can’t wait to see them in the future to compare mustaches and run it back.

Man, someone’s week is off to a rough start.

Crabs / LTLC (Next Level Invitational)
Hawks (Victory Fall Classic, Hogan Fall Brawl)
Madlax (NXT Mid-Atlantic Games, Hogan Fall Brawl, NAL)
True Chesapeake (Next Level Invitational, NAL)
Predators (Next Level Invitational, Hogan Fall Brawl)
FCA (Trilogy Ches Fall Classic, Next Level Invitational, NAL)
Next Level (Next Level Invitational, Sweetlax Sweet 16)
Team 91 MD (Jack-O-Lantern Lax Classic, Hogan Fall Brawl)
VLC........???? elite team finished
True Baltimore........????