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

Was going to say the same thing. My son has played for multiple hoco elite teams and the feeling towards MadLax is universal. Most people and kids in the elite division respect most of the other teams. Nobody respects MadLax and they don’t deserve it.

The irony is that my son was asked to play on the burrito supremes. Hahaha, my (and my son’s) dignity is more important than lacrosse. I know of 2 others from his team alone that turned them down. I’m sure they aren’t alone.

And maybe, just maybe kids are playing box, basketball or wrestling?

We get it. You detest Madlax and the owner. But you do realize that theE [Censored] parents you thought were obnoxious are gone and now at DCE and NL. They woulld like you to forget that.

Amen.

Trying to figure out what is more amusing, reading some of these threads that are clearly posted just to start trouble or the people that respond to them who are trying to justify it. I am pretty new to the sport as a parent 1.5 years with travel and I have come up with a few things.

1. Lax parents are just like any other sports parents. You have good ones, and you have bad ones.
2. The good ones want what is best for their kid and the team they are on; they realize having their kid on a team especially at a high caliber can teach them good values and become a good person.
3. The bad ones feel they need to give their kid an edge no matter what it takes and like to cause trouble when something doesn’t go their way. (This is a majority of people on the thread that post negative things)
4. I find it fool that people actually hold their kids back a grade, in some rare cases two grades just so they can be bigger than other kids. I am not talking about the kids that are born in June or July that make develop late, I'm talking about kids born in the Spring and Winter. You think you are helping your kid by doing this? Clubs who allow this should really just want your money they do not care about trying to develope your kids into a better player (Crabs, Hawks, Rhinos, Red Hots, 3D New England just to name a few)
5. US Lacrosse has no backbone at all. The are a governing body who doesn’t govern.
6. You son is not going to get a full sport scholarship, they have 12.6 scholarships to give out to 30+ kids on a college team. There are only 70 Division 1 programs in the entire country. That is 2100 Division 1 players and there is only a total of 882 scholarships to go around to all of them. I'll let you figure out the math from there.
7. They need to take down this forum right away. It doesn’t serve a purpose but to start trouble, plus it is probably the most out dated website I have been on since 1999.

Besides that have a blessed day!

It appears you can on here to start trouble. Your comments in bullet point #4 are semi-accurate. The Hawks have zero holdbacks that are pre-July. The other teams you list do have spring, winter, and fall holdbacks as well as double holdbacks. Crabs and Red Hots are the biggest offenders when it comes to double holdbacks.

[quote=Anonymous]Trying to figure out what is more amusing, reading some of these threads that are clearly posted just to start trouble or the people that respond to them who are trying to justify it. I am pretty new to the sport as a parent 1.5 years with travel and I have come up with a few things.

1. Lax parents are just like any other sports parents. You have good ones, and you have bad ones.
2. The good ones want what is best for their kid and the team they are on; they realize having their kid on a team especially at a high caliber can teach them good values and become a good person.
3. The bad ones feel they need to give their kid an edge no matter what it takes and like to cause trouble when something doesn’t go their way. (This is a majority of people on the thread that post negative things)
4. I find it fool that people actually hold their kids back a grade, in some rare cases two grades just so they can be bigger than other kids. I am not talking about the kids that are born in June or July that make develop late, I'm talking about kids born in the Spring and Winter. You think you are helping your kid by doing this? Clubs who allow this should really just want your money they do not care about trying to develope your kids into a better player (Crabs, Hawks, Rhinos, Red Hots, 3D New England just to name a few)
5. US Lacrosse has no backbone at all. The are a governing body who doesn’t govern.
6. You son is not going to get a full sport scholarship, they have 12.6 scholarships to give out to 30+ kids on a college team. There are only 70 Division 1 programs in the entire country. That is 2100 Division 1 players and there is only a total of 882 scholarships to go around to all of them. I'll let you figure out the math from there.
7. They need to take down this forum right away. It doesn’t serve a purpose but to start trouble, plus it is probably the most out dated website I have been on since 1999.

Besides that have a blessed day![/quote
You have too much time on your hands. In the meantime, go tell your kid to hit the wall. Maybe he’ll get 1/4 scholarship to UMBC

you are a hammerhead - lecturing everyone about stirring up trouble while you do exactly that. get lost.

All accurate except for the holdback assessment. Hammerhead dads tend to assume that great players must be holdbacks. You're right to call out hammerheads, but don't include great teams in your holdback assessment just because they're great.

And, yes, this forum continues to prove that there is not rock bottom in youth lacrosse.

Brother, you have been beating the drum about Preds Equal Playing Time for 3 years and at least on the 2028 team, it has never ever been true. Our son had Preds games where he rarely came off the field, and others where he played 2-3 minutes total. I'm not saying it made sense (it didn't), but it sure was not equal PT.

About half of the 18 kids who left this summer, left because of lack of PT, and are now spread throughout AA and AAA teams. The other half (maybe 8 of 18), now all on Elite level teams, left because they knew the team's high (total) skill level was a lost opportunity to compete at a high level. I actually think your comment of "below average coaching" is too generous. Not because the coaches (at least through this past summer) were incapable of coaching (I actually think there's tons of coaching talent they were carrying around with them), but just that they consistently acted like they did not want to be there. Would park in opposite lots from parents so they could leave the field without interacting with players or parents. Frequent practices with 1 coach. Almost all games featured only 1 coach in attendance, who typically arrived 3-5 minutes before FO. Would run 20 minute drills with the same 6 players, and then get mad at the 20+ players on the sideline goofing off, who had been given no instructions, no workout, and had no adult supervision. I believe in the two years we were there, almost 50% of practices were canceled, and were almost never made up.

Preds, at the 2028 team particularly, is fine except in terms of value and brand. They are offering a Zingos/Breakers/True level product at 2028, while advertising a FCA-level product they don't plan to give the players......at prices even higher than FCA. Just accept that the Preds organization doesn't really care about this team, that it's realistically destined to be a A/AA destination for JV HS players, and charge $1500 instead of $3000. Easy. Done.

ML is worse than the Preds this year and the cost is 2x

Yikes. assuming this is true, what an awful experience. shame on Preds, and shame on the parents for putting up with it.

This is not true, all this [Censored] is from a disgruntle parent for some reason against talk of Baltimore. Why come on here and tell these tall tales? What is motivation? We all know, you are just another lacrosse person whose hopes and dreams are slowly fading away as you realize your son will never be that player

No teams from Philly are coming down to Howard County for only 1 game a week. Would be cool, but I doubt it. Don't they have the NXT League? I'm sure Team Money loads up on a few kids from other teams for HoCo like they always have. Would like to see Team Money, Clippers, 91 and Team Maryland have a round robin for the final two teams in Elite.

You can ask any parents of the 30+ players who've left the team in the last 18 months and they'll repeat it almost word for word. Be my guest.

Who cares. The team has never been any good. Move on.

Former Pred parent here. Can confirm the coaching and program are bottom feeders with no class. If you could post pictures on BOTC I’d give my anonymity away to send the pics of our former Preds coach (rarely had 2, never had 3) on the sideline ON HIS PHONE during the game. The constant texting was bad enough but one game he took a call…..no it wasn’t an emergency. Turns out it was club director. How great is that. Guy calls his coach right in the middle of the game. Stay away from this organization. Bad people. Confirmed with friends in NY that this is how they do things….live and learn but where there is smoke there is fire and this board is clearly on fire about how bad the people are. Forget the team, the whole organization is rotten.

Poor Preds. Can't we just go back to picking on ML?

I don't have a dog in this fight but that sounds awful and you are well within reason to expect much better.

For all the hardo dads and Megatron Karen moms on the 2028 board, I'm pleasantly surprised how little private school peacocking occurred in the runup to IAC and MIAA applications. Compared to past years on BOTC there's hardly any (either fake or lied to) brags about how Braxton got offered a full ride to 5 MIAA schools, but he's gonna stay public." Then of course it's radio silence on admissions day.

Well done, parents, but also.....boooooooooring.

It is quite impressive a club is so bad it pulls away from the madness of ML.

Actually I’ve found the recruitment process for high school to be pleasant and professional. It’s almost like all the politics and nastiness of club lacrosse was totally unnecessary. Particularly I’ve found the staff of SJC and Gonzaga to be forthright, pleasant and professional.

Are there any big standout athletes in the DMV for 2028 going into this spring/summer?

Is SJC having a prospect day, any idea? GZ is having one (for kids that actually applied) on 1/27.

Agreed, we ultimately decided not to apply to those two, but the lacrosse staffs at both were great, and it's no wonder they have really strong programs.

This is same guy posting as multiple parents. Preds are better than most Clubs. Sorry you had a bad experience , maybe look inward instead of blame game. But then that would cause you to realize , little Johnny just isnt up to being a player to stroke your ego.

Sure you dont, at least give a better response than that. This is the same parent whose son obviously didnt shine like Daddy wanted .

Definitely not one guy, because I'm one of them, and I'm not the other. As I posted earlier, you have a minimum of 60 parents (not counting re-married parents, the coup de gras of lax parenting in Towson). Pretty easy to find one, three, or ten of them who will back up any of it without batting an eye. You can believe me or not, it's fine.

Where I disagree with the other Preds parent is that from what I saw, the NY Preds program is just fine (not elite, but fine), especially at the HS level. I mean it's a well established club in a lax hotbed, it should be "Fine." And I'll go even further and tell you that my interactions with 2027 and 2029 MD Preds parents and coaches were 100% positive. The MD club has a very weak culture, and it's very much like each Preds team is its own club, there's no consistent coaching, workouts, plays, or schemes that are sent down from the Directors. So in some years (2027 and 2029 at least), you have good culture and a team of kids who love to play together, and in some years (2028), the Club just hasn't been able to get it together.

The 1/3 of kids who stayed from last year are a good mix of starters, backups, and bench warmers and the club filled the rest of the roster with kids from FCA White, Zingos, and True. They will do just fine at AA, and probably will win a game or two at AAA. For us, it was a matter of how can you claim to be developing kids when you have 1 coach at practice and games, a 28 man roster, and easily 1/3 of practices are canceled (closer to 2/3 of practices in 2021-2022).

Not to give all of us too much credit where none is due, but I do wonder if the insanity of the transfer portal has started to dilute the Gospel of Brian Kelly, "Thou Shalt Make MIAA-A Varsity in 9th, or Thou Shalt Not Get Recruited, Ever!" (obviously an exaggeration, but still ironic because he's advised parents to that end, but routinely picks 0-1 freshman to play varsity at CH). Combine that with the effect of social media, where anybody can clearly see that high-academic D2 and D3 schools (as well as terrible D1 lax programs) are recruiting deep into 12th grade. Maybe it's a bit of reshuffling going on, in terms of recruiting strategies.

I think the transfer portal and how college athletics is leaning has really put a wrench in how high school athletics and the coaches use their "power" to manipulate what they want from players and their families.The power play is slowly changing hands from college coaches to the players. This in turn is trickling down to high school. IMO, I forsee the days of the almighty high School coachs word being diminished and families and players using their voice to guide their choices. Pretty soon, players will come and go through high schools for better play as well as coaches moving just as easily without any loyalty to anyone. Loyalty is slowly being lost.

Sorry, is the contention that the existence of the transfer portal in college lacrosse has led to less bragging about HS admissions on BOTC? That seems like a stretch.

I think it's more that 2028 has been so weird and dysfunctional at the club level that any HS drama seems tame by comparison.

Not exactly accurate about this year’s team. The entire starting Attack from last year is gone, starting Midfield gone, all 3 Goalies gone, and 2 of the 3 starting Poles gone. It’s basically an entire new team and as you noted it’s bench players from FCA White, 91 and a few lower level clubs that joined. AA will be a stretch for this squad especially given the coaching situation.

Just got a notification that ML is continuing their "flex tryouts." I suspect that's code for "not enough players." Makes sense though because guest players are not allowed to play in HOCO and just about everybody will be watching for that this year given the meltdown of the Cap team last fall. I've been told the HOCO admin people have already been made aware of the potential ML player influx.

Yeah, the rumor (unverified) was that no goalies tried out whatsoever, and (verified) all 3 previous goalies (starters for McD, Loyola, and St. Pauls) left unceremoniously. Make of that what you will.

Guest players aren't allowed but can't you put anyone on the roster you like? I assume they'll roster kids from out of the area and bring them in for at least some of the games, just like True Annapolis did (with mixed results) last year.

They 10000% will do exactly this. Also based on last year’s ML schedule and a couple things that happened during the season that would not have been allowed with any other team, whoever runs HoCo really likes CM.

Exactly, that model is legal as far as I know. The problem that True encountered last year is that the in-town families did not like being pushed aside each week by the fly-ins, so the team imploded. But if MadLax does not have enough local players to field a team, then that is a different story. the local players will be happy to have the reinforcements.
MadLax always has tryouts before each season (fall, spring, summer) so the fact that they are advertising tryouts now is not unusual.
Honestly I would not under-estimate MadLax. if they bring what is essentially a national all star team to HoCo, they could be in the playoff mix.

What parent thinks the money is worth it to fly into Maryland every weekend for 8-9 weeks for one game a week?

The rule is very simple: club directors can appeal to HoCo for in-season roster changes, but when "new players" step on the field, they must be on the official roster, which means the written appeal had to have been submitted AND APPROVED.

Over the course of True Maryland's inglorious reign, 6? years or so? I cannot name an organization who has had more teams DQ'ed from hoco and tournament games for flagrant roster violations. All this talk of Predators bad vibes have rolling....you can't touch True's legendary bad vibes.

Is it possible for kids that play AAA could also play Elite? If that is the case, then MadLax could grab some locals if people want to play on an Elite team.