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

I say this is a supporter of a strong public school system and as one who totally agrees that an unfortunately large number of the private school parent set is high grade, detached from reality noisome, but this is fact-free, unhinged word vomit on every level except for the part that you can actually get a really good education at many public high schools and some number of the best lax players in the country come from them annually.

Think HOCO released the brackets today so I don't know that it's speculation.

AAA
Blue Claws
Cannons
Clippers
Crabs Blue
DC Express Orange
FCA White
ProStart
Team MD
AA
Hawks Black
Coastal
HLC
HoCo
MDLL
Next Level Red
Predators
True NOVA
Wolfpack
Team VA

k so if by "bad" you mean level of education, then there's plenty of MD publics where a smart kid will do just as well as they would've at a private. A top kid will do well wherever he ends up, in general, and a kid with an IEP will likely get the same level of attention at a public that he gets at a private. For education, IMO privates benefit the kids in the middle of the bell curve. All of this is a generalization and obviously different kids will have different outcomes etc etc. Lots of public school kids go to great schools and even if they don't there's tons of them that have successful careers later on.

But if you're talking athletics (specifically lax) and MD publics versus privates, I can only speak to Moco, but yeah, private school lax is miles ahead of public, There are definitely strong players in public and every year some of them go D1 or high D3, but the depth of the public school teams is not at all comparable to the privates. There's a few strong public programs in in Moco (Churchill, Whitman, Sherwood) and they could prob hang with and maybe beat a few of the lower level IAC/WCAC teams, but the gap between them and the higher level IAC and WCAC (and even MAC) teams is pretty big. Whereas the good publics might have 5-10 good players on elite Hoco club teams, the top IAC/WCAC teams will have 15-30 players on elite teams. So once you start subbing in second and third lines, that's when the games will get out of hand. No disrespect to the publics here but that's what I've seen.

Some factual check-ins:

1. Public schools likely have a winning record here because only the top 10% of public school programs are willing to play the bottom 70% of private schools. Carroll Co Schools are not asking to play McDonogh, or really anybody in the top 90% of MIAA.

2. Yeah about the SAT - Yale and Dartmouth in the last week alone, have both re-instituted the SAT requirement. SAT-free was a Covid-era PR stunt and it's coming to an end (my kid isn't great on long tests, so I wish you were correct about this....but you're not).

3. If you think class sizes are the same in public and private HS, I'd love to know the basis for that. I do know that the privates have 4-5 college counselors for every 1 at a public HS. I know at my public HS, the entire HS of 1500 kids had a total of 2 college counselors.

4. If you think your child has "won college" by getting a degree in 3 or 4 semesters, I mean, they will probably be a model government employee who gets 3.5/5 stars on their annual review and their full 2% annual COLA increase. I guess the bigger question is, why haven't you saved enough money for them to attend 4 years of college? "Sorry kids, you can only go for 3 semester, and ya gotta pay your own loans!" Inspiring parenting.

5. Yeah "if a kid can play they'll be found," instagram, Millon Events, etc etc but generally if you are looking for the best pizza, do you go to the Pizza Convention at the MD Fairgrounds...........or do you go to North Jersey and NYC? The best public schools in MD and VA spit out between 0 and 1 D1 recruits per year. Most high schools across the country produce 0 per year, and 0 per 5 years. MD/DC private schools, each school 10+ per year, in addition to another 10+ who go D2/D3.

6. You can pretend that Prep School isn't a thing, and that it has no value, and that you are a financial mastermind by buying a house in the best (in 2006) school district. And if you have 4 kids, heck, you might even be correct on the value proposition. But there's no denying the fact that 91% of private school students return to their sophomore year of college, while only 55% of public school graduates do.

7. Talking about cocktail hour and country clubs this way comes from a mindset of a guaranteed government salary, for which I commend you, and on some days I'm jealous of this. For the rest of us who can be fired (or our businesses run out of money), we succeed at work by having human relationships, by networking with people, and by identifying people who could benefit from our services (or vice versa). By learning new things, techniques, courses, or coaching that friends and competitors are taking advantage of. That happens at cocktail hours, at baseball games, on the golf course, while shooting sporting clays, and on fishing trips. It doesn't happen on a City Government WebEx between the work hours of 830-330 with an hour guaranteed lunch.

props to Team Money for going elite, might as well see how it goes since it's the last season. That line-up of teams is def a murderers row. We are lucky to have this level of competition right in our backyard.

Does anyone know the other brackets?

I heard Team Money has a bunch of Philly Freedom players. they should be competitive. But i suspect it falls like....

Hawks
FCA
Crabs
DCE
NL
Team Money
Madlax
91

Signed, Daddy paid for my private school but I still didn't get into a top college

Still pay to play

We'll see if this ends up being True.[/quote]

Think HOCO released the brackets today so I don't know that it's speculation.[/quote]
AAA
Blue Claws
Cannons
Clippers
Crabs Blue
DC Express Orange
FCA White
ProStart
Team MD
AA
Hawks Black
Coastal
HLC
HoCo
MDLL
Next Level Red
Predators
True NOVA
Wolfpack
Team VA[/quote]

No Ville in AA? I doubt this is accurate. Anyone have the alignment for divisions?

What teams are doing the local spring tournaments?

Think HOCO released the brackets today so I don't know that it's speculation.[/quote]
AAA
Blue Claws
Cannons
Clippers
Crabs Blue
DC Express Orange
FCA White
ProStart
Team MD
AA
Hawks Black
Coastal
HLC
HoCo
MDLL
Next Level Red
Predators
True NOVA
Wolfpack
Team VA[/quote]

No Ville in AA? I doubt this is accurate. Anyone have the alignment for divisions?[/quote]
Coastal cruised past Crabs Blue in the fall. Teams should be reversed.

Think HOCO released the brackets today so I don't know that it's speculation.[/quote]
AAA
Blue Claws
Cannons
Clippers
Crabs Blue
DC Express Orange
FCA White
ProStart
Team MD
AA
Hawks Black
Coastal
HLC
HoCo
MDLL
Next Level Red
Predators
True NOVA
Wolfpack
Team VA[/quote]

No Ville in AA? I doubt this is accurate. Anyone have the alignment for divisions?[/quote]

Yeah there are going to be a bunch of complaining AA/A parents because a bunch of new teams were added to AAA/AA, and the AA/A teams have to make room by sliding down apparently. Bunch of coaches are having fun conversations with parents about how, yes we were low level AA and now somehow we're playing A or B. Remember that after about May 20, nobody on the planet will care that your kid played B league this year. But it is a little embarrassing tbh.

Also, the idea of ProStart in AAA is hilarious. The most notable coaching on that team has centered on coached flops on shoulder checks to generate the penalty.

HLC lost their head coach (took coaching job at UVA) and his son. Curious how that will go.

I see Clippers at AAA - didn't their coaches come on here and brag about how they were going to "take down" "Maryland's elite teams" in HoCo this season? Wow, that effort sure got off to a great start.

AAA Prediction:
1. Team MD (as always)
2. Instagram Clippers
3. Blue Claws
4. FCA White
5. DCX
6. Hardshells (should be AA)
7. ProStart (didn't even make AA playoffs)
8. Cannons (another complete joke in AAA)

AAA
Blue Claws
Cannons
Clippers
Crabs Blue
DC Express Orange
FCA White
ProStart
Team MD
AA
Hawks Black
Coastal
HLC
HoCo
MDLL
Next Level Red
Predators
True NOVA
Wolfpack
Team VA[/quote]

No Ville in AA? I doubt this is accurate. Anyone have the alignment for divisions?[/quote]

Yeah there are going to be a bunch of complaining AA/A parents because a bunch of new teams were added to AAA/AA, and the AA/A teams have to make room by sliding down apparently. Bunch of coaches are having fun conversations with parents about how, yes we were low level AA and now somehow we're playing A or B. Remember that after about May 20, nobody on the planet will care that your kid played B league this year. But it is a little embarrassing tbh.

Also, the idea of ProStart in AAA is hilarious. The most notable coaching on that team has centered on coached flops on shoulder checks to generate the penalty.

HLC lost their head coach (took coaching job at UVA) and his son. Curious how that will go.

I see Clippers at AAA - didn't their coaches come on here and brag about how they were going to "take down" "Maryland's elite teams" in HoCo this season? Wow, that effort sure got off to a great start.

AAA Prediction:
1. Team MD (as always)
2. Instagram Clippers
3. Blue Claws
4. FCA White
5. DCX
6. Hardshells (should be AA)
7. ProStart (didn't even make AA playoffs)
8. Cannons (another complete joke in AAA)[/quote]
DCE Orange will win this division.

So how is Northern Virginia rec lacrosse (NVYLL) going to go for the 2028's last season? I hear that Vienna is stacked and Dulles South is always tough.

Red Hots in elite for HOCO? Parents really flying kids in for one game each weekend?

I don’t want to let a little thing like facts get in the way of your predictions, but it would have been very hard for ProStart to make the playoffs (at any level) when they didn’t even field a 2029 team last year

No one cares, NVYLL is dead.

Dulles South is not going to be the same as in past years. I am putting money on Vienna this season.

Hey Sherlock this is a 2028 thread

Is it a management issue or number of players issue? I am pretty sure the reason why VLC does not have a 2028 team is management.

You are smart. Vienna will dominate. But never count Dulles out. They draw from 5 or 6 HS pyramids so they have a huge pool of players so their A teams are always loaded with big, athletic kids, and the Dads who run the program are hard core. They will always be good.

VLC will be holding tryouts this summer for a fall 2028 team and given the large rosters on MadLax, DCE, and Next Level, that tryout will likely be well attended.

I think the PP was responding, perhaps sarcastically, to the discussion of lower HoCo divisions. NVYLL is the Virginia equivalent of those divisions and probably has a longer life span than many of their teams.

I live in VA but still agree with this. They need to go to 7v7, not enough kids who play to justify full teams and if the idea is to get new players lots of touches 7s is still better.

Not a bad idea. My son played for a AAA team in NVYLL for several years, and the team was absolutely stacked. All but one of the 17 kids on his 12U team were on HoCo Elite programs— Madlax, Next Level, or BLC. But I’ve heard that the league has struggled since Covid. Which is a shame.

Signed, I paid my own way to the #1 national program in my academic area (top 25 overall), from a highly ranked public high school....and knew not to do the same to my kids.

-Finished in top 10% of my HS class with several APs....but no merit aid because admissions officers didn't know my public school
-Despite academic overachieving, was not well prepped for college responsibilities and courseload.
-Had trouble getting my coaches to call college coaches, since all our coaches were also full time teachers who coached minimum 3 sports, and LOL it was the 90s and who's playing lacrosse at the next level, that's not a thing.
-How do you compete when the private schools' college counselors go on road junkets to visit the colleges their students want to apply to...and the public school college counselors barely know anybody's name?

For a C minus student at Spalding who is a 3rd line attackman in 12th grade, yes, sure public/private probably makes ZERO difference, and every private school has those kids. But for achievers, it matters...if you've had to compete against private school (or magnet school) academic products before about age 25, you know.

Nope. Part of the reason those rosters are big is because of VLC's complete meltdown at 2028 before - they went from two full teams at that age (that were pretty good - won HOCO division) to none in a year. They blew their chance and no one is going to sign up for round two of that train weak.

Final Division Alignment:
Elite: Hawks, Crabs, DC Express, FCA, MadLax, Next Level, Team 91, Team Money
AAA: Blue Claws, Clippers, Crabs Blue, DC Express Orange, FCA White, Team MD, Cannons, ProStart
AA: Coastal, HLC, HoCo, MDLL, Next Level Red, Predators, Team VA, True NOVA, Wolfpack, Hawks Black
A: Clippers Red, Blue Heron, Kelly Post, ProStart White, Top Caliber, True Baltimore, True Chesapeake, Ville, Zingos
B: Blue Claws Blue, HLC White, Legends, MadLax DMV, MDLL Blue, Team MD Red, True Baltimore Green, True NOVA Green

I agree with this. As much as I would like to see VLC succeed in the 2028, those who have left will probably not come back. Now that those have moved to other programs with better management, consistent coaching, and practice facilities. If VLC does build a team for 2028, it will never be as competitive as NL, DCE, and even ML. This is coming from a previous VLC parent.

Also former VLC and would never go back. They were completely disorganized and the program verged on being openly hostile with families that asked questions.

If one team falls apart then maybe you can blame others, but when you somehow destroy two 2028 teams (and one of your 2029 teams) in the space of 12 months, it’s hard to think that the organization itself isn’t the problem. Much happier where we are now.

Is this fact or speculation?

Hits all the data points I know for a fact, which run from Elite to B league.

Hey look, the Sidewinders families who took the Clippers kool aid, are now playing back in A league like in 3rd grade (so the True Ches kids can play on the Clippers AAA side). Standard youth lax maneuver right there.

If Team Money doesn't have Freedom players no way they survive Elite.

VLC 28 was a dumpster fire on a sinking ship. One of the worst experiences I’ve had as a parent of athletes. The disorganization, the lack of communication and the refusal to listen to parents made that team impossible ti stay on. In fairness my son loved the other boys on the team and I’m still good friends with many of the parents but the last straw was when they refused to put the boys in appropriate tournaments.

VLC can not be successful if they insist on putting their teams exclusively in elite tournaments. If your son was an elite player he wouldn’t be on VLC. VLC like True NOVA Top Caliber and Hammers/Team Virginia are for boys who want to get better at lacrosse and have a little fun. No way VLC 28 ever makes a comeback.

Early prediction for Elite:

Hawks
FCA
DCE
NL
Crabs
Team Money
Madlax
Team 91

Where did the 28 class land for high school? Any surprises?

AACO top players going to Spalding

From what my kid has told me from the 8 grade hallways talk:

The strongest class is either Spalding or CH.

Spalding / CH
BL
SP or McD (depends on how many out of town kids they get to come)
Loyola
StM

Don’t know much about the rest.