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Any preseason insights on HoCo? Who’s better or worse than last year? Looking forward to this weekend to get a preview

After seeing the scores from the weekends tournament, it looks like Next level had the strongest showing going 3-0 against team 91 south, leading edge, and 407 orange. Leading edge being the strongest competitor. FCA and Madlax were 1-2. FCA losing to Leading Edge, Red Hots, and winning against 91 South. Madlax beat Red Hots, lost to 91 South, and lost 8-1 against leading edge. Finally, True Nova went 2-1, losing to Carolina Coast 10-2, beating 407 orange, and beating VLC. As for the HOCO teams looks like Next Level had the best day beating a tough leading edge while FCA, Madlax, and NOVA where in the middle to bottom of the pack especially when many of the game winnable. Not sure if this is any insight to the season or if players were missing or hurt, however, with HOCO just around the corner, ALL teams need to be ready by now. Any insight to the games would be appreciated. Not looking for debates or arguments, would love some insight to how the weekend went.

Side note - True Nova went 0-3 on Saturday losing 9-0 to 91 South, 11-2 to leading edge, and 7-1 against 407 orange.

Some pretty tough games this past weekend with some of the top HOCO teams.

91 South was back in MD for the first time since the fall and seemed improved. The Southeastern US 91 all start team handed Madlax, Next Level and FCA losses in close contests.

At the next level invitational: Next Level looked improved. Madlax seemed to play well in their first two games but then got pounded by Leading Edge 8-1. Not sure if they were missing players for that game or should have just packed up the bus early.

Over at the Spring Thaw, Hawks and TC played. Hawks appears to still be a very strong team only losing to Futures. However, True Chesapeake really underperformed, going 1-2 on the weekend with their only win against the startup Redwings team. I'm guessing that they were missing several of their fly-in kids who likely were playing for 91 South and I'm not sure they have their big middie from Clippers yet. True East Coast... I mean True Chesapeake better hope they can put all the pieces together quickly enough for the season. Would be awful embarrassing to assemble a team of out of state 8th graders to try to win a spring league only to come up short.

Finally, I hope the results this weekend for True NOVA will give those parents a glimpse of what their spring is going to look like. Kudos to the kids for working hard and wanting to play against better teams but I'm hoping for at least a few minutes of respite before the parents start their campaign to replace "Talk of Baltimore" as the most annoying voice on these boards.

Does True Nova have a “b” team? Trying to understand the results from this past weekend.

Don’t sleep on the “Talk of Virginia”, we are ready to stack wins in the Elite Division

True NOVA Black is their "A" Team and they got smoked all weekend long by quality competition. They did pick up two wins against lower caliber competition (VLC Poon and 407 Orange). True NOVA Green is the "B" team and they got dominated by other B teams

Here's what I've heard starting with the best class to the worst:

1.Boys Latin- added some top talent to an already stacked 29 class. Nabbed perhaps the best 2 2029 goalies in MD. Also bringing in a couple of out of state players to board. Playing time is going to be interesting once 9th grade hits. Loaded at attack, Def, and goalie.
2.Spalding- loaded with Hawks/TC and Clippers. Landed the giant Clippers Middie. Very strong class.
3.Saint Paul- the new home of Crabs lacrosse bringing in a few more hardshells. Also added several preds players. Very solid class but will they find a goalie?
4.Calvert Hall- got a bunch of FCA kids (shocking), Crabs big lefty attack and a couple of role pieces from 91 and Hawks
5.Loyola Blakefield- added a top middie from FCA. Missed on a bunch of prospects but already had a very deep 29 class.
6.McD- added top talent with two of the best poles from Hawks and a strong middie from FCA. Not much beyond these pieces though. Will they go out of state to fill out the class. Will Coach still be here in a couple years to care?
7.Saint Mary- grabbed a couple of the top Hawks players. Have to imagine they also landed some TC kids.
8.Gilman- lost their top attackman to CH. Added several 91 kids and a couple of 2030 crabs players. Talent pipeline seems light.
9.John Carroll- havent heard of any of the top names in the class picking JC. Likely will continue to be top local Harco talent.
10.MSJ- couple of role players and a T91 midfielder.
11.Severn- the decline continues

Did BL pick up the TX goalie?

Couple of corrections:

Next Level lost to Team91 South. FCA beat Red Hots and lost to Team91 and Leading Edge.

Next Level appears to be the most ready for HoCo. FCA was missing a few pieces, but appeared much improved from last year. I didn't check Mad Lax out, but assume they'll continue to be a tough draw for anyone.

Also, word is the new Philly Spring league wants to hold a game between their eventually winner (safe to assume it'll be Futures) and the HoCo champs. Don't know if this is common knowledge or has been decided or not, but heard it this weekend.

BL added the Hawks and FCA goalies.

HOCO starts this weekend.....any predictions?

True Ches vs. True Nova (True Chesapeake 10-4)
FCA vs. Hawks (Hawks 8-6)
Crabs vs. NL (Crabs 10-7)

What conflict does Madlax / 91 have?

ML does it every year …Spring Break

Did all the crabs kids from the fall meet hoco age requirements?

JC did well again this year too. Heard of fca, crabs, 91 and brotherly love kids. I think they may have opened their dorm on campus again.

No

91 coaches have conflicts.

TC vs. TN (TC 13 - 2)
FCA vs. Hawks (FCA 7-6)
Crabs vs. NL (NL 8-7)

[quote=Anonymous]HOCO starts this weekend.....any predictions?

True Ches vs. True Nova (True Chesapeake 10-4)
FCA vs. Hawks (Hawks 8-6)
Crabs vs. NL (Crabs 10-7)

What conflict does Madlax / 91

I don’t think NOVA scores 4 goals on TC—this game more like 13-1

FCA Vs Hawks (6-4 Hawks)

Crabs vs NL (NL 9-8)

Spring break a month before Easter—really???

Can’t be Spring Break

Fairfax County/Loudon and MoCo are all week of 4/14

So what is the real reason?

From the files of "lots of clubs do that," and the obvious responses of "my son's True team would *never!*", I'm gonna say it anyway.

The MD and VA True clubs have a well documented culture/history (documented....by many league and tourney directors) of switching players between rosters. I'm not placing any judgment on it, whether that's some kind of sportsmanship tragedy or whatever, it's just a fact that is well known by anybody who's been around the MD/DC youth game over the past several years.

All of that is a long way of saying that the vast majority of wins and losses against True teams in our area, across multiple leagues and tourneys, shouldn't even count as "games played." They should just forfeit to your sons' clubs and let the boys scrimmage and have fun.