US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Long Island Yellow Jackets Lacrosse

When you have tryouts for a team that has been together, it is very difficult to break in. Unless your daughter is so much better than the girls already on that team the coaches are going to go with who they know. Why break up team chemistry with both players and parents for a player who may not be much better.

This is true and maybe it makes sense to keep teams together. Here is the problem. YJ tend to keep teams together and when there is an opening say on gold they go for the new kid rather than take a kid that has been with them from a lower team. The rational is of course to keep the lower team together. The problem is they lose respect from parents and kids from the lower team who have been loyal and many times, not all the time, are as good as the kid they took. I think it is easier to walk onto a YJ team than move up.

Only if you know somebody (i.e. relative of coach on another team or go to school of one of the directors, etc.)

I can understand the rationale here. However, I also thought (read it here?) that there is movement between the teams on a tournament basis. Ie. a gold player or two might play with blue for a particular tournament. YJ parents, true or not?

YJ goes for the better kid!!! Does not matter. My kid wore a red pinnie and made a blue team. Please stop making all this up. If your kid is that good they will find you.

If you watch the rosters drawn on a per tournament or per registrant basis with the Yellow Jackets, you will indeed note that player movement up (and down) does take place. This might not occur as frequently in the Summer events with more static team sets than in the Fall season, but it does indeed happen. Taking the time to watch the postings (as we are inclined here at BOTC to get the facts on the table as opposed to rumor, myth, and legend) will make it clear.

So, the question being posed is whether a club should automatically promote a player from within the club to a higher level team in favor of an outside player found through tryouts who might be more skilled?

While BOTC would recommend taking the BEST PLAYER for the open position since that is the way the "real world works", we can see that there might be different policies for the top or second team in a club than those used for the third or fourth team. For example, it is likely easier to demonstrate loyalty inside the club moving from the fourth to the third team, but competitive play overrides loyalty at top clubs when you move higher in the pyramid.

Whether you come to this reality now or when you are thinking about going down the college recruitment path, the reality is that ability will override legacy.

That rational seems to work well in your mind and validates how you feel about your own daughter (whatever helps you sleep at night). Can you seriously try to apply that statement to all the teams, for all the age groups for all the years YJs have been around. You are basically saying there is no loyalty, no favoritism and no politics at all at any level anywhere within the YJ organization. That is absurd, of course there is, in every team, club, sport etc..... Wake up!

Come on, if anyone thinks that the YJs would play favoritism to THE DETRIMENT OF THEIR OWN TEAM, then you are kidding yourself. Sure, they may favor one over another based on a variety of factors, but only if it is a very close call. The YJs are about putting the most competitive product on their Blue teams...period. They want to win and win big, and they don't hide from that fact.

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Come on, if anyone thinks that the YJs would play favoritism to THE DETRIMENT OF THEIR OWN TEAM, then you are kidding yourself. Sure, they may favor one over another based on a variety of factors, but only if it is a very close call. The YJs are about putting the most competitive product on their Blue teams...period. They want to win and win big, and they don't hide from that fact. [/quote]

Rosters have 24 kids. Plenty of room to hide some weaker players. Favoritsm/politics/etc. definitely plays a part just like it does in every other facet of life. There is no detriment to competitiveness because a couple of weak/weaker players aren't going to matter at the end of the day.

movement in the fall is made to fill rosters..there is never movement in the summer.

there is movement in the summer usually between gold and blue

It makes perfect business sense to do this as you say. If they already have a kid on yellow paying and playing that's cash in the bank. The new kid looking to get on a team may only jump to YJ's if they make the blue. Solution- offer the new kid trying out the spot on blue and collect money from both- its genius.

You seem to feel there are many sinister reasons one kid makes ateam over another and I can tell you from first hand knowledge that the yj take try-outs seriously. I have seen many kids make a lower level team do to poor try-outs only to be moved up the next year. i am sure that the way a child plays for the entire previous year makes an impact on what team they are playing for the next year as I am also positive that if a new kid shows up and does great at tryouts they have a shot at top teams.

There are large volumes of quality kids who are sent i mean recruited to places such as Fairfield. My friends daughter was being recruited heavily by three schools one was a higher profile(top5) school the other two were mid majors offering much larger offers and his daughter was told the other two were Not options. If they really cared they'd encourage the best fit(economic,play for 4 years) not the most glamorous

Are we to believe that you are upset that the Yellow Jackets program was advocating the quality of education over the scholarship amounts? BOTC would submit that the academic quality is the most important criteria when it comes to a college education and offering the student the chance to be part of a Top 5 academic institution is worth its weight in gold.

Just for reference, what three schools are being discussed here ?

YJ want there girls to go to colleges that they have contacts with. why else would they be upset when a yj kid goes a college they don't approve.

Faifield, used to be Adelphi, now Stony Brook and Maryland get preferential

Not the original poster here, just adding to the discussion. I think they may have been talking about top 5 high profile lacrosse schools in terms of lacrosse profile and not academic. That is the way it reads to me but I see the post was edited and may have been more telling. Either way, no organization should push kids to any decision nor should students/players/parents let a club overly influence a decision that is theirs to make.

I think tryouts are a horrible way to separate kids. Unfortunately that's the easiest way to do things with the time allotted. Trying to gauge a players talent from 1+ hours on a field is a difficult task. I would hope that all organizations, YJ included, would judge the girls they already know from previous bodies of work within their organiztion. Anybody that thinks differently is fooling themselves.

The material we removed was a targetted attack at an individual which was completely unsubstantiated. The main body of the original post remained in tact. In essence, your guess regarding the Top Five academic or Top Five atheltic unversity would be as good as ours.

Congrats to all these young ladies!!
Yellow Jackets Class of 2013 Verbal Commitments

Yellow Jacket Team: Player Name, (High School) College

Blue: Maggie Bill (St Anthonys) UNC
Blue: Taylor Bleistein (Locust Valley) Penn State
Blue: Hannah Burnett (Huntington) Florida
Gold: Sarah Crowley (Harborfields) UVA
Gold: Alexandra Darcey (Rocky Point) Stonybrook
Blue: Caroline Fitzgerald (Mt Sinai) Florida
Blue: Nadine Hadnagy (Farmingdale) Maryland
Blue: Alexis Maffucci (Hills) Hopkins
Gold: Courtney Murphy (Floyd) Stonybrook
Blue: Barrie Reilly (Locust Valley) Maryland
Blue: Alexandra Tilley (Ward Melville) UConn
Gold: Christina Turner (Harborfields) Ohio State
Green: Jessica Volpe (Hauppauge) Stonybrook

Some of this information was shared in our Girls 2013 thread - thanks from sharing these names and commitments from the Yellow Jackets program. Now, back to the classroom.

Very impressive list. Congrats to all the players!

This is so far fetched. YJ has contacts with ALL of them. Stop the INSANITY. I would be they dont care where the kids choose to play!!

BOTC agrees that the Yellow Jackets do not need to campaign any individual player to attend a particular school to look "good on the website". Now, back to the classroom.

From my impression (please correct me if I'm wrong) unless a player is has little knowledge of the game and is useless with a stick she is bound to make one the teams, no? A bit of an exaggeration, of course, but my point is made. Blue, green, maroon whatever level it is, is not one of my main concerns, my daughter just wants to play with an experienced program and improve her game.

To sum it all up, if you tryout, are you more or less guaranteed a spot, within reason, on any color team?

Sounds like you answered your own question already. I guess saying that your daughter plays for yellowjackets carries some association with sucessful teams from years gone by. There are many who believe that the lower teams are just there to collect money, because as you say, they will put you on some team after try-outs. To their credit, at least they offer some of the kids who need to develope a place to play, where many other clubs only offer limited roster spots on a limited number of teams. It's a starting point, and a chance to practice, play and improve, with the hope to move up within the yellowjackets or make the tryout cut for another club down the road. Point is, at least your daughter will be playing and improving.

wow!! Stony Brook getting some impressive 2013 yj's

Not true...my daughter has had friends try out and not make a team.YJ field pretty strong teams. I would compare their thrd team to liberty and tg 2nd team. In most other programs if your not on the top team you might as well not play. NOt true for YJ

YJ adds Another Committ to Northwestern Wilcats Julia DiMaria 2013

YJ kids seem to be on a roll can we see some committs from TG,Liberty,Express,Elevate,fl$??

Just Curious if they can back their programs like YJ does

Because isn't the ultimate goal to find a school?

In 6 years with the program I've never heard of a girl not making SOME team.

Their web sites show the commits, very impressive as well

We are new (and somewhat latecomers) to the business of girls' club lax on LI. Our daughter played with a local town club team at the YJ showcase tournament this past summer at Mitchel Field, and it was our first exposure to the YJ. She has a couple of friends that play for YJ and Express, and she wants to try out for YJ. But as I read these posts, I'm not sure whether to be encouraged or upset. We want her to have fun and get better training than she's currently getting, and to begin prepping for a possible college lax career. I have heard both positive and negative experiences from her friends, and I must confess that I was not impressed by the attitude of some of the YJ parents at their tournament. I did not read this entire thread -- only the past two weeks. Would others please comment on the "business" of YJ and how the girls are treated if they come to the YJ program at an older age (8th-9th grade?)
P.S. I'm finding Back of the Cage to be a very valuable resource -- thanks so much for this forum and all the information you have on your website!

I just told you my daughter has friends who did not make teams. I have no incentive to lie. I will add that two who didnt make YJ went on to play for Liberty.

Is murphy going to be an impact player at stony brook?

Take what you read with a grain of salt!!

There is good and bad on most teams as far as parents go. Coaches are mostly good, but there are some bad apples as well. It's harder starting that late from the perspective of what team you make, but there is a team for most if not all girls.

BOTC does like the fact that you are personally posting. As you can tell, more eyes are coming for news and information on a regular basis. Why not register an account with us and allow your posts to be attributed?

1st of all, Yj will not turn down money, every kid makes a team. they are in business to make money, they will not give money to another club. they will treat your kid great if she is great. if she is not great, all bets are off. 2nd of all, take your 8th or 9th grader to several clubs tryouts, and take a look around, look at the players, parents and coaches, then decide if this is what you want to be around all summer long. 3rd read through some threads, see whats going on, and select the team with the least amount of drama and BS. not YJ thats for sure