US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Girls Spring 2014 High School Varsity Lacrosse

Heard it is True for WB do not know about others

EI, WB and Hauppauge in B Division.. go to sectionxi.org click on sports placements click on spring leagues, scroll to bottom for 2014/2015 year

BBP not moving ....... all others are the same

It will be interesting in the long run how Long Islands fares as developing top class lacrosse players. Every projection shows a fairly dramatic decrease in student enrollment in the next 10-15 years (which is why districts are dealing with lower school aid). There will be significant increases in hispanic students, but to date lacrosse has not been embraced by this group.

Maryland enrollment looks to be increasing, albeit at a low rate. The growth of the sport looks to the southeast US.

Demographics will play a big role in the future of the sport. A study by US Lacrosse has shown that LI is producing less impact players than just five years ago. It is something that will have to be discussed.

Don't dispute the demographics, but will have to call BS on the US Lacrosse study evaluating "impact players" from any region. Why would US Lacrosse care where "impact Players" came from anyhow and commission a study on this. They want the sport to grow nationally and don't care if the top players come from Sheboygen or Shoreham. If there is such a study done by US Lacrosse, please share the specific citation/link with the rest of us.

The study was in-house and discussed at US Lacrosse meetings held in the fall. It was broken down by region to show the growth in lacrosse nationwide and Long Island was shown as area that did not supply as many "impact" players based on stats five years prior. I agree they do not care where good players come from but other regions, particularly Maryland, have grown "impact" players. Impact players are player that start 75% of games for at least three years. It is of interesting note that Long Island players also have a high percentage of severe injury as compared to the rest of the country.

Wasn't that a boys study?

Thank you it looks like that Division will be some battle looking forward to next year already and the summer barely started. That's three very good teams with some top players in the country should be a lot of fun. Have a safe and healthy summer.

The study was both boys and girls.

Can anyone explain why Middle Country needs two High Schools to field a Girls Laccrosse team? Shouldn't each HS have their own team?

Dix Hills has the same issue with Girls Lax at the HS level. Apparently each school can't field their own teams.

This is at least the third time someone has brought this up about MC? Why the fixation? Neither HS has enough to field a team so they combine and last year still only had 18-20 on roster. Satisfied?

north bab and west bab might combine

Do they have strong youth programs?

Do they cut any girls? I wonder if one team equals a better team. Think how much better your high school would be if you could add a few from a neighboring town.

With the strength of girls lax on LI I can't believe a school district couldn't field a team on their own.

At our HS we could barely field two teams, the travel crazies have driven out any athletic fringe kids. We now have a really skilled 8 or so travel girls and the bottom 8 are pretty dreadful. Since everyone has quit they are looking to call up 7th and 8th graders which feeds into the crazy travel parents. Its a problem. 7th and 8th graders shouldn't be playing varsity just because of a body need. And you can't be competitive unless you are running subs in and out.

At our HS we could barely field two teams, the travel crazies have drivUuen out any athletic fringe kids. We now have a really skilled 8 or so travel girls and the bottom 8 are pretty dreadful. Since everyone has quit they are looking to call up 7th and 8th graders which feeds into the crazy travel parents. Its a problem. 7th and 8th graders shouldn't be playing varsity just because of a body need. And you can't be competitive unless you are running subs in and out.[/quote

The varsity programs will become direct reflections of the town youth programs. If the youth program can keep as many athletes playing for as long as possible .

The model you are complaining about actually works quite well. Stack team with high skill travel girls, bring up the 8th 9th graders who can play. Get your skill girls in great condition endurance wise and you are set, barely any subs needed. Keep your best players on the field at all times.

Congrats to all the girls lax players of the class of 2014!! Whether your playing D1/D2/D3 club or not at all in college. May you achieve all that you dream to achieve!!

I don't agree with that model, no subbing, about 15 girls get to play and the coaches pick from grades 7-12, it's ridiculous. Don't tell me that the 3 middies who play the whole game aren't tired. Lots of athletic girls turning to track for a chance to participate and be a part of the team.

[/quote]

At our HS we could barely field two teams, the travel crazies have driven out any athletic fringe kids. We now have a really skilled 8 or so travel girls and the bottom 8 are pretty dreadful. Since everyone has quit they are looking to call up 7th and 8th graders which feeds into the crazy travel parents. Its a problem. 7th and 8th graders shouldn't be playing varsity just because of a body need. And you can't be competitive unless you are running subs in and out. [/quote]

The model you are complaining about actually works quite well. Stack team with high skill travel girls, bring up the 8th 9th graders who can play. Get your skill girls in great condition endurance wise and you are set, barely any subs needed. Keep your best players on the field at all times. [/quote] [/quote]

That's nonsense. You need a deep bench if you want to be successful against the better teams And 99% of 7th and 8th graders aren't ready or worthy of varsity. Just because they show up to school tryouts with a TG or YJ hoodie on doesn't mean they should automatically make varsity. YJ cut almost no one these days so everyone who wants the hoodies can have one. Need to keep the good non travel girls around to keep these rosters full. Its a problem with our team and its getting worse by the year.

If a 7 th grader is needed to field and start on your varsity team there is a good chance that your Varsity program is just not that good. The 7th grader can be talented but will be for the most part a non factor against the top teams.

Their youth programs have combined.

The model you are complaining about actually works quite well. Stack team with high skill travel girls, bring up the 8th 9th graders who can play. Get your skill girls in great condition endurance wise and you are set, barely any subs needed. Keep your best players on the field at all times. [/quote] [/quote]

That's nonsense. You need a deep bench if you want to be successful against the better teams And 99% of 7th and 8th graders aren't ready or worthy of varsity. Just because they show up to school tryouts with a TG or YJ hoodie on doesn't mean they should automatically make varsity. YJ cut almost no one these days so everyone who wants the hoodies can have one. Need to keep the good non travel girls around to keep these rosters full. Its a problem with our team and its getting worse by the year. [/quote]



So you want to be competitive against the top teams? Did you happen to go to any of the county or LI championship games? Did you happen to notice anything? The best schools use the bench extremely lightly. They put and keep the best players on the field for as much and as long as possible. Bench is used for injury. Watch the college games, near zero subbing there too. Yes it is frustrating to get to varsity and not see playing time, but teams always have a top half and a bottom half. Good coaches will get all the girls involved in the easier games during the season, but many do not. You know, some of these coaches are looking to pad the stats. Come critical game time, you gotta keep the best players on the field. A tired top tier midfielder is still a [lacrosse] of a lot more effective than a second string bench player. Quality teams take good care of the ball, they may try to take advantage in the transition game which sometimes translates to a quick turnover and run back down the field. The midfielders control the tempo of the game, once they have ball control they can play a settled offense allowing plenty of time to catch their breath, and you see all good teams do this, it is what allows the kids to play every minute of every game.

The model you are complaining about actually works quite well. Stack team with high skill travel girls, bring up the 8th 9th graders who can play. Get your skill girls in great condition endurance wise and you are set, barely any subs needed. Keep your best players on the field at all times. [/quote] [/quote]

That's nonsense. You need a deep bench if you want to be successful against the better teams And 99% of 7th and 8th graders aren't ready or worthy of varsity. Just because they show up to school tryouts with a TG or YJ hoodie on doesn't mean they should automatically make varsity. YJ cut almost no one these days so everyone who wants the hoodies can have one. Need to keep the good non travel girls around to keep these rosters full. Its a problem with our team and its getting worse by the year. [/quote]



So you want to be competitive against the top teams? Did you happen to go to any of the county or LI championship games? Did you happen to notice anything? The best schools use the bench extremely lightly. They put and keep the best players on the field for as much and as long as possible. Bench is used for injury. Watch the college games, near zero subbing there too. Yes it is frustrating to get to varsity and not see playing time, but teams always have a top half and a bottom half. Good coaches will get all the girls involved in the easier games during the season, but many do not. You know, some of these coaches are looking to pad the stats. Come critical game time, you gotta keep the best players on the field. A tired top tier midfielder is still a [lacrosse] of a lot more effective than a second string bench player. Quality teams take good care of the ball, they may try to take advantage in the transition game which sometimes translates to a quick turnover and run back down the field. The midfielders control the tempo of the game, once they have ball control they can play a settled offense allowing plenty of time to catch their breath, and you see all good teams do this, it is what allows the kids to play every minute of every game. [/quote]
Our school has 7 or 8 travel kids and the rest of the roster is kids who are guilted into playing to keep the team alive. The travel parents then bash the same kids their daughters begged to play so they could field a team.

On one hand your lucky, sounds like a good opportunity to get some playing time. In many districts even reasonably advanced travel girls will never get to see the field due to ramped up youth program that has 40 kids playing at every graduating year. And yes many towns have two teams per age group. Even following the basic 11th 12th graders only play varsity you would have 80-90 kids combined in those age groups. Obviously you have a massive fall out of players by the time they hit school ball. So try to look on the bright side, your kid has an opportunity in your district to actually get on the field, many other districts eliminates this opportunity to a very select few percentage wise.

I've noticed in girls sports as they get older they tend to pursue other avenues and participating in athletics isn't always on the top of their lists. So when they reach high school the 60 kids playing in 6th grade is now 20. Out of those 20, 6 can actually play but believe it or not kids actually play to have fun and be part of something and some of those will develop into nice players who will contribute. Every team has a few stars, roll players, and players that the others need to carry , sort of like work. It's up to the kids and the coaches to blend them all into a TEAM. The stars will only take you saw far. So keep playing!

What teams do you see having a strong shot at developing a winning program with the you get ones coming up? Any predictions? So many 2018-2020 girls that come out of one school and playing travel that I suspect it should really take off.

It's not us because our PAL program is in shambles, we are the exception not the norm on LI. Stuck combining teams at almost every age and then begging kids to play just so the group of hardcore players have a place to play

You can't go wrong with TG or YJ both aren't going down anytime soon.

Too many girls in a program may be just as bad as not enough. ESM comes to mind as a large number of girls seem to play travel in all young age groups. If HS will put 9th through 12 graders on varsity, that puts about 5 or 6 top girls from each graduating year on varsity. Where do the rest go?

Softball

ESM definitely. Riverhead and westham have a bunch of young girls filling the travel teams too. Question is.... Will they be given the opportunity to earn a spot on jv or varsity teams and give us some competition for the next few years or will the " that's not fair" cries from older, less skilled players' parents run the teams. What's the precedent in other areas? Pros? Cons?

The problem is you travel parents think your kids automatically qualify to be called up when it reality no one gets cut from travel. We don't care that you play travel because anyone can these days.

Its not a travel vs non travel discussion, these overloaded districts will be way overloaded with travel kids much less non travel. All these people spending thousands of dollars per year when the fact is less than 20% will actually be playing by the time high school rolls around. The road to the promised land got a little too crowded.

Our district is small and almost always calls up MS girls to JV, and even V sometimes. This seems to be fine at the JV level from what I can tell. At the V level, what I've seen is, generally speaking, the younger girls generally don't have the size, or more importantly, the game sense of the older girls. I've seen a lot of trying to do it all by themselves with two or three girls on them when they could and should have made a pass. Or they panic and throw away the ball when somebody big and/or aggressive approaches. They tend to not hold back when we're up because they're focused on the goal. Just stuff like that that comes with more time spent on the game. Yes, all things a good coach should address.

I think it's a good experience for the younger girls to see how the coach operates, to see the level of the game, to see the size of the other teams, and to feel part of the team. In my district, if you're called up you are going to play.

If your child is getting called up and will or might ride the bench then you have to make the decision you feel is best. That has been discussed here and there are arguments on both sides.

In my kids HS every starter played on a club team. They had 13 or 14 on the bench and out of them I believe four didn't play club.

ESM definitely. Riverhead and westham have a bunch of young girls filling the travel teams too. Question is.... Will they be given the opportunity to earn a spot on jv or varsity teams and give us some competition for the next few years or will the " that's not fair" cries from older, less skilled players' parents run the teams. What's the precedent in other areas? Pros? Cons?

We have the same problem in my district, parents of not so skilled 10th, 11th and 12th graders try to block the coach from bringing up 7th and 8th graders that are clearly better and should get starting positions over the older girls. everything has to be done secretly so these parents dont get wind until its to late

Track - at least they will get to run and participate and not stand on the sidelines.