Slow down club hopping. In most other sports (hockey, soccer, swimming) , you can switch top level travel clubs ONCE after 4th grade.
Adding this rule would greatly improve the sport, develop more consistancy within teams and allow more clubs to be competitive — generally improving level of play.
How about governing the clubs themselves. Owners act with impunity. US Lacrosse has no real interest in clubs lacrosse. Owners have inflated rosters, inflated pricing, guest players, you name it they've done it. Unfortunately chances of finding an honest operator is like winning the lottery.
Completely agree. I just thought eliminating club hopping would be easier to implement.
I don't understand how eliminating club hopping is doable. It's a free country. Parents pay for a service for their kids to play for (and trained by) certain clubs. If I am not happy with the service I get, you are telling me that I can't switch clubs?
Many (if not most) other travel sports do it -- hockey, swimming, soccer to name a few. When you register with US Lacrosse, you register as a member of a club. Your registration to tourneys is only valid for that club unless you reregister with US lacrosse. Will force a lot more dillgence on the front end for players and parents.
This makes absolutely no sense.
My son played town lacrosse in 3rd grade.
Really liked it so he joined a local B club team that summer. It was disorganized and not very good but he had fun and fell in love with the sport.
For the summer of 4th grade he wanted to make it to one of the big local clubs but wasnt good enough so he moved to another local club that was A and better than his B program. The coach was an absolute stunad (program may have been good but the coaching at the age group was not.)
For the summer of 5th grade he wanted to make it to the big program again but was not good enough so he went back to the B team and for the next 3 years we worked with the director to try to make the team better. It simply was not going to happen based on the local pecking order. So again he went and tried out for the top local teams.
He is now on a top 5 team in his age group, one of the best at his position and still madly in love with the sport. He set out to make it to the top. Came through puberty late and finally got where he wanted in the summer of 9th grade.
Oh yea, we also ended up reclassing him due to COVID year and he is now at a top prep school.
Had he been stuck on the A or B team he likely would not have progressed and he certainly wouldnt have been able to set himself a goal. The kid that is great in 4th grade is not always the kid who is great in 9th. Not all clubs are created equal.
