It's easy to pile on ML because we always seem to be out front on this stuff. If you don't think the head coach and his mini-me haven't driven players off the team you aren't paying attention. The problem became so severe, one of the players left the school so as not to interact with them anymore.
At least 10 players have left the team over the last 2 years to either BLC, NL, VLC. This has ranged from playing time issues to personal issues. Then you take the out of state players taking time from kids who go to practice and whose parents pay the team fee and you get more people leaving this summer. KY - really? Richmond - really? How about when 20 local kids travel to out of town tournaments and suddenly 4-5 players show up from who knows where and the local kids land on the bench. Must be okay because the name is now Nationals instead of Capitals. Hey, don't worry. Your kid can play in a DMV tournament and take their playing time.
2027 ML has been an awful experience. We are literally held captive because there are no other options inside the beltway.
Naively perhaps, I've never given much thought to how "in-town" parents and players feel about "out-of-town" players joining their team. I personally don't see the problem if the out-of-towners are paying the same fees and making a legitimate effort to attend practices. I assume most of those out of towners are coming to places like NL, ML or DCE because their local clubs aren't as strong, and they want to play with and against better competition in an effort to get better themselves.
I suppose another option for kids in less lax intense areas is to try to join one of the national programs, but there aren't that many of those - especially if you're not already affiliated with a big club like Team 91, True or Sweet Lax. It seems the downside with the national programs is that they don't practice as a team that often, so most kids who play for national teams have to stay with their local program as well - and I would imagine playing for two programs might be costly and time consuming.
Curious what people's thoughts are on this? I've heard plenty of folks complain about the national all-star teams, but parents or kids complaining about out-of-towners taking their playing time is a new one for me.
