Yes, middle school. Do certain club players gravitate to certain schools? Around the DC area it's a mixed bag with BLC, NL and ML going to pretty much all the schools in roughly equal percentages (Landon, Mater Dei, STA, etc...).
Yes Hawks -> SMA, some to Spalding
FCA -> Calvert Hall
Crabs -> BL
MadLax -> Juvi
Not really as sure about the DC schools but know a bunch of Hawks kids played for St. John’s last year.
There are obviously kids all over the place but those are generally where they go.
Half of Crabs are at BL.
Half of Hawks are at StM.
Outside that it’s random attendance for middle school.
For high school by now in 7th grade most families have an idea where they want to go.
FCA def most kids to Calvert Hall, Gilman, etc., Crabs to BL and McDonough, Preds-St. Paul's/McDonough/BL. Do these clubs even have public school kids playing?
I think one of the most ridiculous myths going in MD/DC lacrosse is the idea that these elite clubs at the youth level are going to give the above-average lax player some kind of advantage getting into elite high schools. Loyola, CH, Gilman, BL, and McD have all had varsity players wearing Breakers uniforms in the last 3-4 years. Now, are the Breakers kids starting at MIAA school lax teams? Certainly not. Do MIAA Breakers kids play in college? LOL yes they do.
If you want to be recruited to upper D1 on a substantial scholarship, then yes absolutely you should be at a private school and playing for ML, Hawks, NL, Crabs, FCA, 91. If that's not the goal, let your kid play other sports. Let him blow up the HoCo AAA or AA league as an all star. Get him off-season training with coaches who aren't looking to train and trade kids like horses, which is most of them.
I was with you right up to the end.
What do you mean by “train and trade kids like horses?”
Skills coaches (and public school coaches offering training) who provide "meh"/decent quality training - and use the presence of these club kids to boost their career or coaching prospects. Which by itself happens every day and so what. #clublax #hitthewall
But then these specific guys get what they want and quickly dump the kids because, well, let them explain why I guess.
The kids end up wondering what they did wrong in the relationship that went from 100% "OMG this kid is amazing, so thankful to have these kids....look at all these Hawks helmets" to "yeah you're not a good fit, buddy"/not returning phone calls in the span of 3-6-9 months. I'm not talking about the cycle of club tryouts either.
It's happened twice - that I know of - in Baltimore/Howard County in the last six months. Not including regular club tryouts.
And the word used by one of the coaches was "horses" as in "I'm bringing some horses from (unnamed rec club)!"
