Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Teams are slotted in HOCO based on past performance not forecasts of how they will perform. Until 91 shows they can actually hang with the big boys or BLC shows they are out of their league, the elite division should be determined on last years outcomes.

Lacrosse is not a meritocracy. Millon will call Ricky, as I'm sure he has already, and say "91 is top to bottom the best club in Maryland and produces #1 college recruits and makes the HoCo league look good, so you should put the teams wherever I say you should."

91's sales pitch is "developing elite athletes" but their actual business model is to hang around in elite alleyways and start picking up disgruntled elite kids in 7th, 8th, 9th grade who were developed by someone else entirely. Then they fold holdbacks into the batter until the majority of starters are holdbacks in 11th grade, and suddenly it's a Top 10 national team. This is the 91 MD recipe.

This will happen soon enough with the 2029s. A good rec club coach will "come over" with 10 kids and suddenly they will start winning games. Follow the 2028 T91 road map:

2019-2020: 2028 Team 91 team is something like 2W-26L overall. Coach fired. Most kids leave.
2021: 91 Recruits 2028 Swarm coach, brings over 10+ kids who don't even attend tryouts. Team is suddenly about 9W-12L overall at a high level.
2022: Same coach brings over 8 more kids and a dad coach from Kelly Post's elite team. Team beats Hawks in the fall of 2022.
2023: See what happens next. They are playing Elite this spring. They'll win some games too (unlike the 2029s).
2024: Most of the 2028 91 kids are already at MIAA schools where they will stay for HS, or may hold back on Millon's advice, but Millon will brag that he got them "recruited to MIAA."
By 2026: Most of the kids who joined before 2024 will be long gone. Because "player development."

That is the MD 91 recipe. See where you can slide your kid into that, or move on lol.
The 2028 team will not win a game in Elite. You heard it here first. 5-10 kids whose parents thought they would be major starters/contributors will be shopping new teams come Summer/Try-Out Season. Perhaps a team without Dad coaches.

I am inclined to believe all of that actually.

If you believed the guy with a 40 man roster of 6th graders and a fake "practice team", who has made 100% of his club coaching reputation on poaching players wholesale from one club to the next, that your son was "going to be a major contributor, " I mean that is kind of on you. And if you thought your kid was going to start over one of the 3-4 dad coaches' kids, that is also kind of on you.

That 2028 coach will be happy to have you all leave, not because your sons can't play, but because he needs to start backfilling the roster with holdbacks for the HS years. You heard it here first lol.


No dog in this fight but come on.... I watched this '28 91 team 2 years ago before new coach play FH rec team and lost by like 10 goals. Really bad talent, not much coaching, and very loud parents who were clueless. Did not look like a elite team as advertised. Just because you sign your kid up at 10 for a elite team doesn't make them elite. Of course new talent had to be brought in and new coaching in this place. Pretty shocking this much improvement this quickly. This is elite lacrosse all the teams bring in new kids. FCA just brought in all new attack. What di 91 do differently? Did the old players that had 2-22 record go to other elite teams or were they just not AAAA/elite level kids?

Yeah you're right about the observations.

Everybody poaches kids, yes obviously. Do they go coach them at school and then poach them 8-10 at a time from the rec council/club that hosts the school team and pays him? That takes a special guy lol. Aside from that, though, The current 2028 91 coaches (dad coaches, yes) are sufficiently talented, and the kids like them, and cratering Swarm's roster in 2021 and Kelly Post's roster in 2022 was enough to attract additional talent from former HoCo Pink, Predators, Forest Hill, etc. And despite the T91 mantra of "we don't cut last year's players," they did indeed cut most of the Swarm kids in 2022, or place them on the "Practice Team" aka see yourself out. The current team is vastly better. "Elite" compared to 2028 FCA, Hawks, NL, and ML? No. It'll be a tough spring. I think 91 won 4 games in AAA (fake AAAA) last year and if they stayed in AAA this year, they would beat everyone but Team MD, and ya know, anything can happen in a championship game. But I hear they are playing elite, so.

The old 91 2028 coach (2020-2021) was - not great - and I believe was fired. Very similar issues to the 2029 Crabs coaching drama 2 years ago. Both of those fired coaches had some level of coaching talent and some talented kids to work with, but something didn't work, in a dramatic way, in both cases. I think neither ever publicly explained what they were trying to do, that went so wrong. As a coach, I'd sure be interested to hear it.

The big thing you have to remember with elite teams is that prior to 9th grade, the roster is primarily a fundraiser for the HS age teams who don't contain a lot of "team lifers" Especially if the team lifers don't hold back as Millon and King Krab will "recommend." So don't get terribly attached!