Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
We hear every year that BLC is one season away from winning some big games. We will see.

But let’s be clear. If they are better, it is absolutely not because they developed their players. It is because they have poached from other teams. It is ok. Other teams do it. But this is not player development from the club. Same with many NL teams though the 28s are largely home grown

This is all true, but conflates several separate issues.

We're talking about whether a BLC team who tied with Predators 4 months ago, has improved on par with FCA Blue. Sit with that for a second, as Predators have never even beaten FCA White.

BLC arguably does a great job of developing talent at the younger ages. But this is true for the upper 50% of clubs, including the better rec clubs.

I would argue that at the middle school ages, very few clubs are "developing" players past the current season's needs/system/plays unless the coach is extremely invested in the roster. You can see it when kids change clubs and look completely lost. I'm talking about last year's Crabs, Kelly Post, etc players who were supposed to "dominate" on new rosters this year but mostly look confused because they learned a specific system/set/look at their old club. They were not really "developed."

And finally, if you think the "what are those new names on the roster - in March - ???" phenomenon is problematic now, you need to make peace with it for the HS years unless your sons are playing very low level lacrosse in HS. For every kid added to the roster in tryouts, another one shows up at practice in February and is suddenly on the teamsnap roster. And hey, if the kid showed up for just one practice, then a tournament, then the coach can claim "we have no fly-in players! All these kids work out with the team!" As if the kid in a FL or MA boarding school is flying down for Wednesday night practices.

This is spot on. None of the top programs "develop" players on middle school teams. Families hire private coaches and attend elite camps and clinics for that. In 7th and 8th grade, teams are trying to add the right players to their roster, so that by 9th and 10th grade their team will be ranked 10-15 nationally, and college coaches will watch their games. College coaches are unlikely to watch a game between two teams ranked below top 20. The way to find players who will bring team into the top 10-15 is to recruit new, athletic kids who are dominant athletes, and yes, many are holdbacks and/or fly ins. The time to develop incumbent players is mostly in 3rd to 6th grade, and if a player is still a third line middie of fifth pole by 7th grade, the program will look to outsiders to take that spot. Turning the discussion back to BLC, if BLC now has a 2028 team that is competitive with Next Level and Madlax, it is because they have beaten those two programs at their own game by bringing in good, big, fast, new players in middle school. I am skeptical that they have done so, but we will find out soon enough. But if BLC has succeeded in upgrading its roster with new players, that is not grounds to criticize them. They are just playing the same game as other elite level teams.

That’s a lot of words to say teams will look to get better every year.

The point is HOW they get better in certain years relative to others. In grades 3-6, they do it by developing the players they've got, but starting in 7th they do it by recruiting new players, including holdbacks. Hope the cliff notes are helpful.