So does anyone have any idea why anyone has not built an Elite 2028 Northern Virginia team? Madlax is having trouble keeping a team and VLC cannot keep a team..
So does anyone have any idea why anyone has not built an Elite 2028 Northern Virginia team? Madlax is having trouble keeping a team and VLC cannot keep a team..
Answer: parents falling for sales pitches. And then burning out on the club lax product. Maybe even refocusing on the national teams.
In terms of sales pitches, until a year ago you had ML and VLC clogging the airwaves, and as recently as 2021 that Cavs team was a repeat winner at AAA.
A few parents of great players even fell for the True VA sales pitch. Took them out of the market for 2 years.
But overall too few "elite" players by middle school and parents want different things, now that they've seen what they don't want.
I'm not sure this is right. I'm not a defender of the program generally, but MadLax has been playing at an elite level with a VA-heavy roster since third or fourth grade. And if that team had a non-dad coach or even if their dad coach had toned it down then they probably could have attracted the best players from other NOVA rosters and been a force, but obviously the opposite happened.
VLC/Cavs folded all of their 2028 teams a year after folding 2027, and 2029 is struggling. Those programs combined and the result was somehow 1 + 1 = 0. If it was one team then maybe you could blame the parents, but with failing teams across multiple years it's hard not to think the organizations themselves a mess.
True seems like they're killing it in places like Boise and Duluth, but seems to struggle everywhere there are established options.
I think Top Caliber is still around?
I don't think there are a lot of VA guys playing for national teams and I don't think huge numbers have stopped playing relative to a couple years ago. I think there are a lot of them driving to MD because the clubs are much better run.
