Hawks had two epic games, one vs NL and than one vs True C. Up 3 on True C, True came back in 4th to tie and go up 1. OT game. Hawks came up on top. Great lax for a fall tourney. Going to be fun watching all these teams battle out next Spring.
I think we saw it for the first time last year in Hoco Elite. The gap between the top teams and others is closing. This weekends games showed even greater parity. Having said that, it's fall season and there's a lot of training and practice to be had before spring. Still lots of fun games to watch this past weekend.
It was a fun play day for all except Preds. NL improved, True improved, FCA went backwards, Hawks stayed the same, Crabs ehh but will get better.
NL will win it all this year! During the Hawks game I noticed Hawks kept in there starters for most of the game, playing to win, where NL played 50-50 like you should in the Fall. NL will have a much improved squad come the spring because of it! Beware of the daddy Coaches!
Not buying the comment about NL. In the 2 competitive games Hawks/FCA, starting attack didn’t come off the field and big #3 played as much as any midfielder. Plus, Hawks relied heavily on the fly in goalie. That said, Hawks and NL have a thin advantage against the next tier…TC, ML, and FCA. If a 2nd tier team wins, I wouldn’t call it a big upset. All of those team are talented and play hard!
Puberty will play a much larger role in who beats who next spring and summer, this is the winter when 7th graders start growing like weeds. Some of the best players in these teams will look average next summer.
It also plays a role in who gets cut. The elite MD teams have the luxury of looking at two equal skilled players and will always pick the larger one. Roster membership is a one year contract and a kid's potential to get bigger/faster are just not a concern of club coaches.
The kids who were "best in the country" in 4th-5th grade are generally not even starters on their elite teams by 8th grade. Kids who grow quick will move up in the rankings relative to their actual talent, and kids who hit their growth spurt late are in for a couple of rough years aka will have to play down below their skill level to get PT, or play 3rd line AAA/elite. A year later, the tables turn again (as new kids have grown into their size) , until about the end of 9th grade when most things are settled. That said there are a few highly ranked 11th graders every year who were on nobody's map a year ago because they were small.....and now they aren't.
