It's the start of the Fall 2017/Summer 2018 season. Use this thread for your posts regarding this age group

Is attending a "pre-tryout clinic " important if your kid wants to make a specific team? I have seen notices about several clubs offering them. Is it just a courtesy and to attract players, or will a player be at a disadvantage if they skip the clinic and just attend the tryouts?

these 'pre-tryout' clinics are another money grab thing by heros.

recruiting ploy!! trying to sucker you away from the M&Ds and Skywalkers.

The clinics are not a money grab. They are clearly a recruiting method; "ploy" is at best disingenuous. Just clubs trying to get players and parents to check things out and hopefully leave impressed. Not everything is sneaky or underhanded.

How much does the pre tryout clinic cost?

HoCo flamingos also has a pre-tryout clinic. It's "invitation only" you have to know someone with the program.

I believe the Heros one is $20 for one session and the Hoco one is $25 for two sessions.

HoCo flamingos also has a pre-tryout clinic. It's "invitation only" you have to know someone with the program. [/quote]


You can register anyone through the HOCO website. Not sure why they say "invitational".

Looking forward to seeing how the teams stack up after tryouts are done. Are most of the clubs playing the same fall tournaments, or will we have to wait until spring to see how they match up?

Wouldn't be surprised M&D 24 playing up in the fall! That team is going to be loaded! Bring over the Redshirts top 3-4 players!!

OMG. 6th grade girls watch out. Loaded?! #getalife
Eat some more donuts

Tryout week! Good luck to all the 2024's!

THIS IS FUNNY... another shot at the fat man.

Coppermine Lacrosse having 2 2024 teams. They are growing and improving with great leadership and facilities are outstanding.

Any thoughts on the tryouts? I know there seemed to be good turnout at the ones we went to.

Also, is Redshirts having a 2024 team this year? I heard they were, but I kept seeing Redshirt girls at more than one tryout we went to.

Rs will try to have a team. Email dk

Sorry if this is too novice for this group, but I have a coaching question. We are new to club lacrosse.

When you get assigned a coach at one of these clubs, it seems they move up with the girls. Is that all the way thru high school? Is there ever a time where a successful coach whose girls graduate (like the 2019 coaches now) would move down to a younger team and replace a coach? Just trying to see how much we should consider who the coach is and how likely that would be to change over the next few years. Really like lots of the coaches at one club, but just don't know much about the coach at my younger daughters age group.

It depends. Usually as a team graduates that coach moves down to take over the new group of young girls. Coaches can get replaces if their teams aren't performing.

Top clubs will always have good coaches as the girls get close to high school and those coaches usually stay with them. Clubs are growing and they are starting younger teams so they can't always just move the graduating coaches down and have to bring in someone from outside.

Coaching is the most important variable that people overlook when making a choice for their daughters for travel, especially when they are young. Some coaches play to win at all costs at 8 or 9 years old to keep their club name elite, which is great if your daughter is a top player. In my opinion, girls this age need to play, and play every position so they learn the game. Some elite programs have mostly great teams at some age groups, and some not so great at others. Some new programs one or two great teams, and cannot field teams at other years. Some girls play PAL since 3rd grade, and have a sense of the game in 5th grade. Other athletes are just learning the game in 5th grade, but can still develop by high school.

If your daughter is in 6th grade, she will most likely be playing travel lacrosse for six years - if she plays travel through the recruiting years in high school Coaching varies a great deal from organization to organization, and from team to team within an organization. If it's a parent coach, they will move up with their daughter each year. As long as their daughter plays, they will coach - and as long as the team stays competitive. If it's a college lacrosse player coach - which most are, she will stay with the team year after year until that coach might settle into her profession after they graduate and can no longer travel in the summer. You can't predict what a college graduate will do with their lives or where it might take them. Many high school coaches are affiliated with certain teams, so there is some stability there if they coach. As the girls get older, and are of recruiting age, the directors will become more involved with those age groups, because they will be a reliable source to guide these girls through the recruiting process.

Thanks for the help! Any thoughts on playing time at this age? I know in rec it was everybody rotates and plays similar time. And with our older daughters age, they emphasize having the best girls on the field and to get more playing time, work harder. At what age do most clubs make this "transition" to earning time or is that just the nature of club from the beginning? And from reading other posts hear, you can assume daddy ball is excluded from my question as far as equal time. I get from reading others that is a challenge at this age.

M&D Red gonna play in the A division of NGLL. They are taking advantage of C2 and Redshirts 2024 demise and scooping up some really good players. Watch out!

M&D Red should stay in B division but lets see how it works out. interesting how you know so much.

Why would good players go to B team? Fake news

Agree. Its a whole different positive philosophy. Coppermine will be a top place to learn and play lacrosse. Owner and directors doing a great job.

That's great news for the program, but they have a long way to go before it's a top place to play lacrosse.

To play or to develop in a positive atmosphere for young girls. OR you can join teams that just cut some of there best players just to win and dominate without development and cash grab. Your choice. Good luck.

But, it will be a top place to learn lacrosse and get better - then the girls will move on to one of the big dogs. That's nothing new. There are always plenty of clubs out there developing players for mnd and skywalkers since MYLA is no longer around to develop the talent.

Is Redshirts going to be able to field a team at any age other than 2020? It was pretty sad last Saturday that they had tryouts on the field next to M&D at Garrison Forest. M&D would have anywhere from 40-90 girls depending on age group and Redshirts were lucky if they had over 15 at any age group. They are having more tryouts this weekend but at this point everyone else's tryouts are over and the girls are all committed to play. I think maybe I should have listened to everyone here and fled as well.

Run for the hills, now.

LOL. With 40-90 girls at the mnd tryouts - there could be a few girls who are not committed. Unless, mnd is bringing back their white teams.

Keep telling yourself that. Go Coppermine. Best facilities, coaches, directors. Only a matter of time before people figure it out.

Redshirts is still having a 24 team. If you need a place to play give it a shot. At least you won't be cast aside when the next best thing comes along

its shocking how many M&D 2024 girls were cut or given a Red team spot after going 52-1. Loyalty? i think not. Win at all cost? yes.

Ha. That's what the kennedys do best. They have burned to many bridges and now karma is biting them in the [lacrosse]

I feel sorry for all of these 24 girls this year. The redshirts girls were completely abandoned by their coach and they were thrown to the wind to be scattered. Now their girls are playing on red teams instead of A teams. The C2 girls were screwed by the owners. The owners either not honest with themselves and their players or they had a lack of forsight to see what would happen with them out of state - but those girls were no better lax players at the end of 2017 then they were at the end of 2016. And as usual - Some of the M&D 2016-17 black, Skywalkers and Heros Green girls got shuffled right off the teams when newer/faster/stronger girls came along. And with the redshirts/C2 situation there were alot of good girls trying out. I was at 4 different tryouts and I saw those girls at all four.

Maybe the lax community needs to look inward and see what we have done to youth lacrosse. These are 11 year old girls feeling so pressured they were crying and throwing up.

It is a sad state of affairs - no loyalty to the girls - no developement of players - just a drive to have the best record and best teams/club. Its awful

You are correct. There are to many, not all, but to many clubs whose only concern is winning and not developing players. Unfortunately there are to many parents who club shop looking for the club that they think can win the most instead of the club that can develope their girls as a player.

It's not all as one sided as you make it out to be. There seems to be a lack of loyalty towards the clubs by the players that seem to be moving around at will. And how can you talk about loyalty when you are hitting 4 tryouts? Why not state your club allegiance and go to those tryouts? Whether your girl ends up on black, blue, green, purple or gold - you roll with it. If it's not the top team - then just work harder and see how the dice fall. Instead - it seems to be more of the parents' sense of unrealistic expectations or their desire to talk about their D being on an "A" team in the carpool line. There needs to be a middle ground somewhere.

I am new to girls Lax, what are the top teams in the Bethesda MD area?

While I agree it's not quite as cut and dry as the poster above says ... people wouldn't be going to so many tryouts if there wasn't such a risk of ending up without a team.

My thoughts go back to rec-style. We could have 10 good teams w/ the same girls together for 8 years like it use to be. They'd gel as a team and work as a unit. I know you can't go back but it seems like that would be a much gentler environment.

Now we have 3 super teams and everyone else holding on tight to make teams. And there's a possibility of roster changes every year. This is part of what is pushing girls in to year round lax.

It's just the way it is but it is a shame.

A team falling apart because the coach leaves is not a coach problem, it's a club problem. It is not the fault of the coach that his team dismantled. He got a better coaching opportunity at a more competitive club and he took his daughter with him. Who wouldn't. He is a good coach, and some of his players chose to follow him. Again, not the coach's fault. The RS club directors, not anyone else, need to look inward at what the problem is. Stop blaming the fact your teams keep folding on anyone else but yourselves.

What's odd about that situation though is that he was the Redshirts 2024 coach. He is now coaching the M&D 2023 team and his daughter is on the M&D 2025 team. So how does that explain all the 2024's leaving redshirts?

Yeah, not sure why he didn't get 25 black (or if he wanted it), but I know for a fact that last season's 23 Black coach (who is now an asst on the team) turned off a ton of the girls and parents. Bad coaching, poor communication skills, so they definitely needed someone to take over. Even with the switch, a handful of players left the club because they had enough. I think he ended up bringing at least 10-15 redshirt girls across multiple age groups. What happened there with redshirts? It can't simply be because of one coach can it?

Exactly.
The directors need to stop shifting blame to others. They are the problem. Take a look at their website. DK now coaching every single team in the club. What does that tell you?

I would recommend a strong push towards no club lacrosse until middle school at least. Then we arent just putting money into the pockets of club directors who also run their own tournaments with fees.

Back to youth rec sports. Support your community not these dishonest money hungry directors. Save your money for school and family.

Seeing 11 yo wonderful girls so stressed out is ridiculous and unfortunate. I am guilty of living thru my kids to get on the "cool" team. Not worth it at all.

amen to that!!!

I would agree with starting at middle school, but unfortunately club drained our local rec league. It became a situation where there was a HUGE skill gap between the handful of top players and the rest of the girls. You would have run and gun all day. Not because of ball hogs, but because their teammates couldn't catch so they got frustrated and just went to goal every time. You have to remember, rec is all parent volunteers. When club pulls kids so early from rec, this means the parents with the most lacrosse knowledge no longer volunteer for rec. Who is left to develop skills for rec girls? Our daughter and several of her friends decided to start lacrosse as 4th graders, a little late compared to their peers. They had an amazing coach and dominated the league. When he and the other top coaches went club the next year, we felt there was no choice but to follow suit. There weren't enough good coaches left to develop the remaining girls. Some of the girls who decided to go with the "No club until middle school " route tried out for clubs this year. Of the more than a dozen out there, only one made a second tier club. How can those other girls get a chance to catch up without coaching? We tried to support rec by playing both club and rec, but we had to stop for fear of burning out pour daughter to lacrosse all together. How can this be fixed? Sould they all go to low level club teams, only to switch when they get better because they get tired of losing? That seems to be a problem as well.

NO.

Don't support these club teams at all until middle school/high school. then the majority will fold and then the few that remain can exist and the ones that are actually good will remain. we can get rid of these money grab artists like m&d and aloha sports which also run money grab tournaments. Why can't girls learn from their middle school coaches and high school coaches? isn't that what sports is about. Watch the real sports hbo episode on travel sports. The juice is not worth the squeeze. ever!

Sorry Ruthie - you go and keep believing that. You and MYLA tried to stand up to the clubs, but would not give a weekend day like the boys did. Look what happened. The rec directors seem to forget that rec ends for the girls in 8th grade - the clubs are what gets the girls through their "final stretch". Yes, the dozen or so new clubs that sprout up every year are the money grabs - but, you specifically calling out MnD speaks volumes about where you are coming from. You lost, and there are no monuments going up for you.

Youre sad. And the problem

Sorry Ruthie - you go and keep believing that. You and MYLA tried to stand up to the clubs, but would not give a weekend day like the boys did. Look what happened. The rec directors seem to forget that rec ends for the girls in 8th grade - the clubs are what gets the girls through their "final stretch". Yes, the dozen or so new clubs that sprout up every year are the money grabs - but, you specifically calling out MnD speaks volumes about where you are coming from. You lost, and there are no monuments going up for you.


The childish name calling and I'm cooler than you as a parent since my daughter made the "best" team is apparent in your entire comment. Enjoy it. It has a typical bullying feel to it. Like ive always taught our children. Don't peak in middle/high school. I really hope for you and your childs success and happiness.

I am guessing your daughter was cut from M&D. It's funny how you call out one of the two most successful clubs in the state as money grabbers. You must be new to the game. Most clubs like M&D and Heros and Skywalkers, who have been around for more than a decade, have solid recruiting reputations, experienced coaches who know what they are doing (for most have actually played the game), and endless championships are not considered money grabs. The juice is very worth the squeeze. Girls don't have middle school teams unless they are in private school. And 90% of the girls who play club are there because they are too good for rec level with their volunteer parents who step in to coach knowing nothing about the game. So go ahead, you go back to rec. club doesn't want a parent mentality like yours.

That logic is totally hilarious - you're inferring that playing in rec will enable your player to peak at some point after high school when is realistically what should be happening for the top players. But, if you are anti-club and do not believe in it until high school - that means that your daughter is spending her summers hanging out at the pool and the beach. In the mean time - those club girls who's parents are being robbed are getting outstanding coaching and playing against the toughest competition in the country. I've seen it before - you are the parent who's kid is either cut or ends up in JV when they get to high school and are up against the club girls. You then complain about the politics involved with that school's lacrosse program because the coach is affiliated with a club and only picked her girls for the varsity squad. I'm not speaking up for the other club parents, but, my child's happiness and success is based on hard work and earning things in life. As opposed to the mommy coaching and favoritism rampant in rec programs.

You proved my point eloquently. Thank you. 10/11 year olds enjoying life what a shame. Yes my poor JV daughter will unfortunatley have to go to college on her academics/scholarship. Dont peak early.

They sound like mnd parents trying to get that spot at McD and then on to those "full ride" scholarships.

No, I am just a parent whose daughter loves the game and wants more than what Rec can offer. Your life must be full of lots of negativity.

Im sure she does. Its a parents job to guide an 11yo away from the allure of travel/club sports. We must unite against this billion dollar industry. Rec until high school them allow coaches to coach. It will work itself out. Prevent early burnout. Prevent one sport injuries. Allow multisport athletes. Encourage education over sports. Community growth vs isolation club politics.

Lets gooooooooo.

any of the redshirts girls stay with redshirts?

No. 2024 and 2023 folded. The only grad years left at Redshirts are the ones with the director's kids on the team, and he is head coach.

Not true.

have they posted rosters yet?

No

Redshirts is having a 24 team

Honest question? How is redshirts coaching? If you eliminate all of the other stuff that must people talk about off the field?

Well it's just one coach at this point. Great at teaching fundamentals at early age. After that they have no idea how to teach proper team offense or defense.

DK is a very good coach in my opinion. My kids have never played for the Redshirts, but one of my daughters had him as a field hockey coach for a season and he was great. I don't know how SB is a s a coach, but is a great guy.

I've had nothing but good experiences at Redshirts. Dave coached my daughter and his is very good about fundamentals. Ignore what other people say !!!

There's alot of ax-grinding on these boards

its time Dave

I can't believe practices start again next week.

Can we please give these girls a break

agree. So many clubs claim to support multi - sport athletes, but when soccer or field hockey have two practices and a game each week it sucks to lose their limited free time to lacrosse in the off season.

What are you agreeing with? And many clubs don't "claim", they do support multi sport athletes. Most lax coaches tell their players to put their fall sports first. Most teams only practice one day a week during fall because so many girls play other fall sports. And most teams don't play with full rosters at tournaments during the fall due to other fall sports taking precedence. If your daughter has such limited free time, then maybe you have her overbooked. Don't blame that on the clubs.

People are missing the point. There should be no fall lacrosse and no spring soccer

My lord

But then the fall tournament directors wouldnt make any money on. 4th thru 6th grafe lacrosse

Awwwwww

Are there any other club teams still looking for girls for 2024?

Redshirts, East Coast Select and Coppermine

I believe the Long Island Wave still has some openings for 2024 players. Go to Censored.

Coppermine is so far ahead of every other program in how to develop the girls lacrosse player as a person AND player. Impressive, responsible, class organization.

They get clobbered by most teams. They may develop the person but they are struggling developing the player.

You're right. 10-11 year old girls should be fully developed after one year. Your clueless if you think the other clubs develop players. They just obtain the top players and put them on the field. I will take positivity, class and leadership at all times. Good luck and we will have fun getting clobbered.

That'll last a year. Have fun.

So explain how the other clubs are also not doing this?

Where did all the trolls go?

Trolls post just to answer their own posts. They can’t do that anymore, so they are sulking.

It seems clubs are doing more fall tournaments than before. How do most respond to the multi - sport kids who have other fall obligations? Our daughter is playing for a new team this year, so I am curious if teams are usually understanding.

There are many girls on my daughters 2023 team who only show up to a few practices and a few tournaments in the fall because of soccer and field hockey.
We don't see the whole team until the spring season. There's only one game a week in the NGLL and the whole squad is present so the playing times are skewed and somewhat ironic?
Knowing this going in this year I won't put so much weight on the spring season and just have fun at the tournaments. That's where the the most excitement and action are.

I think it is nice to see girls playing multiple sports and allowing the "in-season" sport to take priority. Remember when we were kids, we played whatever was in season and then transitioned to the next sport. I truly think that kept things fresh and allowed us to have a broad group of friends. Enjoy the ride

Young Guns schedule is out.

NGLL starts this weekend. Renegades will be team to beat!

Haha. No one is touching that mnd 24 Black team. Have they lost in the last 2 years. Waiting to see how long until team chemistry breaks down. Wondering how girls deal with lilies playing time or playing out of position

its 6th grade lacrosse, no one cares

Congrats to Skywalkers 24 Blue - taking down M&D Black 24! tough weekend for 24 Black with a tie and a loss. Wonder how the girls will respond this weekend.

What happened to the mighty M&D 2024 Black yesterday? Tied by Pride who didn't win a game and then getting doubled up by Skywakers in final.

There have to be some excuses coming.

We just moved here from Ohio. Daughter is an all star goalie. What are the top teams for tryouts? She is athletic basketball point guard. We hear M &D is a talented team.

That will be your entire life for the next 5 years-think it thru carefully. There are a lot of clubs with talent .

M&D would be a great place to tryout for Goalie. The 24s only had one rostered last year and would be looking for a athletic G!

well...big heavy dad will not like another goalie in consideration for m&d 24 black team.

Didn’t know dads had a say so

Only if they are coaches.

Maryland sounds like a crazy political lacrosse place. We dont let lacrosse define us/her. She has played up at 2023 in Ohio. But will tryout at 2024 and yes M&D is on the tryout schedule. But will be looking for good coaching and team profile NOT win at all costs.

Ohio Lacrosse and MD Lacrosse are two different animals. You also might want to try out for a lesser club. just in case to make a club team.