Did all/most HS lax players play club in elementary/middle school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's quite surprising how small the club lacrosse world is. My son played soccer before switching to lacrosse. A lot of those clubs will have 5-6 teams per grade, and there are a lot of clubs.

Lacrosse is small and weird. That’s actually the selling point. An athletic kid who would be a good soccer or basketball player will dominate in lax world. Every year there are lax kids recruited to great universities who would never had made it in any other sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite surprising how small the club lacrosse world is. My son played soccer before switching to lacrosse. A lot of those clubs will have 5-6 teams per grade, and there are a lot of clubs.

Lacrosse is small and weird. That’s actually the selling point. An athletic kid who would be a good soccer or basketball player will dominate in lax world. Every year there are lax kids recruited to great universities who would never had made it in any other sport.

We're late to the game, but our middle school kid has started shifting focus from another sport to lacrosse because it's easier to excel at. The issue is breaking into established teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite surprising how small the club lacrosse world is. My son played soccer before switching to lacrosse. A lot of those clubs will have 5-6 teams per grade, and there are a lot of clubs.

Lacrosse is small and weird. That’s actually the selling point. An athletic kid who would be a good soccer or basketball player will dominate in lax world. Every year there are lax kids recruited to great universities who would never had made it in any other sport.

We're late to the game, but our middle school kid has started shifting focus from another sport to lacrosse because it's easier to excel at. The issue is breaking into established teams.

Where do you live

[Anonymous]

DD didn’t start until sophomore year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite surprising how small the club lacrosse world is. My son played soccer before switching to lacrosse. A lot of those clubs will have 5-6 teams per grade, and there are a lot of clubs.

Lacrosse is small and weird. That’s actually the selling point. An athletic kid who would be a good soccer or basketball player will dominate in lax world. Every year there are lax kids recruited to great universities who would never had made it in any other sport.

3% are going to these schools nice try. LAX players need to be athletic and skilled not an easy combo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really depends. First, there are a bunch of clubs you don't know about. Second, at the private school level, most if not all of the kids played club, at least by middle school. At the better public schools almost all of the starters played club but many of the non-starters did not and do not play club. At the lower level public school teams very few kids play club at all - some don't even try lacrosse until high school.

With the big, better public schools, there is a bigger pool of kids who are just great athletes. Some of the best athletes may have elected not to play club lax because they played football and club hockey, yet they end up starting by their senior year of high school and playing D1 lax in college.

Really? What local player did zero club lax and is currently on a D1 roster? There are many local DMV players on D1 rosters and sure I do not know all of them but I did not ever know of a kid who committed to a D1 lacrosse program that did zero club at any point.

Yeah, I don't think this happens much if ever. All of the D1 recruiting is from the club scene. You would never get seen around here playing only public HS lacrosse.

This. The only way it would happen is if the kid picked up club lax in high school

So an athletic kid who played rec lacrosse and another elite sport and picked up club lacrosse by 9th grade has a chance? The hardest part might be getting a spot on an established club team late in the game.

The point of club lax before high school is that it gets you good at lax. Many many reps. Club lax in high school doesn’t do that for you. At that point club play is maybe two Fall tournaments and three summer tournaments. That’s for college recruiting but you’ve really got to be already good at the game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm new to the boys lax scene. Son just started playing on a club team in the HoCo league this year. It seems like for boys lax, there are only 4 clubs in the DC-area (Madlax, NL, BLC and VLC) and each has about about two teams (sometimes just one) at each grade from elementary through 8th grade, so that's roughly 180-200 boys per grade in the whole DMV playing club-level lax. There are of course other clubs in HoCo, Baltimore, Annapolis, etc., but I assume not many boys go that far to play. But every private and public school around here has a team, so are lots of the players on these teams boys who only played rec or just started lax in HS? I never played, but lax seems like a really hard sport to pick up when you're 14-15. Or are there a bunch of clubs around here I don't know about?

Great question. It depends on where your son goes to school and what his aspirations are.

At top privates (GP, Landon, Gonzaga, St. John’s, PVI etc) being on a top level club team is a must just to make varsity.

At the lower level privates (O’Connell, Irerton etc.) most of the starters have significant club experience but not all. You can definitely be on the team with out prior lax experience but playing time might be a problem unless you’re pretty athletic.

At top public (Robinson, Madison Churchill etc) starters will be on club teams but not necessarily the best clubs. Athletic boys will make varsity but struggle for field time.

Lower level publics (Chantilly, Westfield, Magruder) no club experience is needed- in fact if you played a couple of seasons of rec you’re way ahead of the game.

If you want to play in college a top club is a must.

In terms of clubs - top tier is in the DMV is madlax, next level and BLC/DCE. After that the teams get pretty bad. VLC is a particularly terrible club - poor management, poor communications, and fairly expensive. It’s often described as a dumpster fire on a sinking ship.

True NOVA is a great option. Great coaching, fields and organization. The beat on that club is that its teams are not very competitive but there is a chance to make their national team- which is usually highly ranked.

Good luck

Here comes the dumpster fire guy!!!

True NOVA Green is indeed a good option to for some kids to learn Lacrosse 101 from 4th to 11th grade. Quit the joke with the National Team stuff. If you want to play on a National Team, there are plenty of options with the Circuit teams. Very few True NOVA kids end up on True National Black - the only legitimate True National Team. Most of the other True National/Regional/State teams are money grabs and would be slaughtered by any Madlax or NL team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really depends. First, there are a bunch of clubs you don't know about. Second, at the private school level, most if not all of the kids played club, at least by middle school. At the better public schools almost all of the starters played club but many of the non-starters did not and do not play club. At the lower level public school teams very few kids play club at all - some don't even try lacrosse until high school.

What other clubs are there in the DMV area?

The top private school players are playing at the ones OP mentioned - Next Level, DC Express, MadLax, some at VLC, Annapolis Hawks. Public school kids are playing on those sometimes but also Zingos, MD Roughriders, Team Maryland, True, Top Caliber, Blackwolf.

So do the private schools basically recruit all the kids off of A teams of Next Level, DC Express and Madlax? That’s only like 60 kids, which seems like it wouldnt even be enough to fill the rosters of all the top privates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really depends. First, there are a bunch of clubs you don't know about. Second, at the private school level, most if not all of the kids played club, at least by middle school. At the better public schools almost all of the starters played club but many of the non-starters did not and do not play club. At the lower level public school teams very few kids play club at all - some don't even try lacrosse until high school.

What other clubs are there in the DMV area?

The top private school players are playing at the ones OP mentioned - Next Level, DC Express, MadLax, some at VLC, Annapolis Hawks. Public school kids are playing on those sometimes but also Zingos, MD Roughriders, Team Maryland, True, Top Caliber, Blackwolf.

So do the private schools basically recruit all the kids off of A teams of Next Level, DC Express and Madlax? That’s only like 60 kids, which seems like it wouldnt even be enough to fill the rosters of all the top privates.

Plus, some of the other teams mentioned above, plus some B team players will get playing time, plus there are multiple age groups. Lots of juniors are starters and better sophomores will also get playing time, as do a few superstar freshman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really depends. First, there are a bunch of clubs you don't know about. Second, at the private school level, most if not all of the kids played club, at least by middle school. At the better public schools almost all of the starters played club but many of the non-starters did not and do not play club. At the lower level public school teams very few kids play club at all - some don't even try lacrosse until high school.

What other clubs are there in the DMV area?

The top private school players are playing at the ones OP mentioned - Next Level, DC Express, MadLax, some at VLC, Annapolis Hawks. Public school kids are playing on those sometimes but also Zingos, MD Roughriders, Team Maryland, True, Top Caliber, Blackwolf.

So do the private schools basically recruit all the kids off of A teams of Next Level, DC Express and Madlax? That’s only like 60 kids, which seems like it wouldnt even be enough to fill the rosters of all the top privates.

Don't be silly, private schools aren't allowed to recruit for athletics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really depends. First, there are a bunch of clubs you don't know about. Second, at the private school level, most if not all of the kids played club, at least by middle school. At the better public schools almost all of the starters played club but many of the non-starters did not and do not play club. At the lower level public school teams very few kids play club at all - some don't even try lacrosse until high school.

What other clubs are there in the DMV area?

The top private school players are playing at the ones OP mentioned - Next Level, DC Express, MadLax, some at VLC, Annapolis Hawks. Public school kids are playing on those sometimes but also Zingos, MD Roughriders, Team Maryland, True, Top Caliber, Blackwolf.

So do the private schools basically recruit all the kids off of A teams of Next Level, DC Express and Madlax? That’s only like 60 kids, which seems like it wouldnt even be enough to fill the rosters of all the top privates.

Don't be silly, private schools aren't allowed to recruit for athletics.

Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really depends. First, there are a bunch of clubs you don't know about. Second, at the private school level, most if not all of the kids played club, at least by middle school. At the better public schools almost all of the starters played club but many of the non-starters did not and do not play club. At the lower level public school teams very few kids play club at all - some don't even try lacrosse until high school.

What other clubs are there in the DMV area?

The top private school players are playing at the ones OP mentioned - Next Level, DC Express, MadLax, some at VLC, Annapolis Hawks. Public school kids are playing on those sometimes but also Zingos, MD Roughriders, Team Maryland, True, Top Caliber, Blackwolf.

So do the private schools basically recruit all the kids off of A teams of Next Level, DC Express and Madlax? That’s only like 60 kids, which seems like it wouldnt even be enough to fill the rosters of all the top privates.

Don't be silly, private schools aren't allowed to recruit for athletics.

Really?

He’s being sarcastic. Most of the top privates recruit hard in 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really depends. First, there are a bunch of clubs you don't know about. Second, at the private school level, most if not all of the kids played club, at least by middle school. At the better public schools almost all of the starters played club but many of the non-starters did not and do not play club. At the lower level public school teams very few kids play club at all - some don't even try lacrosse until high school.

What other clubs are there in the DMV area?

The top private school players are playing at the ones OP mentioned - Next Level, DC Express, MadLax, some at VLC, Annapolis Hawks. Public school kids are playing on those sometimes but also Zingos, MD Roughriders, Team Maryland, True, Top Caliber, Blackwolf.

So do the private schools basically recruit all the kids off of A teams of Next Level, DC Express and Madlax? That’s only like 60 kids, which seems like it wouldnt even be enough to fill the rosters of all the top privates.

Don't be silly, private schools aren't allowed to recruit for athletics.

Really?

He’s being sarcastic. Most of the top privates recruit hard in 8th grade.

How does this work? Do they scout at HOCO league games when the kids are in seventh grade?

[Anonymous]

No and anyone how tells you otherwise is just annoyed bec their kid did travel and private coaching and yours will walk on to varsity

[Anonymous]

Elementary no. The athletic kids who play multiple sports do better in the long run.