Just eating the popcorn and hear for the comments as I have a kid currently playing in college. Here are some answers to your question 3 1. If your age group is still playing in the HOCO league you don't need to worry about recruiting yet. The rosters and skill levels will completely change between now and HS. While many of the same kids will get recruited how they did in HOCO will not matter one bit. Your son will be seen a club tournaments playing v teams from TX and CA where the teams were formed months before the event and some of those teams are capable of beating a "Elite" team. 2. Your son is the one who gets himself recruited not the club or the coach. It is the play on the field that counts. If the play is at a high D1 level and most important the grades are there, they will be calling. 3. What are you paying for? Access to the tournament. There are only a few events that matter. NHSLS (if a good HS), Crabfeast, NLF, Naptown ect. This year the 2026 brackets will have dozens of high level coaches on the sidelines with clip boards. They also have film. they want to see if your son can complete with players they are also looking to recruit and the competition is recruiting. I know you may ask why can't my son just attend a prospect day and train on his own. Every coach will ask you to send your summer schedule and if you are not on a team playing these events it is a red flag. Look at classes of 2024 and 2025 all the top players play in the NLF events. As far as worrying about the dad next to you and his "money spent." For many lax dads the cost of travel is less than the monthly bar tab at the club. If it is too expensive for any family do not do it. If you are judging the coaching at the club by HOCO performance then you will be really surprised when WCS shows up with 50 kids and a college kid coach who they met in the parking lot. Especially when 3/4 of those kids get recruited. Not to mention those families sometimes fly to practices. Good luck and do not over think it. |
“Because True can't find reliable and stable employees in the area given the high cost of living and doing business. “ What are you referring to? Clearly you have zero experience with the program. It’s not perfect but they have all paid coaches who have been with the teams for multiple seasons. You could argue they are stretched thin during spring bc most if not all coach at area high schools as well. I don’t think you’d be disappointed to move to the program at the 28 level however. |
National teams - not MadLax Nationals - are really where all of this is headed. The clubs are a scam. No other way to put it. |
The worst of the DC area clubs is DC Express. No recruiting support, and what little there is is skewed to Bullis and Prep. $5,000 per year so little Johnny can play lets pretend lax is just stupid but that's all DC Express does and their parent co-owner(s) are the worst. Full snow plow for their kids at the expense of the rest of the team. |
It's you who sounds like a newcomer. True tried and had teams in DC, Moco and VA near the beltway. They were trying to throw clinics and build something. Unfortunately, due to high turnover and lack of real organization, all of that went away. They are no longer in the immediate dmv area. Because they aren't in the immediate dmv area, there are fewer choices and kids are stuck on 25-30 pp rosters at DCE, NL and ML. Just go to their website and look at what they used to offer. They've never taken down the teams but have disabled the links. |
True NOVA practices in Falls Church and Arlington. How is that not in the "immediately dmv area," true dc collapsed but that was an outside the beltway team in MOCO. But otherwise your post is not correct. I also don't see how it's True's responsibility to address DCE, ML and NL's bloated rosters. |
I think what’s going on here is PP is not familiar with the NOVA lacrosse scene. I bet he’s a MOCO resident. For the group- True NOVA is a thriving B-level club that has a fully subscribed team at every age group and two teams at most levels. They have good coaching and great fields centrally located in Arlington and falls church. The problem since they started 3 years ago is that the Majors have locked up almost all of the elite talent and competitive parents have shied away from taking their kid to True. With the loss of VLC at 28 there is not enough room for all of the almost elites so a kid who would have been a Starter on VLC can’t get field time on ml, NL or DCE. |
I really hope this is wrong. It is just sad to hear people are thinking they will get assistance. |
It's not True's responsibility, but if they had better coaching, fields, organization and played in better tournaments and leagues then better players would want to play there. You can't complain about a lack of choices and not address the choice that exists. |
I just looked up True VA. It looks like they practice in Midlothian (richmond suburb), Loudoun and Fredericksburg. Where does it say Arlington or Falls Church? Maybe True does practice there but how would anyone know this. This goes to the organization not being very good at managing what they are putting out there and it also goes to how they really aren't dmv based. |
Yes - there’s an overall Virginia program which encompasses teams in Richmond, Fredericksburg, Loudon (a start up) AND NOVA. The NOVA team practices in Arlington and Falls Church aka the DMV area. Sorry that you’re new to the scene. |
So snarky. The proof is in the results. If True, or any other program were anything but awful, they would have a better program in NOVA. I'm sorry your kid wasn't good enough to make ML. |
You must do a poor job of reading comprehension. I found their website. Clicked on VA and found that those were summer team tryouts for those teams that just forming.. I aslo found the various directors of NOVAs team. I also found their emails. As someone who has kids on a younger team on the NOVA team, i know they've had small individual tryouts and a couple of trams have added a kid or 2 to some teams. My suggestion is if you are interested you should reach out to the directors. At worst, it sets you up to be ready for 2024-25 team tryouts in July. |
Or he could remain sitting on the bench never getting any time regardless of what tournaments are played. |
Most of the NOVA talent is in Loudoun son I suspect True Loudoun will emerge as a strong team at younger teams into HS ages. |