2027 boys landscape
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Anonymous
| My son plays 2027 and wants to look for a new team. Of the four teams in geographic reach, MadLax, NextLevel, BLC/DC Express and VLC, I am hearing mixed stuff from my son about all of them. Can anybody share their experience, good or bad, and are there any other teams worth considering? |
Anonymous
Really depends on your son's skill level. From my perspective, if he is good enough to play at Next Level, he should go there. Keep in mind though that is a national top 10 club. Madlax is a solid club, but very political. If you aren't playing on going to one of 2 or 3 private schools, you can find yourself frozen out quickly. BLC/VLC are just at a much lower leverl. Play in lesser tourneys and B brackets. Not bad clubs by any means, but it is rare to someone to choose between VLC and Next Level at this age. |
Anonymous
| The PP's assessment is pretty accurate. NextLevel is the best, MadLax a distant second, and the other two a distant third. But I am hearing from my son (who is on one of those four teams) that a lot of players will be shopping around this summer, which is fairly typical headed into 8th grade. |
Anonymous
| How many of the top players from those teams will tryout for for DCE? |
Anonymous
| Stay away from MadLax. At the defensive end they are stacked, so your son will have difficulty getting on the field. Offensively the team has been gutted the past 2 years by daddy ball, and is painful to watch, which is why the team is no longer competitive with top 10 teams like NextLevel, West Coast starz, and the Long Island teams. So whatever position your son plays, he would be looking for a new team by November. |
Anonymous
Rankings of 13yr old team mean nothing for where the club ends up placing kids in college. So be advised. Nobody mentioned location, but if you are Bethesda, Potomac, Silver Spring or anywhere in MoCo you'll likely go to NL, DCX or ML. If you're in VA, you'll be looking at Madlax or VLC. |
Anonymous
BLC - all of them MadLax and DCE - bottom half of the roster, and a few from the top half. VLC - not very many |
Anonymous
| Oops - meant MadLax and NextLevel, not DCE |
Anonymous
Probably a lot. The DCE 2025 and 2026 teams are well ahead of NL, ML, and VLC, so they must be doing something right. |
Anonymous
+1 The team used to be well coached, but parent coaching never works at this level. |
Anonymous
DCE 2025 is very good but not “well ahead” of NL (who beat them last weekend) and ML. All three are good and can beat each other. VLC trails behind. DCE 2026 probably is fairly characterized as being “well ahead” of the others. At 2027, NL is “well ahead” of the rest with ML next in line and BLC and VLC trailing very far behind. |
Anonymous
| Excluding VLC and BLC you must consider the "holdback" situation on that particular team. Which is very evident when playing NL. If your son is a true 2027 you might want to consider this. Not saying this is bad because it isn't against the rules (yet) |
Anonymous
Great comments here, but the one thing no one is talking about is likely high school attendance. I expect MadLax to pick up a bunch of talent this summer. The Georgetown Prep coach (and to a lesser extent the Gonzagacoach) will push boys he is recruiting to MadLax if they aren't playing there already. This may pull some kids across multiple clubs. Similarly many of the Bullis kids will make their way to next level. Though the Bullis coach doesn't get as involved with club as some other coaches. |
Anonymous
|
What is the nature of the Prep/MadLax connection, and the Bullis/NextLevel? I thought I knew the landscape pretty well and I have never heard of any of those.
I thought NextLevel was linked to the Heights, Gonzaga, and St. Albans; MadLax to Landon; and Bullis to DC Express? |
Anonymous
oops, I meant to day NextLevel linked to the Heights, DeMatha, and St. Albans. |