lax culture from an insider
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Anonymous
Yeah, lightning is different now. Science. |
Anonymous
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There are several inter-related issues that parents of boys in youth lacrosse now have to deal with. I am specifically not speaking of high school and how and varsity junior varsity teams are selected although that issue is not unrelated.
As of this Fall, youth lacrosse in the Washington area is changing subtly but importantly. As a prior poster pointed out, historically (and consistent with US Lacrosse guidelines) placement on youth lacrosse teams was based on birthdays (just like soccer and hockey). Unfortunately, there was no requirement of proof of age (as there is in soccer and hockey) and there were instances of over-age players playing on teams. Nevertheless, officially teams were based on age. This is no longer the case. As of this fall the “elite” lacrosse clubs in the Washington area have moved to “grade based” rather than age based teams. Accordingly, if a player is in enrolled in a particular grade, he is eligible to play no matter how old he is. This sounds reasonable until you realize that there is a fairly prevalent practice in the Maryland private schools to “hold back” students. Many of the programs in Long Island have grade based teams as well, but the problem of “over age” / “hold backs” is less prevalent, (if only because more long island players go to public rather than private schools and the public schools (and the public school student parents) are less “pliable” then the private schools in accommodating holdbacks). Once a player is “reclassified” he stays in the class, exacerbating the age gap that posters above were noting at the high school level. Without age limits, this problem can only get worse with college recruiting now taking place at the 8th and 9th grade level. There is just too much incentive to re-classify. My son has been playing club lacrosse for three years and is playing on what would have been a U-13 team and is now a 6th grade team this Fall. The league his team played in this Fall and the tournaments he is playing in this month all have his team playing 6th and 7th grade teams. Realize what this means. There are players on the field ranging in age between 11 and 14. The disparity in height and weight are substantial and much more that what used to the norm in the old “U-13” category. For those who think this post is a rant about my sons’ team not being competitive, that is not the case. His team has been successful (lost one game this Fall so far), but the danger on the field is real and we as parents are kidding ourselves if we do not acknowledge it. The real “goat” in this is US Lacrosse. This is an organization to which all of us are forced to belong and support through dues and whose mission is to promote the sport of lacrosse (and supposedly player safety). US Lacrosse is “leading from behind” on the critical issue of player safety and it really should (and if it is going to be a relevant organization, it needs) to take a strong, unambiguous position as to age based versus grade based teams. So far, US Lacrosse’s position is to tepidly support age based teams, but to hide behind the argument that “there is nothing it can do” as clubs move more to grade based teams. There is in fact a lot that US Lacrosse can do (if it wants to), including, for starters, taking a strong, unequivocal position in its not so good magazine. By taking this position US Lacrosse would of course risk offending various interests, but that is the price to pay if US Lacrosse is in fact going to lead rather than to be impotent and irrelevant. It is ironic that US Lacrosse’s headquarters are located in Baltimore, Maryland (the center of gravity (i.e. the Crabs) for the move to grade based teams). Lacrosse is a great sport for kids, but the move from age based to grade based teams together with the underlying incentive to reclassify kids to position them for early recruiting is worrisome and is making youth lacrosse more dangerous for the players. |
Anonymous
| US Lacrosse is in a position of no authority when club owners do private events and privately insure them. Before lacrosse became a bigger business event owners did USL sanctioned events and used the USLinsurance policy for the events after certifying all participants as USL registered. What will happen eventually is a kid will be seriously hurt or worse and the club owners will get sued. Then the courts will decide this issue and some lacrosse club owners will get wiped out. |
Anonymous
Why does club lacrosse live in a world outside of US Lacrosse? It seems like whatever age guideline standards they put in place are not rules but guidelines, and the club leagues and events administrators just ignore it. Neither of the recruiting tournaments we attended this past weekend were US Lacrosse sanctioned in any way. I have a hard time believing that events people in ice hockey or soccer are this brazen to simply ignore the governing body of their sport. Right now it is like lacrosse does not have one, unless what I am writing out is wrong. |
Anonymous
| There isn't anything subtle about what happened this fall. Our sons tried out for grade based teams and played in the next level fall league and it was stunning how wide apart the youth team kids were size wise. I get it that some kids are big or small for their age, but it looked like more than that to me from tr sidelines. I have no idea whether my hunch is right or way off. |
Anonymous
| How does Landon keep getting negative strings deleted? |
Anonymous
Landon or any other school can't get a thread deleted. If the administrator feels a thread has veered off course, has posters who are sock puppets or are posting specific names of kids, they will be cut. I am sure if you do a search there are plenty of threads that are negative towards Landon. There are some very persistent posters who have a real grudge. |
Anonymous
And why do you think that is? Red Sox fans hate the Yankees. Everyone not a Yankee fan hates the Yankees, but everyone who is a real fan of baseball respects the Yankees. The dislike for Landon is based purely on many people not respecting the school. |
Anonymous
Logic is not your friend here. |
Anonymous
| How does this thread continue 4 1/2 years after it started? I find it mind-boggling, particularly since it involves a sport that (1) has a very limited following, and (2) is sometimes described as the sport for boys who aren't athletic enough or coordinated enough to play other sports. |
Anonymous
1) Not in the DMV. One of the few sprts that colleges are adding at the D1 level. 2) as opposed to being an offensive lineman in football? how athletic or coordinated do you have to be to push people around? You need to be fast and have good eye hand coordination for lacrosse. 3) it is still a sport where kids from this area can get into D1 sports in college at very good schools. In this area, baseball seems to be on the receiving end of the increase in popularity of lacrosse. Some schools don't have enough kids to field decent Varsity and JV teams. |
Anonymous
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As a former collegiate lacrosse player who grew up in this area and has coached at one the most successful HS programs here, I can honestly say
SHUT UP! The Horse has been beaten into bloody pieces. Get over yourself and let your kids have a normal life in both school and sports. |
Anonymous
| Folks: This thread has moved beyond self-parody ---stop this before it ends up on Deadspin... Don't embarrass your kids |
Anonymous
| In reality if parents are too weak to handle it once they stage publicity for their lacrosse recruit kid when he is in 9th grade and take that risk with a kid's emotional side, then those same parents don't need to sell a kid not ready for the attention to a college program. When a family is on speed dial with the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post to solicit news stories the very day their kid commits and then feed the Twitter accounts of lacrosse journalists, you did it and you own it when the publicity has a double edge. |
Anonymous
Someone please Tweet this thread at Drew Magary 
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