NL/DCE

[Anonymous]

DCE 21 is the best team in DMV history no question. With MadLax 2018 and Next Level 2020 coming in close. Next Level was also just taken over by the new owners ~5 years ago, so the 21&22 teams were based on MadLax & DCE scraps, while their 23&24 are both top 10.

I think its really hard to argue the DCE 2021 is the best team in DC area history as Covid has really cut their club season in half. I'm not saying they aren't but look at some of the facts.

I would argue the Mad Lax 2018 was the best team in the DC area by a good margin, the teams depth and skill was fun to watch.

1. Joey Epstein was the #1 rated recruit in the Nation that year and he simply just made the players around him that much better.
2. Ricky Meizan, this kid was a total beast, originally committed to UNC for lacrosse but ended up committing to Stanford for football.

I could be wrong here but does the DCE 2021 team have any top 20 national recruits? The Mad Lax 2018 team had 2 in the top ten (both names are above)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Madlax 2018 was one of greatest club teams in area too

Agree with this. I have boys in both the 2018 grad year and the 2021 grad year. The ML 2018 team and the DCE 21 team are by far the 2 best teams that this area has produced in a long time. Winning. Commitments. Skill level. Competitiveness. I saw both and they both had those things at a really high level. Would have loved to see those 2 teams square off as it would have been epic.

We will se about this in 5 years. NL teams at the younger ages (27-30) win almost every game against MadLax, BLC...

Not true for NextLevel vs. MadLax at 2027 - the teams always play close games and MadLax has won 50% or more within the past year or so.

DCE 21 is the best team in DMV history no question. With MadLax 2018 and Next Level 2020 coming in close. Next Level was also just taken over by the new owners ~5 years ago, so the 21&22 teams were based on MadLax & DCE scraps, while their 23&24 are both top 10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

DCE 21 is the best team in DMV history no question. With MadLax 2018 and Next Level 2020 coming in close. Next Level was also just taken over by the new owners ~5 years ago, so the 21&22 teams were based on MadLax & DCE scraps, while their 23&24 are both top 10.

I think its really hard to argue the DCE 2021 is the best team in DC area history as Covid has really cut their club season in half. I'm not saying they aren't but look at some of the facts.

I would argue the Mad Lax 2018 was the best team in the DC area by a good margin, the teams depth and skill was fun to watch.

1. Joey Epstein was the #1 rated recruit in the Nation that year and he simply just made the players around him that much better.
2. Ricky Meizan, this kid was a total beast, originally committed to UNC for lacrosse but ended up committing to Stanford for football.

I could be wrong here but does the DCE 2021 team have any top 20 national recruits? The Mad Lax 2018 team had 2 in the top ten (both names are above)

Yes. I think they had 3 in the Top 20 and 10 in the Top 100 overall. I think they finished with close to 20 D1 commitments. Strong depth of talent.

[Anonymous]

History lesson from the boys to the south, VLC 2015s and 2017s both had over 20 college commits and their 2018s ended up being better than the MadLax team you mention... and it’s wasn’t even close b/c of the FoGo play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:History lesson from the boys to the south, VLC 2015s and 2017s both had over 20 college commits and their 2018s ended up being better than the MadLax team you mention... and it’s wasn’t even close b/c of the FoGo play.

20 D1 commits? How many kids on the team? That's pretty strong. DCE 21 had 23 kids total...1 kid playing D1 hockey on top of the above, which is correct.

[Anonymous]

The roster of the 2018 VLC team included the former Madlax
Player who was called an ungrateful quitter by ML owner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

DCE 21 is the best team in DMV history no question. With MadLax 2018 and Next Level 2020 coming in close. Next Level was also just taken over by the new owners ~5 years ago, so the 21&22 teams were based on MadLax & DCE scraps, while their 23&24 are both top 10.

I think its really hard to argue the DCE 2021 is the best team in DC area history as Covid has really cut their club season in half. I'm not saying they aren't but look at some of the facts.

I would argue the Mad Lax 2018 was the best team in the DC area by a good margin, the teams depth and skill was fun to watch.

1. Joey Epstein was the #1 rated recruit in the Nation that year and he simply just made the players around him that much better.
2. Ricky Meizan, this kid was a total beast, originally committed to UNC for lacrosse but ended up committing to Stanford for football.

I could be wrong here but does the DCE 2021 team have any top 20 national recruits? The Mad Lax 2018 team had 2 in the top ten (both names are above)

DCE 21 has # 7,16,18,,32,35,39,53,78,91,96 in the Country.

[Anonymous]

No, the ungrateful quitter was a 2017....and a really nice kid.

[Anonymous]

List the names and are you going of there NLF rankings?

Big difference between NLF rankings and IL rankings.

I’ll take mad lax 2018 team any day of the week.

[Anonymous]

The old MYLA organization that became Bethesda Lacrosse (prior to club teams) created teams for the summer from the leagues best players. Back then it was by age U9, U11, U13, U15.
These teams had the best players that would go on to Prep, Landon, Bullis, St Albans and Public. Of these rosters every player would go on to play in college. I guess this would be similar to ML National Team or Black Ops. Those teams were some of the best teams ever assembled.

[Anonymous]

Serious question - is any of the Joey Epstein and Deadspin history relevant today? My son is in middle school and I expect to see some movement among the four main teams (VLC, BLC, NL, ML) as kids change schools and make new friends. every family seems to be a recruiter for their son’s team (just not at their son’s position of course). My son likes his team but the best program for sixth grade may not be best for 8th or 9th. Any recommendations on which of the four are on the way up or down?

[Anonymous]

Depends who you ask. Parents of thirteen year kids who Cabel shames on IG or via email think it’s relevant. Most do not care because they don’t see that side of the industry.

[Anonymous]

Show me a big tourney ML18 actually won

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious question - is any of the Joey Epstein and Deadspin history relevant today? My son is in middle school and I expect to see some movement among the four main teams (VLC, BLC, NL, ML) as kids change schools and make new friends. every family seems to be a recruiter for their son’s team (just not at their son’s position of course). My son likes his team but the best program for sixth grade may not be best for 8th or 9th. Any recommendations on which of the four are on the way up or down?

All four of the programs you mention are quality programs. NL is pretty plainly on the rise for all years except 26 and is really strong 27 and down. Madlax continues to be strong across the board. DCE/BLC have weakness at 27 and 28. VLC is perhaps the most unclear longer term. Their 27 team isn’t very strong and 28 and down they haven’t fielded teams yet. But VLC draws from a different crop of kids than the other three teams for the most part, so they might end up doing very well if there is untapped talent in The Virginia areas they pull from and in any event they tend to get stronger in the core older years where they have historically fielded teams. But it really depends on the year between these four. All great options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question - is any of the Joey Epstein and Deadspin history relevant today? My son is in middle school and I expect to see some movement among the four main teams (VLC, BLC, NL, ML) as kids change schools and make new friends. every family seems to be a recruiter for their son’s team (just not at their son’s position of course). My son likes his team but the best program for sixth grade may not be best for 8th or 9th. Any recommendations on which of the four are on the way up or down?

All four of the programs you mention are quality programs. NL is pretty plainly on the rise for all years except 26 and is really strong 27 and down. Madlax continues to be strong across the board. DCE/BLC have weakness at 27 and 28. VLC is perhaps the most unclear longer term. Their 27 team isn’t very strong and 28 and down they haven’t fielded teams yet. But VLC draws from a different crop of kids than the other three teams for the most part, so they might end up doing very well if there is untapped talent in The Virginia areas they pull from and in any event they tend to get stronger in the core older years where they have historically fielded teams. But it really depends on the year between these four. All great options.

I'd amend this to say Next Level is really strong at all current teams except for 2026. They aren't bad but just not competing at the highest levels.