Interest in a 270 Corridor youth Lacrosse Program

[Anonymous]

I coach JV Lacrosse at an upcounty MoCo HS and one thing I notice is that most of the schools in my region have a common issue in the fact that 90% of our kids never played lacrosse prior to HS. Sure there are a variety of reasons for this but to me the biggest one is lack of options. In MoCo we have Bethesda, Damascus, and Olney and thats it.

I am considering getting together with some folks to start a 270 Corridor (Rockville/Gaithersburg/Germantown) organization that would compete in WMYLC. Based on coaching availability it would probably start and focus on middle school aged boys with the possibility of expanding to younger ages and girls programs.

Is there anyone that would be interested in such an organization?

[Anonymous]

You might be better off joining up with one of the already existing rec programs in the area. Rec participation has fallen off a cliff since 2020. Finding parent volunteers to coach is even more difficult.

[Anonymous]

You can thank HOCO for this issue. Killed Rec and effectively all HS programs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can thank HOCO for this issue. Killed Rec and effectively all HS programs

What do you mean? That Hoco took all the red kids and basically created rec +?

[Anonymous]

Also how is there a HS program inpact?

[Anonymous]

You can look it up on these threads. Basically, when you kill volunteer run organizations you have less community involvement and lax becomes exclusive. Less players try it out and rec dies. Rec dies and there are less players to fill HS rosters. Don't look at the top end schools for evidence. You have to look at the whole picture

[Anonymous]

Look at Watkins Mill. They used to be a strong lacrosse school back when MVSA still existed and had youth lacrosse. Then MVSA ended all their sports except for volleyball and Watkins Mill went downhill athletically ever since.

There are other reasons for this decline as well but those are for different threads

[Anonymous]

HoCo didn't kill MoCo lax. MoCo killed MoCo lax. Their rules, regulation, pricing and any number of other issues prevent any kind of interest in the sport beyond joining a club.

I tried several years ago and had many meetings. It was mind numbingly awful to deal with MoCo. I don't know how to get you the information without sacrificing anonymity.

[Anonymous]

Moco certainly doesn’t make it easy to run a rec program. Finding adequate field space is tough. However even if you do get a rec program off the ground you can count on a large group of parents moving their kid into a club program to play hoco by 4th grade. Most rec teams don’t recover from that

[Anonymous]

You have to follow the BLC model.

[Anonymous]

It's looking more likely that we are going to get this started. I have been in touch with people at Damascus and Bethesda to help with organization and paperwork. I have also been in touch with Montgomery Village about falling under their recreation umbrella. The ideal plan is to run a 2 week camp this summer and hopefully have enough interest to run a fall and spring rec program with a spring "travel" team that plays other local programs.

[Anonymous]

Good job. As one who has been particularly involved in these types of dealings, field space is the key to everything. NL because of their coaching relationships has locked up fields at STA, the Heights and the Wash Episcopal school. BLC wanders around a bit out in Potomac but they have good relationships. MadLax works very hard within the VA system and I don't know about Club Blue. Don't worry about cost. Build it from field space out and you will find people will come to you.

[Anonymous]

My kids are too old and locked into their clubs /schools at this point but really excited about this and wish you the best of luck! As others have mentioned field space is key but I do believe there are kids in that area that would sign up in a heartbeat.

[Anonymous]

Montgomery Village seems like they will give us exclusive field rights to South Valley Park which is essentially unused now that MV Chiefs has folded. It's a full size field with well maintained Bermuda grass and access to concessions and bathrooms.

[Anonymous]

We have had kids on our BLC and NL teams in past years who live up that way all saying the same thing. You should totally do it! Hopefully you can find some field space up there. With the ICC, getting to Howard county is pretty easy from Upcounty, so you might want to consider the HoCo league as well. Good luck!