Which M&D Black was the best you’ve seen as 3rd or 4th graders? Did they go on to be dominant year after year? |
They have a high number but definitely not all. But anyway, I think that is part of it but far too simplistic and not why they are currently unmatched by other ‘34 teams. They are very hard charging, in terms of aggressive play and in terms of practicing and player expectations. Without that, I don’t think there would be as big of a gap. They also do not have equal playing time, I hear. I heard they have literal bench warmers or close. So that can be a nice advantage against say a Hero’s who does equal playing time. They will be an excellent test case to see what happens in the coming years. Do a few girls defect (or more), can they replace them, does the whole team switch clubs (the only tie to HoCo is the director’s daughter is on the team but…[don’t want to talk about individual kids]), to what extent does the playing field level and their advantage become far less outsized, do any of those girls burn out, etc.? |
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Looking at the NGLL scores:
Can MDU ‘35 East consider not annihilating B teams or teams with lots of ‘36s or teams that stuck a willing but completely untrained and unprepared girl in goal—like 25-0? That’s really deflating for those teams’ girls and completely unnecessary. NGLL has a 10 goal limit for goals for differential for a reason. To discourage demolishing teams in league play when the youngest age group does not split into A and B. |
| MDU 35 can play HOCO 34 if they want a real game. They would lose 100-0. |
It was the 2033 team but as 4th graders. So last year. Not sure if that will stay the same year after year though. |
M&D Black 2033 went 2-6 in the NGLL A division last year. M&D DC Black 2033 went 6-2 in the B division. You might be thinking of a different team. |
I was gonna say the same, that M&D ‘33 Black wasn’t a top team last year. Now that there’s a ‘33 Red team, the Black is looking better and off to a stronger start this year. |
I appreciate the sentiment but it wasn’t the M&D DC team. It was M&D Black. It was before NGLL at a fall tournament. I had never seen a team that young settle the ball and set up around the 8 like that. It was like watching a HS game. And somehow all the kids knew to spread out. Amazing! |
Sometimes the teams that do best in that first NGLL year are the ones that just/mostly have an athletic girl or, better yet, two run down and score. The coach and parents celebrate that as good lacrosse and are like we are so good, look at our wins. Then there are some teams who try to start the focus on really playing the beginnings of long-term lacrosse in that first year of club play. That doesn’t pay early dividends because most girls can’t throw and catch for sh*t yet, and it ends up in lots of turnovers. But if they’re quietly working on throwing and catching…. Maybe that’s what you saw. The other potential is that times are a changing, and first-year teams just are better/different than what they were 5-10 years ago. |
| Fall tourneys is early for a team to be doing that. I’ve found that there just aren’t enough practices to be able to get to things like that until you’re well into NGLL. So much to get to, when you basically still need hours upon hours just focused on passing/catching. |
They have an excellent, experienced, dedicated and slightly psychotic coach |
I didn’t want to say it lol. She has a reputation from coaching at Century HS. How that’s viewed is certainly eye of the beholder. I think it’s a match for certain parents and kids, but definitely not for others? From the ‘34 team, all I know is we were at a game last year (so their first NGLL year) where they were playing a B team of a club at the outset of the season and the coach was very intense, screaming at the refs about calling fouls on the team’s aggressive riding and defense. They were probably up by a lot already at that point or it was clear it was going to be an extreme mismatch, with girls on the B team with lower level stick skills and cradling and confidence. The swarming and aggressive defense was overwhelming them. I don’t recall if the coach was right or not about the calls, but I know I was shocked by her behavior. Not sure I’d be shocked now. |
| HOCO 34 will get no less than 20 full ride D1 college scholarships |
Thanks for the prediction for these 10 year olds. This will be a superhuman feat when they don’t have 20 on their roster. Is this your prediction for the girls on the current roster—we can check in on them after they find their way to other clubs—or the girls that are with Hoco ‘34 come recruitment year? Honestly D1 is not always saying much. There are some poo poo quality D1 teams. High school teams in Maryland could beat many. And teams like Hero’s White have 3/4 of their teams go D1. |
| Prediction: Hero’s will end up overtaking HOCO |