2028 Girls Lacrosse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Entirely possible Pride was not welcome at the Indoor Championships this year.

Last year Katie did not even notify 27R families about the event until a few days prior (right as everyone was returning from holiday break) so there were not enough players available to attend.

Seems she never officially pulled the team out of the tournament either so Pride remained on the tournament schedule and all the games were marked/scored as forfeits.

Ouch - not a good look.

There are folks on this site that would blame the Pride club director for the Kennedy assassination, the housing crash, and pretty much anything else they don't like.

Who else but Pride parents would do this?

Pride parents seem pretty happy with the club. It's former Pride folks and gawkers that like to criticize.

My daughter played with Pride for years before moving on to greener pastures in high school. The biggest issue is they have far more teams than they have good coaches. Capital, for example, only has 6 teams (2 per year). It’s much easier to find 6 coaches than it is to find 40 which is roughly what she needs across all the age groups and teams. As a result, many teams are poorly coached, or use stand-ins so at least someone is on the sidelines. Kids don’t learn to play the correct way, and you end up spending a lot of money on what amounts to a slightly better rec. team. My thought is that the income generated from all these teams is too hard to turn down so the mediocre lacrosse play and instruction continues.

Well at the very least, the Pride alums on current Capital teams learned to play the correct way. Is there another MS program better represented on current Capital teams (in total) than Pride?

Most if not all Pride players that make Capital have a parent/sibling that played or were doing a lot of work outside of Pride with former college players that could give them what they needed to succeed. It didn't come from Pride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Entirely possible Pride was not welcome at the Indoor Championships this year.

Last year Katie did not even notify 27R families about the event until a few days prior (right as everyone was returning from holiday break) so there were not enough players available to attend.

Seems she never officially pulled the team out of the tournament either so Pride remained on the tournament schedule and all the games were marked/scored as forfeits.

Ouch - not a good look.

There are folks on this site that would blame the Pride club director for the Kennedy assassination, the housing crash, and pretty much anything else they don't like.

Who else but Pride parents would do this?

Pride parents seem pretty happy with the club. It's former Pride folks and gawkers that like to criticize.

My daughter played with Pride for years before moving on to greener pastures in high school. The biggest issue is they have far more teams than they have good coaches. Capital, for example, only has 6 teams (2 per year). It’s much easier to find 6 coaches than it is to find 40 which is roughly what she needs across all the age groups and teams. As a result, many teams are poorly coached, or use stand-ins so at least someone is on the sidelines. Kids don’t learn to play the correct way, and you end up spending a lot of money on what amounts to a slightly better rec. team. My thought is that the income generated from all these teams is too hard to turn down so the mediocre lacrosse play and instruction continues.

Well at the very least, the Pride alums on current Capital teams learned to play the correct way. Is there another MS program better represented on current Capital teams (in total) than Pride?

Most if not all Pride players that make Capital have a parent/sibling that played or were doing a lot of work outside of Pride with former college players that could give them what they needed to succeed. It didn't come from Pride.

New flash: high level lacrosse players do a lot of work outside of their club teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Entirely possible Pride was not welcome at the Indoor Championships this year.

Last year Katie did not even notify 27R families about the event until a few days prior (right as everyone was returning from holiday break) so there were not enough players available to attend.

Seems she never officially pulled the team out of the tournament either so Pride remained on the tournament schedule and all the games were marked/scored as forfeits.

Ouch - not a good look.

There are folks on this site that would blame the Pride club director for the Kennedy assassination, the housing crash, and pretty much anything else they don't like.

Who else but Pride parents would do this?

Pride parents seem pretty happy with the club. It's former Pride folks and gawkers that like to criticize.

My daughter played with Pride for years before moving on to greener pastures in high school. The biggest issue is they have far more teams than they have good coaches. Capital, for example, only has 6 teams (2 per year). It’s much easier to find 6 coaches than it is to find 40 which is roughly what she needs across all the age groups and teams. As a result, many teams are poorly coached, or use stand-ins so at least someone is on the sidelines. Kids don’t learn to play the correct way, and you end up spending a lot of money on what amounts to a slightly better rec. team. My thought is that the income generated from all these teams is too hard to turn down so the mediocre lacrosse play and instruction continues.

Well at the very least, the Pride alums on current Capital teams learned to play the correct way. Is there another MS program better represented on current Capital teams (in total) than Pride?

Most if not all Pride players that make Capital have a parent/sibling that played or were doing a lot of work outside of Pride with former college players that could give them what they needed to succeed. It didn't come from Pride.

Doing outside work of organized practices is a core tenet at Pride. Perhaps the other clubs would be more successful if they stressed outside work in the same way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Entirely possible Pride was not welcome at the Indoor Championships this year.

Last year Katie did not even notify 27R families about the event until a few days prior (right as everyone was returning from holiday break) so there were not enough players available to attend.

Seems she never officially pulled the team out of the tournament either so Pride remained on the tournament schedule and all the games were marked/scored as forfeits.

Ouch - not a good look.

There are folks on this site that would blame the Pride club director for the Kennedy assassination, the housing crash, and pretty much anything else they don't like.

Who else but Pride parents would do this?

Pride parents seem pretty happy with the club. It's former Pride folks and gawkers that like to criticize.

My daughter played with Pride for years before moving on to greener pastures in high school. The biggest issue is they have far more teams than they have good coaches. Capital, for example, only has 6 teams (2 per year). It’s much easier to find 6 coaches than it is to find 40 which is roughly what she needs across all the age groups and teams. As a result, many teams are poorly coached, or use stand-ins so at least someone is on the sidelines. Kids don’t learn to play the correct way, and you end up spending a lot of money on what amounts to a slightly better rec. team. My thought is that the income generated from all these teams is too hard to turn down so the mediocre lacrosse play and instruction continues.

Well at the very least, the Pride alums on current Capital teams learned to play the correct way. Is there another MS program better represented on current Capital teams (in total) than Pride?

Most if not all Pride players that make Capital have a parent/sibling that played or were doing a lot of work outside of Pride with former college players that could give them what they needed to succeed. It didn't come from Pride.

I'm guessing it didn't hurt to play with other talented girls who push them in practice, not to mention competing against the top clubs in the country in NGLL and Fall and Summer tournaments starting in 5th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Entirely possible Pride was not welcome at the Indoor Championships this year.

Last year Katie did not even notify 27R families about the event until a few days prior (right as everyone was returning from holiday break) so there were not enough players available to attend.

Seems she never officially pulled the team out of the tournament either so Pride remained on the tournament schedule and all the games were marked/scored as forfeits.

Ouch - not a good look.

There are folks on this site that would blame the Pride club director for the Kennedy assassination, the housing crash, and pretty much anything else they don't like.

Who else but Pride parents would do this?

Pride parents seem pretty happy with the club. It's former Pride folks and gawkers that like to criticize.

My daughter played with Pride for years before moving on to greener pastures in high school. The biggest issue is they have far more teams than they have good coaches. Capital, for example, only has 6 teams (2 per year). It’s much easier to find 6 coaches than it is to find 40 which is roughly what she needs across all the age groups and teams. As a result, many teams are poorly coached, or use stand-ins so at least someone is on the sidelines. Kids don’t learn to play the correct way, and you end up spending a lot of money on what amounts to a slightly better rec. team. My thought is that the income generated from all these teams is too hard to turn down so the mediocre lacrosse play and instruction continues.

Well at the very least, the Pride alums on current Capital teams learned to play the correct way. Is there another MS program better represented on current Capital teams (in total) than Pride?

Most if not all Pride players that make Capital have a parent/sibling that played or were doing a lot of work outside of Pride with former college players that could give them what they needed to succeed. It didn't come from Pride.

Wow. I guess I really hampered by DD's chances by having her try out for the most successful team in the area, and not playing a sport that didn't exist where I grew up, or having an older sibling for her. Big fail.

[Anonymous]

Agree with OP that Pride doesn’t do much development and has many poor coaches. Playing the top teams in Baltimore (and always getting beat) does help players grow though so there is that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with OP that Pride doesn’t do much development and has many poor coaches. Playing the top teams in Baltimore (and always getting beat) does help players grow though so there is that.

Pride isn't a great program, but considering the alternatives, it’s probably number 1 for middle school girls lacrosse. That says more about how weak the other programs are than how great Pride is..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with OP that Pride doesn’t do much development and has many poor coaches. Playing the top teams in Baltimore (and always getting beat) does help players grow though so there is that.

Pride isn't a great program, but considering the alternatives, it’s probably number 1 for middle school girls lacrosse. That says more about how weak the other programs are than how great Pride is..

This rings true. The other local programs at 2028 have really gone downhill. NL, BLC and MC Elite are not very good programs and I’d only put Stars slightly ahead of these clubs and definitely a tier or two down from Pride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with OP that Pride doesn’t do much development and has many poor coaches. Playing the top teams in Baltimore (and always getting beat) does help players grow though so there is that.

Pride isn't a great program, but considering the alternatives, it’s probably number 1 for middle school girls lacrosse. That says more about how weak the other programs are than how great Pride is..

From the view of a 2026 parent of a Baltimore kid, Pride 2026 was a great team and very well-coached. This is before many of the players were pulled into Capital. After about 6th grade, most advancement in skill is coming from outside work alone or with trainers. It's too time-consuming to focus on becoming a more accurate shooter and better dodger in practice beacuse it takes a ton of reps for each. I think people on this board crap on your own teams way too much. Outside of maybe 1 program in Baltimore, the rest operate more or less like is described here for Pride.

[Anonymous]

Aren’t the Pride 28’s ranked #14 in the country? That isn’t average.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t the Pride 28’s ranked #14 in the country? That isn’t average.

I probably would not hang my hat on a fall ranking, but point taken. Recent competitive play against top teams puts them in a tier well above average. Prior Pride teams have followed the same model, slowly improving over the years and peaking in 8th grade before being decimated by a Capital exodus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t the Pride 28’s ranked #14 in the country? That isn’t average.

I probably would not hang my hat on a fall ranking, but point taken. Recent competitive play against top teams puts them in a tier well above average. Prior Pride teams have followed the same model, slowly improving over the years and peaking in 8th grade before being decimated by a Capital exodus.

Many Pride 25s, 26s and 27s left for Capital because they saw the 23s and 24s (who elected to stay together at Pride HS) generate underwhelming recruiting results. 24s were already in the Pride pipeline by the time the window opened for the 23s, but the 25s saw what happened to the 23s in real time and led the Capital exodus that’s happened since.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t the Pride 28’s ranked #14 in the country? That isn’t average.

I probably would not hang my hat on a fall ranking, but point taken. Recent competitive play against top teams puts them in a tier well above average. Prior Pride teams have followed the same model, slowly improving over the years and peaking in 8th grade before being decimated by a Capital exodus.

As a 2028 parent, I guess I'm struggling to see what the complaint or concern is. Seems like this group is talking in circles. What is exactly is so bad about a team that is started at a solid level and is showing steady improvement, provides the opportunity to compete against the top teams in the country, has excellent new coaches who played D1 and coach high school, offers great teammates and families, and allows for a punchers' chance to compete for Capital or stay on a solid club in high school? What else should one expect from a middle school lacrosse club?
Our family is really happy with Pride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t the Pride 28’s ranked #14 in the country? That isn’t average.

I probably would not hang my hat on a fall ranking, but point taken. Recent competitive play against top teams puts them in a tier well above average. Prior Pride teams have followed the same model, slowly improving over the years and peaking in 8th grade before being decimated by a Capital exodus.

As a 2028 parent, I guess I'm struggling to see what the complaint or concern is. Seems like this group is talking in circles. What is exactly is so bad about a team that is started at a solid level and is showing steady improvement, provides the opportunity to compete against the top teams in the country, has excellent new coaches who played D1 and coach high school, offers great teammates and families, and allows for a punchers' chance to compete for Capital or stay on a solid club in high school? What else should one expect from a middle school lacrosse club?
Our family is really happy with Pride.

How an organization treats its lowest members says more about them then how they treat the top people. Who out there feels their daughter is on a great B team with great coaches and supportive organizational culture?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t the Pride 28’s ranked #14 in the country? That isn’t average.

I probably would not hang my hat on a fall ranking, but point taken. Recent competitive play against top teams puts them in a tier well above average. Prior Pride teams have followed the same model, slowly improving over the years and peaking in 8th grade before being decimated by a Capital exodus.

Many Pride 25s, 26s and 27s left for Capital because they saw the 23s and 24s (who elected to stay together at Pride HS) generate underwhelming recruiting results. 24s were already in the Pride pipeline by the time the window opened for the 23s, but the 25s saw what happened to the 23s in real time and led the Capital exodus that’s happened since.

This is exactly what happened. I feel bad for the 2023 families who made the commitment to stay with Pride that year and help KM launch her HS program. Some bad luck with the club’s recruiting director leaving at a key time to take a head coaching job at American, coupled with a really bad replacement hire. Without the recruiting history of Capital and really no direction provided to those families on how to work the recruiting process it took longer than it should have for talent on that team to commit. That 2023 team was loaded, had some of the best talent in that class, and was very competitive in the highest brackets. I believe the team had 3-4 High School Players of the Year on it from various private and public school programs and many All Mets. The way KM handled that class killed the future of her high school program.