Having your kids enjoy sports and not sweating the small stuff will go a long way. They'll find their way and the results will surprise you. Not just theirs, but others'. Being there to play catch, kick a ball, shoot hoops, get them outside, give the occasional tip or better they'll learn through watching and osmosis. Make gut calls on participation as the club pressure ramps for any sport, find the right situation. You'll be enabling what's meant to be, not trying to force a situation that often blows up. |
You realize that there are two whole additional NCAA divisions plus NAIA. Some kids, mine included, have targeted D3s from the beginning. Ignoring the NAIA (couldn't find ready stats) and using the NCAA's reported numbers based on 2022-23, almost 14% of girls playing youth lacrosse will participate in college lacrosse (remember also that multisport athletes may choose to play their other sport rather than lacrosse). Broken down by division, 4.3% at D1 (so double your estimate), 3.2% at D2 and 6.3% at D3. https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2015/3/2/estimated-probability-of-competing-in-college-athletics.aspx And, by observation, there are a large number of girls with college-level talent but not the desire to play at the "varsity" level that elect to play club in college. |
Sorry to hear they weren't included. You have the Dulles South program and their below average dad coaches to thank for all of this. They got their Karma and will continue to get theirs. |
As a dad who arranged multiple fall brawl teams over the years I want to urge some sympathy for the coaches. Fall brawl is 7 on 7 with 25 minute games. Getting 12 kids playing time is hard getting 16 kids playing time is impossible especially with younger players. Every year I had to make choices on who to invite and those choices weren’t easy. Ultimately I thought picking the best players with the nicest families was the best and fairest way to go. |
+1 It is not practical to hold tryouts for a one-time, off season event like fall brawl, so even in the classy programs (i.e., not Dulles South), coaches are forced to pick 12 players from 40+ in the age group, often on short notice. naturally coaches will choose kids they know, who are usually their sons' friends, and coaches' sons are typically the most enthusiastic and/or better players. So it just happens organically. anyone have a recommendation on how rec programs would choose their fall brawl teams in an ideal world? |
Next year, pretty early on, try to get a core group of players together, figure out if one your dads can coach (or try to find a non dad coach to do it) and don't hesitate to lock up players (including the stronger ones) before the other dad group can. In order for this to work you have to be selective and discrete about it, to the point where the other dads find out after it's too late. That's what they're doing to you all and they only way this becomes fair. |
great idea, but it doesn't solve the problem, it just pushes it to someone else. the Moms of the kids in the first Dads' group or in neither group will still come on DCUM and whine that their kids were excluded by mean dirtball Dads. |
This is basically it. As an assistant on a nonDS team. We sent an email out to the kids on our roster that were eligible from the spring. We compiled a list of those kids that were interested and then went from there and sought out kids that had some connection to our kids to see if they wanted to play. I wrote earlier, you need to take some initiative. Maybe a program acts like DS but most are just trying to fill out the roster. Having a tryout is absurd. Our team couldn't even get enough kids or available time to even have a practice. |
| All the hate for DS? Looks like they won 2 divisions or half the divisions in both the boys and girls' fall brawl events. So I guess the talent is not falling after all but still on the rise. It also appears that Lightridge HS which is totally a feeder program from DS won both boys and girls' divisions in HS. I guess DS is the dominant program at Fall Brawl. Haters are gonna hate. |
| Fall Brawl hahaha |
you sound like a Dulles South insider - do you know what the program going to do about the coach who refused to shake hands and berated the kids and coaches from a team that had just beaten DS? Nobody has a problem with DS winning more than their share. The problem is the awful sportsmanship that their coaches have shown for years, and the fact that the program almost seems to applaud it. |
We emailed all eligible players from last Spring inviting them to participate. Many had competing soccer tournaments that weekend or other plans. Any player who wanted to be on the Fall Brawl team was given a spot. No tryouts, no choosing from the roster - if there are enough players for two teams, you make two teams. |
if one program is allowed to enter more than one team, then nobody can really say they are excluded. Just round up some players and a Dad to coach and enter your own team. |
Lightridge Boys were in the 3rd-Tier Division and while they played well and went undefeated, 3 of their opponents were the "B/JV" Teams from Robinson, Oakton and Freedom. They are certainly on the rise, but no where near the top of Virginia Public HS Lax. |
Sure but considering the other DS feeder schools are Freedom PVI and Indy the claim stands. |