2024 Girls Lax WCAC ISL Outlook
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| Happy birthday!! |
Anonymous
SSSA had an amazing season?? They lost to any good team they played. And the schedule was not difficult. Amazing would not be the word I’d use. |
Anonymous
Explain? |
Anonymous
I agree KJ needs to go but this couldn’t have been an SSSAS parent because we don’t call it SSAS or SSSA. But yes, let’s hope she retires with 2026. She’s not good for the program anymore. Lots of unhappy kids and parents. |
Anonymous
|
St. John’s by four today.
Then, St. John’s moves on from the divisive coach, and even worse administration. |
Anonymous
A two point loss in the VA state championship to a top 10 team nationally with almost all DI junior/senior starters is a "tough season"? I think every other team in VA would sign up for that run. |
Anonymous
| 2nd place in VA, but #6 in DMV behind GC, SR, Visi, SJC, is not considered success @ SSSA... |
Anonymous
|
Visi 5
SJC 1 end of 1st quarter |
Anonymous
I don't disagree. Most teams (although not the SSSAS teams from the past) would be happy with this outcome. My biggest complaint is the brand of lacrosse that they play. They don't just stall at the end of the game, rather it is all game. Possessions are like 4 or 5 minutes a clip at least. I saw the game yesterday, and it was frickin boring. It is not fun to watch, and I can't imagine it is fun for the girls. Our area desperately needs a shot clock to prepare girls for the college game. I can't tell if it is KJ or BL calling the shots on their plays, but please make it stop. Heard BL calling out "Circle" to spread out and slow it down. I guess now that the talent pool has spread out among so many schools, and not just Saints, that they feel like they need to play like this given their relative lack of athletes. I think it is fair to say that if there was a shot clock yesterday, STAB would have rolled over them. I really hope that the ISL and WCAC can find a way to have a shot clock in 2025 so we can have a better brand of lacrosse. |
Anonymous
|
Visi 7
SJC 3 halftime |
Anonymous
| Visi beats SJC 9-6 to win DCSAA championship. Visi better team today. SjC coach out coached by youth boys coach. Feel bad for the talented SJC Seniors who left it all out on the field, but were absolutely physically exhausted when Visi played stall ball. |
Anonymous
| That’s not really a reasonable perspective. The busy coach is in multiple lacrosse Hall of Fame locally and other places. He coached Rec, He coached a nationally ranked Mad lax Team for boys. And I would be willing to bet that through travel and rec, he has coached at over 20 D1 women’s lacrosse players. Don’t crap on your coach by crapping on mine. |
Anonymous
| Visi coach |
Anonymous
|
Visi 9
SJC 6 Final |
Anonymous
|
Any actual game report instead of coach criticizing? As to the STAB and SSSA game I saw yesterday, it was good, a lot of quality players on both sides, good coaching on both sides. Pretty clean game, referee calls the usual benefiting/hurting both teams and can quibble with calls but the players determined the outcome. Tie game at half. A Game of momentum, STAB out to 2-0 lead, then SSSA 3-2 with 8 meter near end of first half for chance to go up 4-2, but STAB D holds and STAB ends up scoring to stop the bleeding and ended up 3-3 at half. STAB had a steady 3rd quarter whereas SSSA doesn’t score and STAB up a couple into 4th. SSSA makes late run but not enough and 8-6 is a fair outcome that could have gone either way with a few possessions here and there outcome determinative. STAB has great size and length and had the better Offense. SSSA pretty balanced and had the better Defense. Both Goalies were excellent and that was even. Clearing game pretty even with some miscues on both sides. The difference in the game was the Draw and Circle GBs where STAB probably winning 75%, and that was the margin with STAB with more possessions and good probing dodges and effective overloads. Impressive 22-1 season for STAB only losing to GC, who objectively was the clear class of the DMV and deserves all their accolades. Also a good season for SSSA, with 18 wins and plenty of close games and a nice win against a talented Potomac team that is only getting better with real quality in their 25 and 26 squads. Don’t sleep on Potomac, whose worst loss was 5 goals to SSSA but the other 7 losses all by one or two goals against quality competition, including two one goal losses vs STAB. That will be a good team for at least the next couple years. Visi will be good again too next year as they work through the coaching transition, SR probably a step back with talent graduation and consecutive ISL championships, which is impressive and hard to do. SSSA also will be very good next year, and too early to tell if they will rise back to historic standards of top 10 and winning ISL. They have the potential. As for coaching staffs at these programs, every coaching staff gets criticized on this board, my guess is largely by parents whose kids aren’t getting playing time and who self-validate their frustration on this board by program bashing. No program is perfect, but the reality is that these are college prep level lax programs — if kids aren’t improving on their own through hours of weekly shooting, wall ball, reps, conditioning, all outside of team practice and games (and all of which is difficult on top of academics and a social life) they aren’t going to improve enough to assure their playing time. As a coach myself outside of lax, it is not hard to see who is putting in the time and who isn’t outside practice, and even when a hard worker may not be as talented as another, their higher compete factor and toughness often earns them more time than a player without that level of effort and without that mental positivity. Before you bash a program, ask whether your daughter is doing everything within her control to earn playing time and to make it hard on coaches to keep her on the the bench. If your daughter wants to play D1 lacrosse, get used to having to earn everything she gets at the college level, get used to tough coaching without coddling, and get used to multiple players vying for her position, with each year starting over to earn her spot again as the transfer portal is the new normal (with the exception of the Ivy’s). Getting comfortable with hard competition is one of the virtues of sport and preparing kids for reality of professional life, performing in a job and operating in an environment where mom and dad can’t solve their problems by complaining to their boss or posting negative messages on an anonymous chat board. As for the specific poster opinion about KJ, I’ll respectfully disagree. That coach has as experienced and credentialed a coaching staff as it gets at the high school level, with young former college players and mature former college coaches, and with a current college coaching network that produces consistent college placement results. That program is easy to envy. There are also nice girls on that team who have treated our teams respectfully. KJ and staff are good for DMV lax, as they schedule broadly, give VA publics a shot every year, bring college coaches to this area for girls in all programs to be seen, and they also travel to play. Just my opinion, but I’m rooting for all these local HS programs to keep DMV relevant nationally and to keep the competition and college placements flowing. I enjoy following local players and wish them well when they proudly represent the DMV on the national stage in college. That includes rooting for the success of the club teams too like CavLax, Cap, Pride, etc. I loved the days when BI was also a force and we had at least 3-4 teams in the top 25 every year. I like to see Visi and GC with competitive programs, along with up-and-comers like StJ. Lax is a great sport and these girls benefit tremendously from participating when taking a healthy perspective to the activity, with frustration, success and relationship building all being part of it. |