lax culture from an insider

[Anonymous]

So, previous poster, you managed to work in that you played lax at UVA and that you made All-American. But, then you disparage other folks who are supporting their kids who would like to follow in your footsteps. Hmm. Lacrosse is a popular sport in this area, which is heavily populated with type A overachievers. Not surprising to me that it is competitive among kids and parents to get a D1 spot. That the prior poster graduated from UVA and cannot appreciate how market forces work or how charmed his lax life may have been is pretty disappointing.

[Anonymous]

Read it. I "managed to work in" that I made All-American at UVA. It was not in lacrosse. I pointed out to you that it was a running joke that half a dozen lax bros made All-America, which in that era was a pretty light accomplishment considering how sparse the sport was at the D1 level (and still is). Do you have any idea how hard it is to be one of the 2-3 best in America in a real sport like women's basketball or men's soccer, swimming, football, etc.? 300-400 programs in those sports.

This area has a lot of type A need machine parents and rich kids who want a tainted ride to the top fraught with mommy and daddy enablers to get them there. If your son's dream is to play lax at Monmouth or Cleveland State which at D1 or sit on the bench at UVA on a $1000 a year partial ride after you paid two hundred grand for a lacrosse prep school, then to each his own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can still remember standing next to Dawn Staley, a legend in her own time in women's basketball, when she asked "if lacrosse is a sport that has a line-up card of 10 players like soccer, how is is even possible for one team to have 6?" One women's field hockey player next to her said loud enough for the lax bros to hear "because there are only 10 scholarship teams in D1 and it is not even a real sport." True.

Great story. You know, of course, that women's field hockey has 12 scholarships to spread around a team (same as women's field hockey), and men's D1 lacrosse has 12.6 scholarships to share. I'm really sure a women's field hockey player said that.

Nice, made-up story. Get a life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can still remember standing next to Dawn Staley, a legend in her own time in women's basketball, when she asked "if lacrosse is a sport that has a line-up card of 10 players like soccer, how is is even possible for one team to have 6?" One women's field hockey player next to her said loud enough for the lax bros to hear "because there are only 10 scholarship teams in D1 and it is not even a real sport." True.

Great story. You know, of course, that women's field hockey has 12 scholarships to spread around a team (same as women's field hockey), and men's D1 lacrosse has 12.6 scholarships to share. I'm really sure a women's field hockey player said that.

Nice, made-up story. Get a life.

The small brains feed the beast.

You know, there were are are over 300 varsity women's field hockey teams...not a snarky comment about lacrosse money versus field hockey money, but rather the sport. Making All America in the 1980s in men's lacrosse was a modest bump over getting a varsity letter. I have a life, thank you very much.

Whatever gets you through the day mommy-oooohhhh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read it. I "managed to work in" that I made All-American at UVA. It was not in lacrosse. I pointed out to you that it was a running joke that half a dozen lax bros made All-America, which in that era was a pretty light accomplishment considering how sparse the sport was at the D1 level (and still is). Do you have any idea how hard it is to be one of the 2-3 best in America in a real sport like women's basketball or men's soccer, swimming, football, etc.? 300-400 programs in those sports.

This area has a lot of type A need machine parents and rich kids who want a tainted ride to the top fraught with mommy and daddy enablers to get them there. If your son's dream is to play lax at Monmouth or Cleveland State which at D1 or sit on the bench at UVA on a $1000 a year partial ride after you paid two hundred grand for a lacrosse prep school, then to each his own.

Interesting response. So if someone chooses a real sport and gets real money, it is worth it? Is that the gist? I know plenty of people who did not make All-American or get real money for playing a sport in college. They played it because they thought it was worth the time and effort. Maybe that opportunity is the driver for many of the local lax wannabes. My son plays d3 lax and does so without any pretense of scholarship or All-American selection. He takes great pride in being on a good d3 team at a strong academic school. Prior poster's disdain for college lacrosse is not a relevant insight for most kids trying to get into a D1 program. The tone and snark indicate someone who finds the rising popularity of lax to be disturbing or even insulting. In truth, outside big time football and basketball, most college athletes will never get a monetary return on the investment of time or money in the sport.

[Anonymous]

In my last year in the 90s women's field hockey and women's soccer both were fully funded and only fractional scholar shipped. The only full rider sports for all were football, and men's + women's basketball. So chasing the money if you were not Bryant Stith or Dawn Staley or the like in those sports, there wasn't big money or a career. We all knew that. Only the lacrosse guys seemed to brag about making All America. The funny part there is in that sport at that time there were less than a dozen funded D1 programs. You had to be better than about 4 guys you used to play against in prep school was all. It isn't a real sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can still remember standing next to Dawn Staley, a legend in her own time in women's basketball, when she asked "if lacrosse is a sport that has a line-up card of 10 players like soccer, how is is even possible for one team to have 6?" One women's field hockey player next to her said loud enough for the lax bros to hear "because there are only 10 scholarship teams in D1 and it is not even a real sport." True.

Great story. You know, of course, that women's field hockey has 12 scholarships to spread around a team (same as women's field hockey), and men's D1 lacrosse has 12.6 scholarships to share. I'm really sure a women's field hockey player said that.

Nice, made-up story. Get a life.

The small brains feed the beast.

You know, there were are are over 300 varsity women's field hockey teams...not a snarky comment about lacrosse money versus field hockey money, but rather the sport. Making All America in the 1980s in men's lacrosse was a modest bump over getting a varsity letter. I have a life, thank you very much.

Whatever gets you through the day mommy-oooohhhh.

You have some serious anger issues.

The point which whizzed over your head is that both are niche, non-revenue sports that are minuscule compared to football and basketball. Some clearly your story is completely made up.

Even if it weren't, there's zero point to your story other than some weird bragging about your UVA days. Bizarre.

[Anonymous]

I did a sport at UNC a generation ago, and concur that this generation takes this stuff way to seriously. I got about a 1/3rd scholarship in a men's non-revenue sport which was at the higher end of the range, and that number was subject to going up with some performance during the 4 years. I finished at about a 40% of tuition scholarship in the final year.

I think the points made questioning the strategy of spending tens of thousands on club sports and tens of thousands more on private school tuitions are the wrong reasons to be spending money to have kids do sports or go to private schools. It's kind of a shame parents today are making sports a business for their kids.

I also was a trustee at a NE boarding school until a couple years ago that has sold its soul to patronize sports related PGs and repeat 11th graders. A generation ago my alma mater prep took less than 5 PGs a year, always boys and always sports related. Now the school is taking 30 PGs a year and is basically also taking 30 new juniors a year who are mostly repeaters for 11th grade and almost all of these are sports related as well. The other big difference besides just the growth of the numbers is about half these PGs and repeaters are girls repeating for sports reasons. This is a school on everyone's prestige list and it has basically sunk to the level of making the school a business model to take tuition paying families who want to max out a kid's college sports placement.

I think the prior poster showed some manners problems but made some valid points. How many parents today who have kids playing club or also the Gonzaga, PVI, Prep, Landon, etc. can honestly face themselves and say they are doing all of this because their kid is passionate about a sport and wants to have fun? If parents were more self reflective, boarding schools and prep schools wouldn't be preying as much on them for a second mortgage handed over to play a sport. Kids used to go to Andover, Deerfield, etc. because they were great schools and only took great students. That isn't the case anymore there or here at the private schools in the DMV. Why not just drop all pretense and send your kid to the IMG academy where he or she can get a high school equivalency on Skype and be the best that way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Next Level 8th grade team is dominating thus far. Has killed Club Blue and Mad Lax Maryland!

That's really not saying much ...

Their top 2020 team plays in a high school league and is dominating. The b team has good coaches ,better than mitchell in my mind, but has only has one win, over madlax md

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Next Level 8th grade team is dominating thus far. Has killed Club Blue and Mad Lax Maryland!

That's really not saying much ...

Their top 2020 team plays in a high school league and is dominating. The b team has good coaches ,better than mitchell in my mind, but has only has one win, over madlax md

The competition they are playing is terrible. They are a decent team, not a great one. When they played good 2020 teams in the spring, they got pummeled.

[Anonymous]

So I need to keep asking- where are all the good players in the 2020-2022 range? They aren't in the NL league these days so it makes it seem like there are only 3-4 teams per grade that are any good. It wasn't this thin a few years back. What's going on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I need to keep asking- where are all the good players in the 2020-2022 range? They aren't in the NL league these days so it makes it seem like there are only 3-4 teams per grade that are any good. It wasn't this thin a few years back. What's going on?

Playing other fall sports. The top 2022 team is just doing fall workouts and no game or tournaments this fall.

[Anonymous]

NL 2020 team destroyed Mad Lax Maryland already and club blue. The games were not even close.

The NL 2020 team was very strong last year in the NPYLL. They were the best local team in the DC area last year (lost to the Crabs twice) beat beat Mad Lax Capital / Orange (whatever they call themselves) and destroyed Club a Blue.

The team is even stronger this Fall as some of the kids who were on the team last year have now moved down to the NL 2020 B team as several new kids from other clubs (Bethesdsa and Club a Blue) came over.

NL 2020 and VLC 2020 are probably the best in the area this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I need to keep asking- where are all the good players in the 2020-2022 range? They aren't in the NL league these days so it makes it seem like there are only 3-4 teams per grade that are any good. It wasn't this thin a few years back. What's going on?

VLC 2020 will be the next big thing when they hit high school. And VLC 2021 has a few boys who are already clearly early D1 commits. Flame away. But I have been involved in the scene long enough to know this stuff.

[Anonymous]

7th graders who are already clearly D1 recruits?

That is both asinine and stupid to say. I feel bad for kids who play this sport at the youth levels. Lacrosse parents and scumbag club guys ruin it for the kids. I am sure you've been around to know some 8th graders are the new big thing and will unfortunately stick around long enough to see 5th graders worried about being recruited for college. Loser.