lax culture from an insider

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Black Wolves just added teams that are in this range. Neither they nor VLC plays in the NL league. They just practice in the fall. Playing games at this point is really just a waste of time for the real-deal lacrosse players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

Thank you for the thoughtful post. The background on the prep school world is interesting, and I loved this phrase: "the prior poster showed some manners problems." What a civilized way to put it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Black Wolves just added teams that are in this range. Neither they nor VLC plays in the NL league. They just practice in the fall. Playing games at this point is really just a waste of time for the real-deal lacrosse players.

Can you explain what you mean by "playing games at this point is really a waste of time"? I'm taking it to mean that they are practicing so heavily that they don't have time to play other teams, but that doesn't seem to make sense to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Black Wolves just added teams that are in this range. Neither they nor VLC plays in the NL league. They just practice in the fall. Playing games at this point is really just a waste of time for the real-deal lacrosse players.

Can you explain what you mean by "playing games at this point is really a waste of time"? I'm taking it to mean that they are practicing so heavily that they don't have time to play other teams, but that doesn't seem to make sense to me.

I have had two different sons, on two different teams, do it two different ways. One son just played games in the fall. No practices. So the games were sloppy, with no real team play. My other son just had practices in the fall. The focus was on running plays and game strategy. It was frustrating for my second son not to play games in the fall. But he was a much better player because of the experience, and his team was so much better than my other son's team as a result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Black Wolves just added teams that are in this range. Neither they nor VLC plays in the NL league. They just practice in the fall. Playing games at this point is really just a waste of time for the real-deal lacrosse players.

Can you explain what you mean by "playing games at this point is really a waste of time"? I'm taking it to mean that they are practicing so heavily that they don't have time to play other teams, but that doesn't seem to make sense to me.

Blackwolf actually just has a 2017, 2018 and 2019 team. They said they were going to have MS teams, but apparently couldn't poach enough kids. Playing games is fine, but it's not necessary to play game all year round, especially if you are playing football or other fall sports.

I understand why some HS teams play in the fall since they are trying to build chemistry for the spring. But Madlax puts together combo teams just for the fall, which seems odd.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the thoughtful post. The background on the prep school world is interesting, and I loved this phrase: "the prior poster showed some manners problems." What a civilized way to put it!

You're welcome. I hope what I contribute is a perspective worth taking in as an inside opinion. It pained and disgusted me to serve the last year as a trustee in spring 2014 at a top NE boarding school I also attended and earlier sent two kid through. Ten years ago I would have endorsed with enthusiasm making the financial sacrifice to have a kid attend one of the Big 4 or the Group of 10, but now the ones who do a high volume PG years and take in a high volume of repeat 11th graders have changed that. Today if a kid is a good enough athlete in lacrosse, and is pledged to Duke, Notre Dame, UVA, or another strong university boarding schools want to patronize that. Those are full paying families with kids who are bespoke to colleges that certainly won't hurt the college matriculation tables and in fact make for no maintenance or efforts by the boarding schools to make a difference for a kid to place into a good college. It's a good business decision in terms of the fiscal side, but I also served with one trustee who had a son play lacrosse at this same prep. He was a good player but never got to play as a junior or as a senior. His senior year there were 7 PGs at attack all pledged to top college programs. Imagine having junior go to Landon and wait his turn only to never play for that reason, and then also imagine paying twice as much for tuition and boarding. It has ruined the psyche of young people involved in sports, and is a callous way for an institution to be administered. I went to the Deerfield Andover game last spring to see a colleagues son's game and wanted to throw up in my mouth. Half the kids in his senior day picture were hit and run PG kids finishing up a repeat year with little buy in to the school or the program (the body language made this obvious to us all), and the boy only got into his senior day game for one possession because the team was in a tight game and wanted to keep the future Duke and Notre Dame players out there. This only validated my disdain for how hard these schools have fallen for a sports based business model. It is very sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My son plays for VLC 2020, and I agree they're a talented bunch of kids but they've still got a way to go to gel as a team and get better on both sides of the ball. We scrimmage the Crabs later this month; that will be a good litmus test to see where they stack up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Can you explain what you mean by "playing games at this point is really a waste of time"? I'm taking it to mean that they are practicing so heavily that they don't have time to play other teams, but that doesn't seem to make sense to me.

Can't speak for Blackwolf, but for VLC Fall ball isn't just all practices. We've got two tournaments lined up, and a scrimmage as well. Not in league play, but the team will face some good competition this Fall. Lots of kids play other sports like football in Fall, so with limited time the focus is more on skill development and fundamentals, which can be better covered in practice vs. games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blackwolf actually just has a 2017, 2018 and 2019 team. They said they were going to have MS teams, but apparently couldn't poach enough kids. Playing games is fine, but it's not necessary to play game all year round, especially if you are playing football or other fall sports.

I understand why some HS teams play in the fall since they are trying to build chemistry for the spring. But Madlax puts together combo teams just for the fall, which seems odd.

I suspect Madlax put together combo teams and has tryouts per season for a couple of reasons:

1) Tryout fees
2) Potential to attract talent and improve the team season to season

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blackwolf actually just has a 2017, 2018 and 2019 team. They said they were going to have MS teams, but apparently couldn't poach enough kids. Playing games is fine, but it's not necessary to play game all year round, especially if you are playing football or other fall sports.

I understand why some HS teams play in the fall since they are trying to build chemistry for the spring. But Madlax puts together combo teams just for the fall, which seems odd.

I suspect Madlax put together combo teams and has tryouts per season for a couple of reasons:

1) Tryout fees
2) Potential to attract talent and improve the team season to season

Agree on 2. But Cablell needs to trim the herd even more. Too many longtime Madlax families still clinging to the dream of college play. They need to see the light and stop spending time and money on a fading dream.

[Anonymous]

Kids used to go to Andover, Deerfield, etc. because they were great schools and only took great students

Not true... You know that our schools have been simply serving the wealthy for years. Tradition and shipping kids alway from peers yes, but "took great student" ????

Great is correlated with wealthy not ability.

Maybe you are just figuring it out now ... it is a business ... It has always been a business, that is not new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blackwolf actually just has a 2017, 2018 and 2019 team. They said they were going to have MS teams, but apparently couldn't poach enough kids. Playing games is fine, but it's not necessary to play game all year round, especially if you are playing football or other fall sports.

I understand why some HS teams play in the fall since they are trying to build chemistry for the spring. But Madlax puts together combo teams just for the fall, which seems odd.

I suspect Madlax put together combo teams and has tryouts per season for a couple of reasons:

1) Tryout fees
2) Potential to attract talent and improve the team season to season

As a parent with a kid playing in college who played for Madlax before finding a much better alternative, it is #1 all the way and not really #2. It was frustrating that we had to go through a tryout every season when 95% of the team was already set. There would maybe 1 or 2 different faces because someone dropped out or was replaced, but it didn't seem worth the time and trouble to have a tryout when every other club just had an annual tryout.

[Anonymous]

Tryouts every season? That's kind of crazy, but it makes sense the more I learn about the guy. It's a great way to keep the kids in fear and the parents in ass-kissing mode.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tryouts every season? That's kind of crazy, but it makes sense the more I learn about the guy. It's a great way to keep the kids in fear and the parents in ass-kissing mode.

Don't forget how he makes you pay a quarterly fee. If you quit, he has you on hook for another 6 months of extra payments. One family quit and cancelled the card, and he tried to charge their new card as well.

[Anonymous]

He's invented a new financial concept: Laxtortion.