DC Express?

[Anonymous]

BLC should adopt the DCE brand for all A level travel teams and keep the BLC designation for the B teams. Breslin's way better at this than Severns. An org like this needs a full-time guy running it. I don't know much about Club Blue, but there's definitely room in the market for another club if it's well run.

[Anonymous]

My son is on one of the DCE HS teams and his experience has been great, but he didn’t join until 9th grade. Obviously there is a systemic problem with the younger BLC teams.
Based on this thread, it looks like those problems stem from parent coaching. Hopefully they are smart enough to fix that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCE former owners can now focus solely on coaching and the BLC people can handle the business that distracts owners who coach. Considering some of the owners who coach around here this like a good separation of church and state to me.

Anzelone was the former owner and he got out just like i said he would when his son graduated. Mission accomplished. Now Urick can launch his kids.

Sadly this is the way of these clubs. Their kids and their kids' friends above all others.

IF BLC's recent track record with the boys' club program is any indication of how daddy ball is going to work with the older kids at DCE, this merger seems like it's going to be a disaster.

BLC is where they don’t do daddy ball - see ML 2027, NL 2030, NL 20 whatever McCavera - all teams formed at BLC with dad coaches who wanted to keep going so had to take their entire teams - cutting more and more original players every year of course - to these other places.

Ah, no. These BLC daddy ball teams didn't implode because BLC wouldn't let the coaches continue to coach their teams. They imploded because the daddy coach model that BLC permits got so toxic that team after team disbanded in order to play for NL, ML, etc. where they largely avoid dad coaches.

I really was hoping for DCE to find a way through the fact that the BLC pipeline for talent in the 2030, 2031, 2032, 2033 etc. classes is so weak. Tying themselves even more strongly to the BLC pipeline is the worst thing they can do to build DCE from within.

But the problem is that ML and NL DON'T avoid Dad coaches. MadLax has Dad coaches on many of their teams - I know for sure 27, 28 and 29, and I bet there are others. (in fairness, the 28 coach is the program owner). NL has at least one (2030 or 31, I think). It is somewhat unavoidable because there are not other good options. you can have a daddy coach and all the toxicity and nepotism that brings, or you can have a chill lax bro kid in his 20's thinking he can make a living from lacrosse (spoiler alert, you can't), or you can get a HS coach with a good name but is spread too thin, so he is MIA most of the team (Dave Mitchell, for example), which means the assistants are frequently running the team, so you are back to the daddies or the 20-something lax bro's. club owners usually consider the daddies the "least bad" option because the price is right (i.e., free). If anyone knows a mature, quality coach in his 30's/40's with D1 college playing experience, not a nut case, not a team parent, and able to attend close to 100% of the games, and willing to give up their weekend for the pittance that travel coaches are paid, I would love to know who that is. If your son is lucky enough to have such a coach, be grateful, because they are very rare.
What does this mean for DCE under its new ownership? it means they will be fine, because if their coaching is flawed, it will be no different than their competitors.

Mitchell hasnt been coaching HS for a few years now...

Fair eniguh, but he’s still spread too thin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC express stinks, end of story. This will acquisition will be epic failure.

All of these posts critiquing the pros and cons of DCE relative to Madlax and NL miss the only point that matters: the level of play and the number of good to elite players in the DC met area has dropped significantly. Does this area still produce elite players? Of course, just not as many of them. If you took the elite players from all three clubs and put them on one team, it could beat anyone in the country, but 5-10 years ago all three clubs fielded elite teams. Those days are over for the foreseeable future.

Im not sure if DC Express is even 10 years old, but agree with your basic premise. This area isn’t producing as much elite talent and the outcome of the daddy coaches vs bro coaches debate isn’t going to change the local talent level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is on one of the DCE HS teams and his experience has been great, but he didn’t join until 9th grade. Obviously there is a systemic problem with the younger BLC teams.
Based on this thread, it looks like those problems stem from parent coaching. Hopefully they are smart enough to fix that.

Is there really though? It seems like there just isn’t too much demand in this area for club level lax. NL, ML and BLC don’t even have B teams in several years. It seems like there is enough demand for about 5 club teams per year. I don’t know why, but it seems like kids are gravitating to other club sports like soccer and basketball. My guess is that the earlier and earlier club sports have led kids to pick one sport at a younger age, and that has hurt lax around here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is on one of the DCE HS teams and his experience has been great, but he didn’t join until 9th grade. Obviously there is a systemic problem with the younger BLC teams.
Based on this thread, it looks like those problems stem from parent coaching. Hopefully they are smart enough to fix that.

Is there really though? It seems like there just isn’t too much demand in this area for club level lax. NL, ML and BLC don’t even have B teams in several years. It seems like there is enough demand for about 5 club teams per year. I don’t know why, but it seems like kids are gravitating to other club sports like soccer and basketball. My guess is that the earlier and earlier club sports have led kids to pick one sport at a younger age, and that has hurt lax around here.

One of the big things hurting high school lacrosse right now is the difference in training between public and private schools. Most public programs just don’t train as much or as consistently as the private ones. That’s why you see so many travel players switching to private schools once they hit high school and they want that year-round coaching and higher level of competition to keep improving.

Which I find interesting, because we were always told colleges look for multi-sport athletes...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is on one of the DCE HS teams and his experience has been great, but he didn’t join until 9th grade. Obviously there is a systemic problem with the younger BLC teams.
Based on this thread, it looks like those problems stem from parent coaching. Hopefully they are smart enough to fix that.

Is there really though? It seems like there just isn’t too much demand in this area for club level lax. NL, ML and BLC don’t even have B teams in several years. It seems like there is enough demand for about 5 club teams per year. I don’t know why, but it seems like kids are gravitating to other club sports like soccer and basketball. My guess is that the earlier and earlier club sports have led kids to pick one sport at a younger age, and that has hurt lax around here.

B Teams? B teams shouldn't be traveling outside of the immediate DC area. It's not worth the time or expense. Call it what it is - rec. This area can easily support another A team travel club and Club Blue will try to fill that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is on one of the DCE HS teams and his experience has been great, but he didn’t join until 9th grade. Obviously there is a systemic problem with the younger BLC teams.
Based on this thread, it looks like those problems stem from parent coaching. Hopefully they are smart enough to fix that.

Is there really though? It seems like there just isn’t too much demand in this area for club level lax. NL, ML and BLC don’t even have B teams in several years. It seems like there is enough demand for about 5 club teams per year. I don’t know why, but it seems like kids are gravitating to other club sports like soccer and basketball. My guess is that the earlier and earlier club sports have led kids to pick one sport at a younger age, and that has hurt lax around here.

B Teams? B teams shouldn't be traveling outside of the immediate DC area. It's not worth the time or expense. Call it what it is - rec. This area can easily support another A team travel club and Club Blue will try to fill that.

what is Club Blue's differentiator from MadLax, Next Level, and BLC/DCE?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is on one of the DCE HS teams and his experience has been great, but he didn’t join until 9th grade. Obviously there is a systemic problem with the younger BLC teams.
Based on this thread, it looks like those problems stem from parent coaching. Hopefully they are smart enough to fix that.

Is your son a midfielder? Asking for a friend!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is on one of the DCE HS teams and his experience has been great, but he didn’t join until 9th grade. Obviously there is a systemic problem with the younger BLC teams.
Based on this thread, it looks like those problems stem from parent coaching. Hopefully they are smart enough to fix that.

Is there really though? It seems like there just isn’t too much demand in this area for club level lax. NL, ML and BLC don’t even have B teams in several years. It seems like there is enough demand for about 5 club teams per year. I don’t know why, but it seems like kids are gravitating to other club sports like soccer and basketball. My guess is that the earlier and earlier club sports have led kids to pick one sport at a younger age, and that has hurt lax around here.

B Teams? B teams shouldn't be traveling outside of the immediate DC area. It's not worth the time or expense. Call it what it is - rec. This area can easily support another A team travel club and Club Blue will try to fill that.

Where will the players come from? Do you imagine there’s 20 A team level players not playing on any club team right now? Obviously there isn’t. If Club Blue survives, it will be by cannibalizing from the NL, ML and BLC B teams

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCE is a dumpster fire and has been for several years. I'm shocked BLC would keep any attachments to the former ownership. If they want to have any level of credibility with the current families they should sever all ties and start fresh with new faces and a new plan to regain the confidence lost over the past several years.

To a prior post about a couple good years recently. The 25 & 26 black teams successes had zero to do with DCE as a club. They had one off situations and well intentioned dad's who kept things together for those years DESPITE the club. I feel bad for the orange teams at every year the last several classes.

Interesting story. Which orange teams do you exactly feel bad for?

[Anonymous]

The first BLC team to implode, 2030, was because the dad coaches wanted to keep coaching and NL promised they could do that. So they took the whole starting roster with them from BLC to NL. And those dad coaches are still the NL 2030 coaches to this day. Pretty much the opposite of your story.

100% correct

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCE is a dumpster fire and has been for several years. I'm shocked BLC would keep any attachments to the former ownership. If they want to have any level of credibility with the current families they should sever all ties and start fresh with new faces and a new plan to regain the confidence lost over the past several years.

To a prior post about a couple good years recently. The 25 & 26 black teams successes had zero to do with DCE as a club. They had one off situations and well intentioned dad's who kept things together for those years DESPITE the club. I feel bad for the orange teams at every year the last several classes.

Interesting story. Which orange teams do you exactly feel bad for?

All of them. Just check out their ratings and brackets they get placed in. Throwing money away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is on one of the DCE HS teams and his experience has been great, but he didn’t join until 9th grade. Obviously there is a systemic problem with the younger BLC teams.
Based on this thread, it looks like those problems stem from parent coaching. Hopefully they are smart enough to fix that.

Is there really though? It seems like there just isn’t too much demand in this area for club level lax. NL, ML and BLC don’t even have B teams in several years. It seems like there is enough demand for about 5 club teams per year. I don’t know why, but it seems like kids are gravitating to other club sports like soccer and basketball. My guess is that the earlier and earlier club sports have led kids to pick one sport at a younger age, and that has hurt lax around here.

B Teams? B teams shouldn't be traveling outside of the immediate DC area. It's not worth the time or expense. Call it what it is - rec. This area can easily support another A team travel club and Club Blue will try to fill that.

Where will the players come from? Do you imagine there’s 20 A team level players not playing on any club team right now? Obviously there isn’t. If Club Blue survives, it will be by cannibalizing from the NL, ML and BLC B teams

They can take from dying football, basketball, baseball, soccer and from the players on the cusp of getting good reps at the other 3 teams. They can help grow the sport by offering more local clinics and real rec level stuff to introduce kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The first BLC team to implode, 2030, was because the dad coaches wanted to keep coaching and NL promised they could do that. So they took the whole starting roster with them from BLC to NL. And those dad coaches are still the NL 2030 coaches to this day. Pretty much the opposite of your story.

100% correct

It was way before that. The 2026 team went back and forth with their competitivenss as the Dad coach moved all the kids to NL and then shifted them back. The entire 2027 team moved to ML and NL during covid bc the directors wouldn't allow the club to practice or participate in games.