DC Express?

[Anonymous]

There shouldn't be any question there was an extreme dropoff from when Anzelone was running the club and then handed it over to Severns as Anzelone's sons aged out. He made sure the club supported his efforts to get his kids and his buddy's kids recruited. Look at the difference between 21 commits in the 26's and just 6, so far, in the 27's.

It's a full time job and Severns wasn't equipped both administratively nor time wise. I'd be very concerned about sliding even more if Club Blue can continue to grow. Giblin's kid is being trained and supported by some really good people over there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There shouldn't be any question there was an extreme dropoff from when Anzelone was running the club and then handed it over to Severns as Anzelone's sons aged out. He made sure the club supported his efforts to get his kids and his buddy's kids recruited. Look at the difference between 21 commits in the 26's and just 6, so far, in the 27's.

It's a full time job and Severns wasn't equipped both administratively nor time wise. I'd be very concerned about sliding even more if Club Blue can continue to grow. Giblin's kid is being trained and supported by some really good people over there.

2027s are a weak class for DCE. But 2028 will be comparable to 25 and 26.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There shouldn't be any question there was an extreme dropoff from when Anzelone was running the club and then handed it over to Severns as Anzelone's sons aged out. He made sure the club supported his efforts to get his kids and his buddy's kids recruited. Look at the difference between 21 commits in the 26's and just 6, so far, in the 27's.

It's a full time job and Severns wasn't equipped both administratively nor time wise. I'd be very concerned about sliding even more if Club Blue can continue to grow. Giblin's kid is being trained and supported by some really good people over there.

2027s are a weak class for DCE. But 2028 will be comparable to 25 and 26.

Why would that be? The rankings are pretty accurate once the teams hit 8th, freshman and sophomore years. The 28's are ranked 34th which is okay but really makes them 2nd tier at best. The 25 and 26 DCE teams were always top 10 programs.

28 parents need to reach out to 26 and 27 parents right away to get a read on their experience and how best to make use of lacrosse in pursuing schools of interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with previous couple of posts. These age groups are so young there is a lot of lacrosse to be played and the club will recruit aggressively into their sophomore year.

They have also made it a point to swell rosters that year. As other have mentioned, it is not good for the existing boys on team but it is needed to compete at a high level. 3-4 middies lines and multiple specialty positions are needed in case guys get hurt. All the boys on black every year get multiple offers to play in college. Some elect to not play at next lever but they do gt offers. and all of them start and contribute on their high school teams which is all you should be concerned with when you are talking 2032:)

This all ignores the very unique and very obvious dynamic that’s developed between BLC and NL for the 2030 class and younger. Typically, DCE had a strong group of BLC kids coming in during 8th grade so that the team was already competitive with the best of teams around. That’s not the case any more. NL has poached nearly every BLC squad from 2030 on down, and so DCE is inheriting BLC teams that generally can barely compete in the 2nd or 3rd brackets of HoCo. I hope they can weather the storm - the more elite teams around here the better - but to use your experience with the class of 2022 or 2024 or 2020 or whatever to what’s going on now with the youngest DCE teams ignores a huge problem they’re dealing with and will have to deal with for at least the next 4-5 years or so that didn’t exist back then. Could work out well for them. Could result in a death spiral where talented kids avoid the club because their 8th and 9th grade teams are going to struggle so much for the foreseeable future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with previous couple of posts. These age groups are so young there is a lot of lacrosse to be played and the club will recruit aggressively into their sophomore year.

They have also made it a point to swell rosters that year. As other have mentioned, it is not good for the existing boys on team but it is needed to compete at a high level. 3-4 middies lines and multiple specialty positions are needed in case guys get hurt. All the boys on black every year get multiple offers to play in college. Some elect to not play at next lever but they do gt offers. and all of them start and contribute on their high school teams which is all you should be concerned with when you are talking 2032:)

This all ignores the very unique and very obvious dynamic that’s developed between BLC and NL for the 2030 class and younger. Typically, DCE had a strong group of BLC kids coming in during 8th grade so that the team was already competitive with the best of teams around. That’s not the case any more. NL has poached nearly every BLC squad from 2030 on down, and so DCE is inheriting BLC teams that generally can barely compete in the 2nd or 3rd brackets of HoCo. I hope they can weather the storm - the more elite teams around here the better - but to use your experience with the class of 2022 or 2024 or 2020 or whatever to what’s going on now with the youngest DCE teams ignores a huge problem they’re dealing with and will have to deal with for at least the next 4-5 years or so that didn’t exist back then. Could work out well for them. Could result in a death spiral where talented kids avoid the club because their 8th and 9th grade teams are going to struggle so much for the foreseeable future.

fair enough, but the poster up the thread makes a very good point that in the DMV there are only 60 opportunities available (20 each on DCE, ML, NL) for meaningful playing time on a team with a good recruiting track record. All three programs pack their A team rosters into the high 20's, and carry players on their second team with hopes of moving up, so you have around 100 players within those three programs gunning for 60 spots, not to mention fly-ins from around the country, and the top players from less known local programs looking to move up to the Big 3. players generally consider the three programs interchangeable and think nothing of moving teams to chase playing time. based on supply and demand, all three programs will be over-stocked with good players on their high school teams for the foreseeable future. if you need further proof that DCE will thrive, just look at MadLax - with all the criticisms and complaints, have you noticed their rosters are always full?

[Anonymous]

If you think DCE/BLC is thriving, I don’t know what to tell you. DCE 2028 is a top 20 team. Below that, there’s not a single top team 50 team in the entire (boys) organization, and a lot of their A teams were ranked below 100. As a poster above points out, DCE/BLC has been raided year after year by NL (and ML to a lesser extent)—we’ll see what happens for 2028 in a few months as this is the money summer for that class. In terms of player movement between the three DMV teams, recent history doesn’t show that there’s a lot of net benefit to DCE (unless you measure benefit simply by the number of players enrolled). Most (not all) of the players who cycle between the three DMV teams are players who are dissatisfied with their playing time on the A team or who are stuck on the B team. (Obviously not true in all cases.) DCE certainly isn't going to magically become more competitive by skimming from the bottom 1/2 of NL and ML. And it’s not like players keep grinding it out year after year cycling through teams if they are unhappy—that’s when a lot of kids quit.

I’d love to see DCE/BLC succeed. IMO, that starts with retaining the 2028 team and thinking hard about how to fix the problems that are endemic to its younger teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with previous couple of posts. These age groups are so young there is a lot of lacrosse to be played and the club will recruit aggressively into their sophomore year.

They have also made it a point to swell rosters that year. As other have mentioned, it is not good for the existing boys on team but it is needed to compete at a high level. 3-4 middies lines and multiple specialty positions are needed in case guys get hurt. All the boys on black every year get multiple offers to play in college. Some elect to not play at next lever but they do gt offers. and all of them start and contribute on their high school teams which is all you should be concerned with when you are talking 2032:)

This all ignores the very unique and very obvious dynamic that’s developed between BLC and NL for the 2030 class and younger. Typically, DCE had a strong group of BLC kids coming in during 8th grade so that the team was already competitive with the best of teams around. That’s not the case any more. NL has poached nearly every BLC squad from 2030 on down, and so DCE is inheriting BLC teams that generally can barely compete in the 2nd or 3rd brackets of HoCo. I hope they can weather the storm - the more elite teams around here the better - but to use your experience with the class of 2022 or 2024 or 2020 or whatever to what’s going on now with the youngest DCE teams ignores a huge problem they’re dealing with and will have to deal with for at least the next 4-5 years or so that didn’t exist back then. Could work out well for them. Could result in a death spiral where talented kids avoid the club because their 8th and 9th grade teams are going to struggle so much for the foreseeable future.

fair enough, but the poster up the thread makes a very good point that in the DMV there are only 60 opportunities available (20 each on DCE, ML, NL) for meaningful playing time on a team with a good recruiting track record. All three programs pack their A team rosters into the high 20's, and carry players on their second team with hopes of moving up, so you have around 100 players within those three programs gunning for 60 spots, not to mention fly-ins from around the country, and the top players from less known local programs looking to move up to the Big 3. players generally consider the three programs interchangeable and think nothing of moving teams to chase playing time. based on supply and demand, all three programs will be over-stocked with good players on their high school teams for the foreseeable future. if you need further proof that DCE will thrive, just look at MadLax - with all the criticisms and complaints, have you noticed their rosters are always full?

exactly. the class of 2028 is a good example. DCE inherited a weak BLC team and therefore was weaker than NL and DCE in 8th grade HoCo. but since then it has loaded up on players leaving those two programs, plus other local and national players, and now is on par with NL and ML.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you think DCE/BLC is thriving, I don’t know what to tell you. DCE 2028 is a top 20 team. Below that, there’s not a single top team 50 team in the entire (boys) organization, and a lot of their A teams were ranked below 100. As a poster above points out, DCE/BLC has been raided year after year by NL (and ML to a lesser extent)—we’ll see what happens for 2028 in a few months as this is the money summer for that class. In terms of player movement between the three DMV teams, recent history doesn’t show that there’s a lot of net benefit to DCE (unless you measure benefit simply by the number of players enrolled). Most (not all) of the players who cycle between the three DMV teams are players who are dissatisfied with their playing time on the A team or who are stuck on the B team. (Obviously not true in all cases.) DCE certainly isn't going to magically become more competitive by skimming from the bottom 1/2 of NL and ML. And it’s not like players keep grinding it out year after year cycling through teams if they are unhappy—that’s when a lot of kids quit.

I’d love to see DCE/BLC succeed. IMO, that starts with retaining the 2028 team and thinking hard about how to fix the problems that are endemic to its younger teams.

I guess it depends what you mean by "thriving." having weaker (but full) teams in the younger ages and then stronger HS teams that get their players recruited as well or better than NL and ML is not so bad. As a PP noted, the demand far exceeds the supply for roster spots in the HS classes, so at that level, all three programs will thrive indefinitely. if the younger teams play in lower HoCo divisions, the program will continue to thrive ($$) there as well. It seems like one or two posters are trying to spin a fake narrative that the program is in trouble.

[Anonymous]

who are the best recruiting prospects in the DMV in the 2028 class?
I bet DCE has as many or more as the other two.
The FOGO who moved from NL to Madlax has to be up there. (and no I am not his Dad or Mom).

[Anonymous]

This thread is gone from silly to ridiculous. DCE will always have top teams because (as one previous post astutely pointed out) there are only 3 elite teams on the dmv(ml, NL &dce) and therefore DCE will have a one third share on the top 60 kids in the area.

The question is what recruiting help can DCE give.

[Anonymous]

Maybe not elite, but certainly relevant are VLC and Team MD. Up and coming might be Club Blue.

[Anonymous]

Only 6 recruits for the 27' class for DC. I think many parents will be looking to see how this class closes out as well as the 28'class. if they continue to struggle in the recruiting front, DC is going to have a hard time existing

[Anonymous]

Is BLC/DCE going to hire any more employees. It's way too big of a job for just Breslin. NL has had 3 full-time employees for the better part of the Mitchell ownership. BLC also has about $2 million in assets. Might be time to structure this out a little bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe not elite, but certainly relevant are VLC and Team MD. Up and coming might be Club Blue.

those type of programs are feeders for DCE, NL, and ML. the best players will look to move up to the higher tier, increasing demand for the 60 available spots.

[Anonymous]

lol at 60, yeah ok clown