Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC Express = PERFORMACNE Lacrosse

Other than the exceptional DCE 2021 team, the club is average.

Correct. Every team except 2021 is bad. Even 2021 isn't the same team anymore. Their advantage was having nearly every kid being a reclass. Now that advantage is going away as their fall season proves.

This holdback/reclass thing for 2021DCE is just not accurate. 8 of the kids have been playing together since elementary school days when they were all in public school. They have played in age based events every year going back to when they played in the World Series of Lacrosse in Denver (which Crabs could not qualify due to age restrictions) until High School age events switched all to grade based due to recruiting (pre-rule change). And yes, they had kids start as Freshman on Varisty teams in the IAC last year, and will have a bunch more this year as Sophomores.

I get that people get a bit jealous of the team and try and find reasons why their kids team just isn't as good (or maybe more likely, take shots at Megills), but this team started as an age based team for BLC and won tournaments, and then when the landscape changed to grade based, they kept winning. They did add some players from Annapolis and 1 really good logo from Richmond once they got to HS level and switched to a tourney team as every club team does once they get to hs. And they will most likely win again this Summer.

As for Fall season, the game I was at in Delaware, they were short 6 players due to Fall sports and they won the event in Long Island gong 4-0 when they had everyone. Only 2 events they played because so many guys play other sports, which they promote. They are just damn good group of players. Same as the great Madlax 2019 team.


And no, I am not a parent, but a local ref who knows many of the families/kids across our area and have been officiating local club/hs lacrosse for well over 15 years.

Anonymous wrote:Are schedules for any IAC teams out yet?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC Express = PERFORMACNE Lacrosse

Other than the exceptional DCE 2021 team, the club is average.

Correct. Every team except 2021 is bad. Even 2021 isn't the same team anymore. Their advantage was having nearly every kid being a reclass. Now that advantage is going away as their fall season proves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS's school included everyone last year, and it was a great experience for the whole team. This year, they decided ahead of time to take only juniors and seniors and a few select sophomores who they assume will move up. It's my kid's issue to deal with, but I could not feel worse about the coach and team now. Coach has separated players into JV and Varsity long before tryouts. Even if his instincts are correct, how can he possibly think those sophomores who don't make varsity are going to believe for one second that they were given a real shot? This school is constantly making moves like this regarding sports and they are not even strong.

That is why you are a parent and not a coach. Stay out of things you have no clue about. Dealing with insane parents is one of the worst parts of coaching. If your son is not deemed to be part of this team, stop blaming others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS's school included everyone last year, and it was a great experience for the whole team. This year, they decided ahead of time to take only juniors and seniors and a few select sophomores who they assume will move up. It's my kid's issue to deal with, but I could not feel worse about the coach and team now. Coach has separated players into JV and Varsity long before tryouts. Even if his instincts are correct, how can he possibly think those sophomores who don't make varsity are going to believe for one second that they were given a real shot? This school is constantly making moves like this regarding sports and they are not even strong.

That is why you are a parent and not a coach. Stay out of things you have no clue about. Dealing with insane parents is one of the worst parts of coaching. If your son is not deemed to be part of this team, stop blaming others.

Anonymous wrote:My DS's school included everyone last year, and it was a great experience for the whole team. This year, they decided ahead of time to take only juniors and seniors and a few select sophomores who they assume will move up. It's my kid's issue to deal with, but I could not feel worse about the coach and team now. Coach has separated players into JV and Varsity long before tryouts. Even if his instincts are correct, how can he possibly think those sophomores who don't make varsity are going to believe for one second that they were given a real shot? This school is constantly making moves like this regarding sports and they are not even strong.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All top lacrosse tournaments are now grade base not age base.

Does that mean NO age restrictions? Am thinking about youth lax - not HS where freshman play against older kids on varsity

The issue with most of the people screaming holdback is they conflate the eligibility rules of USL with class based tournaments, leagues and teams. USL has a 9/1 cutoff for age based teams and class based teams do not. If a kid wants to be eligible for senior year sports in high school, they need to be no older than 19 on the first day of school.

You don't say what age your kid is. As an example and for 4th grade teams, The USL start date for participation is a birthday of 9/1/2008. Anything before that and the kid needs to play in the older age division. BUT for class based and to keep their senior year sports eligibility, the kid can be born from 9/1/2007 and up.

For class based teams in the DC area, the rosters have more than a few kids playing born before 9/1/2008 and there will be kids born in 2007. These teams play in tougher leagues and tournaments. The USL age based teams play to much lesser competition.

And to the NYers dismay, their own high school federations have the same eligibility rules and they don't want to believe it but earlier born kids are on their rosters too.

Very informative - thanks for clarifying this. Sounds like travel teams are conveniently using US Education grade level model to allow the 19 yo player to play an extra year in high school - I would be okay w/ allowing just 19 yo player to play (or maybe that's the disincentive to graduate late) without skewing play for the younger kids. Only 6% of kids are delayed entrants to kindergarten and only 4% of all students repeat a grade between 1st and 3rd so unless travel lacrosse is a huge magnet for arrested development, there's shouldn't be this many holdbacks - maybe 1 per team?

If you don't want kids to skew older you can play on USL rules teams and in leagues and there are plenty but the competition is not as good and the rules are different. The problem there is those teams usually have a 2 year gap in teams meaning u13, u11, u9 so the younger kids are playing against kids almost 2 years older anyway, just like the travel club teams. If you are lucky enough to find a club with enough numbers to go u13, u12, u11; then other clubs will complain when they play against yours saying your kids are too old or you will complain when your u12's are playing against a u13 team.

The real solution is to go to a birth date change of team but no one wants to go through the hassle and there is no incentive to change. This would entail a kid's playing status changing on their actual birthday. If a kid is 10 and turns 11, they move up to the next age group. In this manner, all kids will be the youngest and progress to the oldest in their group. I've heard a lot of parents complain this will break up team unity and their scheduling. To me, that's nonsense when talking about youth sports and how much schedules are juggled anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All top lacrosse tournaments are now grade base not age base.

Does that mean NO age restrictions? Am thinking about youth lax - not HS where freshman play against older kids on varsity

The issue with most of the people screaming holdback is they conflate the eligibility rules of USL with class based tournaments, leagues and teams. USL has a 9/1 cutoff for age based teams and class based teams do not. If a kid wants to be eligible for senior year sports in high school, they need to be no older than 19 on the first day of school.

You don't say what age your kid is. As an example and for 4th grade teams, The USL start date for participation is a birthday of 9/1/2008. Anything before that and the kid needs to play in the older age division. BUT for class based and to keep their senior year sports eligibility, the kid can be born from 9/1/2007 and up.

For class based teams in the DC area, the rosters have more than a few kids playing born before 9/1/2008 and there will be kids born in 2007. These teams play in tougher leagues and tournaments. The USL age based teams play to much lesser competition.

And to the NYers dismay, their own high school federations have the same eligibility rules and they don't want to believe it but earlier born kids are on their rosters too.

Very informative - thanks for clarifying this. Sounds like travel teams are conveniently using US Education grade level model to allow the 19 yo player to play an extra year in high school - I would be okay w/ allowing just 19 yo player to play (or maybe that's the disincentive to graduate late) without skewing play for the younger kids. Only 6% of kids are delayed entrants to kindergarten and only 4% of all students repeat a grade between 1st and 3rd so unless travel lacrosse is a huge magnet for arrested development, there's shouldn't be this many holdbacks - maybe 1 per team?

If you don't want kids to skew older you can play on USL rules teams and in leagues and there are plenty but the competition is not as good and the rules are different. The problem there is those teams usually have a 2 year gap in teams meaning u13, u11, u9 so the younger kids are playing against kids almost 2 years older anyway, just like the travel club teams. If you are lucky enough to find a club with enough numbers to go u13, u12, u11; then other clubs will complain when they play against yours saying your kids are too old or you will complain when your u12's are playing against a u13 team.

The real solution is to go to a birth date change of team but no one wants to go through the hassle and there is no incentive to change. This would entail a kid's playing status changing on their actual birthday. If a kid is 10 and turns 11, they move up to the next age group. In this manner, all kids will be the youngest and progress to the oldest in their group. I've heard a lot of parents complain this will break up team unity and their scheduling. To me, that's nonsense when talking about youth sports and how much schedules are juggled anyway.

Public Service Announcement: Can we please have all the elementary school dads focused on the age rules start a new thread and get back to discussing the IAC lacrosse season. Thank you!