A couple observations:
1. There is no way that merely playing rec will get the average kid ready to play in a competitive public high school let alone a top private school or college. 8+ games and around 30 practices a year are not enough. So the idea that you can just play rec is just silly. (Yes there are exceptions when a great athlete picks up the game in highschool but those are usually kids who were playing travel, soccer, or travel hockey )

2. It is true that the top rec teams (vienna Dulles South etc) would beat most. AAA travel teams, but the reason for this is because those teams were composed, almost exclusively of elite travel, kids.

3. The unfortunate truth is if your kid wants to play college lacrosse he will have the best opportunity if he plays at a top private high school. The top private high schools look for kids in the top travel programs. It might be unfair but that’s the way it is.

4. If you’re outside of the top three or four rec programs even at the A level the coaching is not great. There’s a lot of dads who volunteer to Coach rec teams who don’t really know a lot about lacrosse (I was one of them). We do our best, but we really can’t teach what we don’t know.

5. Finally, and probably most importantly, childhood has changed - with iPhones and streaming services. Parents have to be much more intentional about their kids activities than when we were kids. Back then - home was not that much fun and you had to go out with your friends and make your ownfun. Now, if you leave the average kid alone, they’ll never look up from the screen. If you’re going to put all the time and energy and money into making sure your kid has a decent start, you might as well have them get good at a particular activity. If that activity is Sports that requires a travel team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why in the world are we comparing rec and travel. Rec is not year round. Rec plays in the spring and travel or club plays fall, some winter training, spring, and summer. I know there are more opportunities for kids to play box with rec now but it used to be that you had to be “invited” by a coach. Some of these coaches didn’t invite kids who really wanted to play and what were they supposed to do? Not play? Travel lacrosse was a great fit for these kids. And before someone says maybe the kid wasn’t good enough to be invited, everyone knows that isn’t always the case when you have parent coaches and the drama/politics that goes with that. True doesn’t have parent coaches. They have nice kids, good coaches, and are trying to run a good program. Can’t make everybody happy but they do have a lot of boys that have fun, are talented, and generally nice people to be around. So let’s stop comparing how rec teams can clean up true teams.

Yeah but still McLean Dulles South or Vienna AAA would beat True VA teams

This tells me you don’t watch 14U rec lax but you know what they say about opinions and body parts…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why in the world are we comparing rec and travel. Rec is not year round. Rec plays in the spring and travel or club plays fall, some winter training, spring, and summer. I know there are more opportunities for kids to play box with rec now but it used to be that you had to be “invited” by a coach. Some of these coaches didn’t invite kids who really wanted to play and what were they supposed to do? Not play? Travel lacrosse was a great fit for these kids. And before someone says maybe the kid wasn’t good enough to be invited, everyone knows that isn’t always the case when you have parent coaches and the drama/politics that goes with that. True doesn’t have parent coaches. They have nice kids, good coaches, and are trying to run a good program. Can’t make everybody happy but they do have a lot of boys that have fun, are talented, and generally nice people to be around. So let’s stop comparing how rec teams can clean up true teams.

I agree with everything you just said except the "talented part".

And yes, besides Vienna, Dulles South can clean up True Nova too.

Sounds like you would like a play date.

Anonymous wrote:Why in the world are we comparing rec and travel. Rec is not year round. Rec plays in the spring and travel or club plays fall, some winter training, spring, and summer. I know there are more opportunities for kids to play box with rec now but it used to be that you had to be “invited” by a coach. Some of these coaches didn’t invite kids who really wanted to play and what were they supposed to do? Not play? Travel lacrosse was a great fit for these kids. And before someone says maybe the kid wasn’t good enough to be invited, everyone knows that isn’t always the case when you have parent coaches and the drama/politics that goes with that. True doesn’t have parent coaches. They have nice kids, good coaches, and are trying to run a good program. Can’t make everybody happy but they do have a lot of boys that have fun, are talented, and generally nice people to be around. So let’s stop comparing how rec teams can clean up true teams.

I agree with everything you just said except the "talented part".

And yes, besides Vienna, Dulles South can clean up True Nova too.

Anonymous wrote:Why in the world are we comparing rec and travel. Rec is not year round. Rec plays in the spring and travel or club plays fall, some winter training, spring, and summer. I know there are more opportunities for kids to play box with rec now but it used to be that you had to be “invited” by a coach. Some of these coaches didn’t invite kids who really wanted to play and what were they supposed to do? Not play? Travel lacrosse was a great fit for these kids. And before someone says maybe the kid wasn’t good enough to be invited, everyone knows that isn’t always the case when you have parent coaches and the drama/politics that goes with that. True doesn’t have parent coaches. They have nice kids, good coaches, and are trying to run a good program. Can’t make everybody happy but they do have a lot of boys that have fun, are talented, and generally nice people to be around. So let’s stop comparing how rec teams can clean up true teams.

Yeah but still McLean Dulles South or Vienna AAA would beat True VA teams

Why in the world are we comparing rec and travel. Rec is not year round. Rec plays in the spring and travel or club plays fall, some winter training, spring, and summer. I know there are more opportunities for kids to play box with rec now but it used to be that you had to be “invited” by a coach. Some of these coaches didn’t invite kids who really wanted to play and what were they supposed to do? Not play? Travel lacrosse was a great fit for these kids. And before someone says maybe the kid wasn’t good enough to be invited, everyone knows that isn’t always the case when you have parent coaches and the drama/politics that goes with that. True doesn’t have parent coaches. They have nice kids, good coaches, and are trying to run a good program. Can’t make everybody happy but they do have a lot of boys that have fun, are talented, and generally nice people to be around. So let’s stop comparing how rec teams can clean up true teams.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good AAA NVYLL team would beat True VA teams.

First off, NVYLL is a disaster, worse than any travel program. Most rec programs make Travel look like they have no issues. 2nd, maybe Vienna would be the only team that could beat a Travel team.

Vienna DS and BRYC all have travel players and all of these clubs would beat True at the 14U level.

Anonymous wrote:A good AAA NVYLL team would beat True VA teams.

First off, NVYLL is a disaster, worse than any travel program. Most rec programs make Travel look like they have no issues. 2nd, maybe Vienna would be the only team that could beat a Travel team.

A good AAA NVYLL team would beat True VA teams.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m becoming less and less enamored with club lacrosse as a whole the last few years. Not just the clubs as a whole but the level of play as a whole and the parents.

It’s a necessary evil to improve skills and get stick time but is becoming less of a must for recruiting if you know the system but not everyone does.

And the costs! Holy guacamole, it’s insane.

You can blame the cost of living, inflation and the rental rate for field space for that. The entire region is forcing minimum wage to over $20/hour. Field rental rates for turfed fields are close to and above $200/hr. The median income for this area is over $90,000 a year. Yes, operating a high quality business for kids is really expensive.

Nice try all True is doing is charging 10x more than a good rec program. Maybe not every kid needs to play club. Problem with clubs like True is all the money that has to pay the national overhead. NVYLL clubs manage just fine for the same level of play.

True is not an overpriced program. Every travel club is a business, has overhead and tries to make money. If you play for ML, with all the gear and fees you pay you support Cabbell's fancy lifestyle. True's NOVA team is well managed with good coaches but not as talented as some of the elite teams (like the Maryland True teams). Overall the Nova True kids are happy. True does have better coaches than NVYLL, that's not a fair comparison. Travel lacrosse is not for everyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m becoming less and less enamored with club lacrosse as a whole the last few years. Not just the clubs as a whole but the level of play as a whole and the parents.

It’s a necessary evil to improve skills and get stick time but is becoming less of a must for recruiting if you know the system but not everyone does.

And the costs! Holy guacamole, it’s insane.

You can blame the cost of living, inflation and the rental rate for field space for that. The entire region is forcing minimum wage to over $20/hour. Field rental rates for turfed fields are close to and above $200/hr. The median income for this area is over $90,000 a year. Yes, operating a high quality business for kids is really expensive.

Nice try all True is doing is charging 10x more than a good rec program. Maybe not every kid needs to play club. Problem with clubs like True is all the money that has to pay the national overhead. NVYLL clubs manage just fine for the same level of play.

Anonymous wrote:I’m becoming less and less enamored with club lacrosse as a whole the last few years. Not just the clubs as a whole but the level of play as a whole and the parents.

It’s a necessary evil to improve skills and get stick time but is becoming less of a must for recruiting if you know the system but not everyone does.

And the costs! Holy guacamole, it’s insane.

You can blame the cost of living, inflation and the rental rate for field space for that. The entire region is forcing minimum wage to over $20/hour. Field rental rates for turfed fields are close to and above $200/hr. The median income for this area is over $90,000 a year. Yes, operating a high quality business for kids is really expensive.

Anonymous wrote:How is this club? How easy is it to play on the National team coming out of Virginia?

True National Black is an Elite level team, probably players from their top programs like True Chesapeake and Illinois players. True National Green is a weak Elite level team, still likely players from their other better programs/

True NOVA is AA/A from HS to 2030 throughout so most likely will contribute to the recently added True National White team, which is just a AAA/AA type of team, judging by their tournament entries and winnings. Most True NOVA players will likely make to this tier. There's a decent True 2024 goalie who is committed to a D3 school played on True National White.

I fortunately the opposite is true. Name one player from this area committed to a D1 program 2023-2025 who did not play club lacrosse. I do not know of any.

I’m becoming less and less enamored with club lacrosse as a whole the last few years. Not just the clubs as a whole but the level of play as a whole and the parents.

It’s a necessary evil to improve skills and get stick time but is becoming less of a must for recruiting if you know the system but not everyone does.

And the costs! Holy guacamole, it’s insane.