Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree - zero chance that Madlax Cap kids or any high quality players will join VLC 28, I don’t understand VLC’s place in he market - it’s not high end (like ML or NL) and it’s not focused on player development like True, Top Caliber or hammers are. So I’m not clear what they ultimately deliver

Which Hammers program are you talking about? The 2027 is doing well, but me son left 2028 Hammers because he did not feel challenged.

Hammers 28 picked up a couple VLC 28 kids over the summer and will be pulling over a few more from some of the parents I've run into this fall.

Where will the Hammers practice next year? They used to practice at the turf fields in Leesburg and then moved to World of Grace in Herndon. But, World of Grace just got purchased for another data center…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree - zero chance that Madlax Cap kids or any high quality players will join VLC 28, I don’t understand VLC’s place in he market - it’s not high end (like ML or NL) and it’s not focused on player development like True, Top Caliber or hammers are. So I’m not clear what they ultimately deliver

Which Hammers program are you talking about? The 2027 is doing well, but me son left 2028 Hammers because he did not feel challenged.

Hammers 28 picked up a couple VLC 28 kids over the summer and will be pulling over a few more from some of the parents I've run into this fall.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree - zero chance that Madlax Cap kids or any high quality players will join VLC 28, I don’t understand VLC’s place in he market - it’s not high end (like ML or NL) and it’s not focused on player development like True, Top Caliber or hammers are. So I’m not clear what they ultimately deliver

Which Hammers program are you talking about? The 2027 is doing well, but me son left 2028 Hammers because he did not feel challenged.

Why would you say VLC is not focused on development. I would argue they develop more top level players than Hammers True or TC combined.

Anonymous wrote:I agree - zero chance that Madlax Cap kids or any high quality players will join VLC 28, I don’t understand VLC’s place in he market - it’s not high end (like ML or NL) and it’s not focused on player development like True, Top Caliber or hammers are. So I’m not clear what they ultimately deliver

Which Hammers program are you talking about? The 2027 is doing well, but me son left 2028 Hammers because he did not feel challenged.

Anonymous wrote:I agree - zero chance that Madlax Cap kids or any high quality players will join VLC 28, I don’t understand VLC’s place in he market - it’s not high end (like ML or NL) and it’s not focused on player development like True, Top Caliber or hammers are. So I’m not clear what they ultimately deliver

Every class is different. VLC 2026 has multiple players who were starters on MadLax that migrated over to VLC. VLC 2025 also has a bunch of MadLax alums, but few or none were starters. In the 2024 class, the best Madlax players moved to NextLevel. As players start to leave MadLax 2028, the best ones will likely to to NextLevel and the weaker ones to VLC or BLC. It is probably too early to say about 2029. But the MadLax model is to build out their HS teams with fly-ins and holbacks, which naturally causes their incumbent players to move to the other three. Plus, the Daddy ball in 2024, 2027, 2028, and 2029 contributes to some of the movement out of MadLax.

Anonymous wrote:The subject line is VLC and the seniors VLC 2023 did not start until 7th grade. Many signed NLI’s.

Not entirely accurate. Several did play club in middle school before joining VLC.

The subject line is VLC and the seniors VLC 2023 did not start until 7th grade. Many signed NLI’s.

Can you provide some recent examples of kids who didn't play club lacrosse until middle school and signed a NLI yesterday?

Most of the early signings in the DMV were private school kids, ever been to Mater Dei, those kids have sticks in their hands in the lower school and then fill the rosters of Prep and Gonzaga. The club owners always get a bad rep, most of which is well earned. But the stud athlete picking up the sport in a season and going to a high level D1 school is much more exception than rule.

DC area has 3 of the best club lacrosse programs in the country, athletes are finding these programs earlier and earlier.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd qualify that statement, to include the bottom half of every roster has a few kids change teams each year. While it happens that top line kids leave (NL has built Top 5 nationally ranked teams on the backs of kids who leave ML), most of the kids playing significant minutes aren't jumping.

It will be interesting to see where the incredible, unknown 6th, 7th, or 8th grade player who has been just playing rec and finally decides to join a club team ends up. This mythical player is spoken of often on this board, frequent player comps of Paul Rabil and Matt Ward, is really gonna be the game changer.

That player is more common than you think. A few signed NLI's yesterday. Also common is the 6th grade star who peaks in middle school.

100% agree. Despite the claims of Club owners - LAX skills are not that hard to pick up. It's not like golf or sailing where it takes years to prefect the technique. Most athletic kids can learn to competently throw, catch, shoot and scoop in a season. At that point, faster/stronger/bigger kids will have a signifigant advantage over less athletic players who have been playing longer.

Anonymous wrote:I'd qualify that statement, to include the bottom half of every roster has a few kids change teams each year. While it happens that top line kids leave (NL has built Top 5 nationally ranked teams on the backs of kids who leave ML), most of the kids playing significant minutes aren't jumping.

It will be interesting to see where the incredible, unknown 6th, 7th, or 8th grade player who has been just playing rec and finally decides to join a club team ends up. This mythical player is spoken of often on this board, frequent player comps of Paul Rabil and Matt Ward, is really gonna be the game changer.

That player is more common than you think. A few signed NLI's yesterday. Also common is the 6th grade star who peaks in middle school.

I'd qualify that statement, to include the bottom half of every roster has a few kids change teams each year. While it happens that top line kids leave (NL has built Top 5 nationally ranked teams on the backs of kids who leave ML), most of the kids playing significant minutes aren't jumping.

It will be interesting to see where the incredible, unknown 6th, 7th, or 8th grade player who has been just playing rec and finally decides to join a club team ends up. This mythical player is spoken of often on this board, frequent player comps of Paul Rabil and Matt Ward, is really gonna be the game changer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cavs existed for one main reason. It allowed Moms to say to their friends that their son played "club" lacrosse. When in reality their team was essentially a B team. For example the VLC 29 team is their best youth team and is pretty good but it's nowhere near the level of Madlax Cap 29.

For now. But in middle school and HS, many of those MadLax 2029s will move to VLC, NextLevel, and DCE, as happened in the 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027 classes.

Zero chance those kids go to VLC

It happens every year, not sure why next year will be any different.

Anonymous wrote:I agree - zero chance that Madlax Cap kids or any high quality players will join VLC 28, I don’t understand VLC’s place in he market - it’s not high end (like ML or NL) and it’s not focused on player development like True, Top Caliber or hammers are. So I’m not clear what they ultimately deliver

What do they deliver? 10 or more college commits per year far more than other N VA clubs close to what Madlax and Next Level do.

I agree - zero chance that Madlax Cap kids or any high quality players will join VLC 28, I don’t understand VLC’s place in he market - it’s not high end (like ML or NL) and it’s not focused on player development like True, Top Caliber or hammers are. So I’m not clear what they ultimately deliver

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cavs existed for one main reason. It allowed Moms to say to their friends that their son played "club" lacrosse. When in reality their team was essentially a B team. For example the VLC 29 team is their best youth team and is pretty good but it's nowhere near the level of Madlax Cap 29.

For now. But in middle school and HS, many of those MadLax 2029s will move to VLC, NextLevel, and DCE, as happened in the 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027 classes.

Zero chance those kids go to VLC