Why shouldn't the school recruit for 9th grade ?

Just because the school has a middle school program doesn't mean the school should be content.

You clearly have no idea how it works in the Baltimore based MIAA.

It's no big deal. Landon's MS program is very weak now compared to past years. Most of those kids will never see a Varsity field. They really depend now on 9th grade transfers, which is why they are constantly asking club coaches for referrals.

Anonymous wrote:Let's be clear, at the middle school, NL has Always been somewhat affiliated with Landon. The majority of their 8th grade team is a Landon kids. During the Spring, all NL teams practice at Landon during the weekdays.

It is quite cliquish in favor of Landon with an obvious disregard for "outside" players.

Yup.

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid going to the Uplax and a Famous Autumn thing that Crabs does and one day at some FLG 3D tournament in Delaware. The walk of shame begins next weekend.

Madlax?

I have a kid going to the Uplax and a Famous Autumn thing that Crabs does and one day at some FLG 3D tournament in Delaware. The walk of shame begins next weekend.

So lax insiders, which tournaments will your kids play in this November?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The model that Trig had for BW and SSSAS and Giblin had with Club Blue and Prep has had good past results. Not a bad model to try again.

What is the model??

I don't know about Trig, but am familiar with the former model at Prep. Giblin was smart to have a club that had friendly deals to access turf fields for his club at Mater Dei where he taught and at Prep. Between Club Blue and Mater Dei middle school teams, kids who went to Prep had already played for him or in his network of Prep coaches for years. Prep had over half a dozen coaches in their varsity program and they all coached youth teams. The model broke down a lot after the financial crisis. Gonzaga costs a lot less than Prep, they got a good young coach and the rest is recent history. On top Giblin's personality also had him on the bad side of Prep administrators, and that act eventually wore out.

When Prep started beating Landon regularly, Landon made moves to imitate the model. Bordley's sons coached at NL, Laco owned NL and was a Landon dad who got friendly deals for the turf field at Landon. But for some reason the Landon & Next Level imitation always failed. The above poster is accurate. NL and Landon always tried the consortium approach that worked so well for Giblin but it failed. That may be because when Giblin was able to be a success, he was also the one guy running Club Blue, he was a coach at Mater Dei and able to bully his way, and was the coach at Prep and was able to bully his way for many years. So one guy was able to control everything his way or the highway. That makes the model a tough one to replicate.

Let's be clear, at the middle school, NL has Always been somewhat affiliated with Landon. The majority of their 8th grade team is a Landon kids. During the Spring, all NL teams practice at Landon during the weekdays.

Anonymous wrote:The model that Trig had for BW and SSSAS and Giblin had with Club Blue and Prep has had good past results. Not a bad model to try again.

What is the model??

Anonymous wrote:That's a bit unfair. The Landon guys? Randy Laco, a Landon lacrosse dad, ran NL for years and basically got more tired and less enthused about it. Laco is a good guy, but frankly he stuck around the club lacrosse scene 5 years too long and wound up staying married to it mostly because NL also owns the facility which cash flows great for indoor lacrosse, baseball or other training. Give the new guys a chance for goodness sake. Look at what NL does have: great facility, access to turf fields and a young dedicated guy running it who can coach. It's all up from here for NL, the low is in.

I wasn't referring to Laco. Bordley's sons were hired to run the teams (and it brought over several Landon kids), but it didn't work out.

As for the facility, do you know how hard it is to have a facility like that? Unless you own the building outright, it is a very hard business. Utilization has to be very high and consistent in order to pay the bills. It's nice for a club if they get the space on good terms, but it's a hard business to run. That's why you rarely see athletic facilities stay in business for long.

Unlike Giblin, Conklin is also a gentleman. He doesn't need to model after anybody.

The model that Trig had for BW and SSSAS and Giblin had with Club Blue and Prep has had good past results. Not a bad model to try again.

Anonymous wrote:The Heights head coach.

It will be interesting to see if he can keep the talent there.

He might be able to do what Trig did for SSSA and BW. But with much less yelling and professionalism!

The Heights head coach.

It will be interesting to see if he can keep the talent there.