Anonymous wrote:None of these kids has anything to be ashamed of. But the point you are proving is that Madlax doesn't have enough home grown talent that they develop themselves and instead rely on recruiting and importing kids from other areas to carry them in tournaments. Hawks doesn't do that and they still beat Madlax at every single age group, including in the summer.

Nobody has enough home grown talent at any age to compete with the Hawks, at least in this area. They run a very good program with a ton of very good teams at all ages. In the Summer, a lot of kids jump around to find teams (in particular, from smaller youth lacrosse markets) that play at the highest levels. Madlax is an option; as are others. I would think all clubs would be working to knock them off in the coming years, right? They are the at the top of the mountain...work to knock them off, if you have the stones to even try!

None of these kids has anything to be ashamed of. But the point you are proving is that Madlax doesn't have enough home grown talent that they develop themselves and instead rely on recruiting and importing kids from other areas to carry them in tournaments. Hawks doesn't do that and they still beat Madlax at every single age group, including in the summer.

Anonymous wrote:What happened to Madlax this season in HoCo? I know they are '#1 in the nation' atop USCLub Ranking at every age group, and dominate Florida every January. But jeez, only one team in the whole program even made it to a HoCo final ('28s, got blown out by Hawks for the second time in 3 weeks). Sad.

There was a very plausible explanation in the Back of the Cage forum. Apparently, Caps 2025 that plays in tournaments is different from the HoCo team. For tournaments they bring in powerful players from out of state. Stands to reason those out of state players aren't going to fly in every weekend for meaningless HoCo games.

I don't know if that's true for the other Caps teams but it wouldn't surprise me.

Caps 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 had winning records and made the playoffs. 2028 was in the championship game. Those teams have nothing to be ashamed of.

What happened to Madlax this season in HoCo? I know they are '#1 in the nation' atop USCLub Ranking at every age group, and dominate Florida every January. But jeez, only one team in the whole program even made it to a HoCo final ('28s, got blown out by Hawks for the second time in 3 weeks). Sad.

Anonymous wrote:Any parent dropping $4K for 3rd and 4th grade lacrosse is flushing money down the toilet. Stick with rec until kids are in 6th grade.

It would be a mistake to wait until 6th unless you can find a really good rec team with a good coach. I would just find a cheaper club.

Anonymous wrote:The contention that Madlax is in decline are mostly wrong. Whatever ranking system one uses the top Madlax teams are strong for basically every year. They are pretty dominant in the Virginia market. Next Level and BLC/DCE have eaten into some of Madlax’s former MD market. But they are still fielding quality teams each year. I think Madlax caught a break by VLC not entering the youth market earlier. Of the big four clubs - Madlax, NL, BLC/DCE, and VLC - VLC is in the weakest position because they don’t have an established feeder for their teams. Until VLC gets into the early elementary market, Madlax is going to have a big chunk of the NOVA talent to themselves. Cavs etc. don’t provide a viable alternative because no one trusts that their older teams will be competitive and compete in important recruiting tournaments. The only thing that is likely to displace Madlax as one of the very best programs anywhere is a strong VLC move into the youth market to provide a feeder for their older teams.

You are speaking of True that is true

Any parent dropping $4K for 3rd and 4th grade lacrosse is flushing money down the toilet. Stick with rec until kids are in 6th grade.

The fact that CM attempted to blackball ungrateful quitter and UQ ended up on the collegiate National Champion team tells you all you need to know about the ML/college pipeline. Spend that extra ML fee on SAT prep instead.

The contention that Madlax is in decline are mostly wrong. Whatever ranking system one uses the top Madlax teams are strong for basically every year. They are pretty dominant in the Virginia market. Next Level and BLC/DCE have eaten into some of Madlax’s former MD market. But they are still fielding quality teams each year. I think Madlax caught a break by VLC not entering the youth market earlier. Of the big four clubs - Madlax, NL, BLC/DCE, and VLC - VLC is in the weakest position because they don’t have an established feeder for their teams. Until VLC gets into the early elementary market, Madlax is going to have a big chunk of the NOVA talent to themselves. Cavs etc. don’t provide a viable alternative because no one trusts that their older teams will be competitive and compete in important recruiting tournaments. The only thing that is likely to displace Madlax as one of the very best programs anywhere is a strong VLC move into the youth market to provide a feeder for their older teams.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do realize that Madlax had four age groups finish the summer ranked #1 in the nation. Not sure what you mean by “on the decline”

Any Madlax and usclublax ranking is suspect since they are in business together.

That is true but Madlax is still ranking highly.

Anonymous wrote:You do realize that Madlax had four age groups finish the summer ranked #1 in the nation. Not sure what you mean by “on the decline”

Any Madlax and usclublax ranking is suspect since they are in business together.

Anonymous wrote:You do realize that Madlax had four age groups finish the summer ranked #1 in the nation. Not sure what you mean by “on the decline”

I'm not particularly a ML/CM fan but I agree that it would be silly to say that ML is on the decline. Their DMV teams don't make much sense, but their top teams are usually top ranked, not sure about #1 in the nation, but regardless, ML top teams are elite teams.

You do realize that Madlax had four age groups finish the summer ranked #1 in the nation. Not sure what you mean by “on the decline”

[quote=Anonymous]I don't care about who wins a little youth tournament or the middle school HOCO league. That is OK if you do, everyone has different priorities.

I care about college placement and college coach connections - what is going to give my son the best opportunity to get a crack at the collegiate level.

Mad Lax College placement dwarfs what Next Level has ever done - the numbers don't lie. And if you look at the college placement of the NL kids, its primarily the private school kids from Landon, Georgetown Prep and Gonzaga. While Mad Lax has a number of private school players too, they also seem to do a great job with the public school players as well. I am well aware of some of the previous tactics with the Mad Lax owner but has of now, we have had no issues with the owner or club. (started in MS and son is now in HS)

For all these reasons, our son has stuck with the Mad Lax program.

I hope it works out for your son and family too.

[/quote]

MadLax is a fine club. But implying that MadLax offers any type of college placement advantage over other area programs is wishful thinking. And your theory that CM has some magic touch with public school players that other clubs lack is... how do I say this without hurting your feelings?... BS.

Clubs rise and fall. MadLax is in decline right now across a majority of their teams. That's ok. Doesn't mean they can't rise again. Doesn't mean your son can't thrive there. If the club is convenient for you and your kid is happy and improving, great. That's all that matters.

But please don't try to fool yourself or others into thinking your son has a better chance of playing college ball in a few years due to CM's 'college coach connections' or C.A.S.E. system or past college placements.

If you're making your kid 'stick' with a youth club team because you think ML has an 'advantage' on college lacrosse placement than I'm guessing a.) this is your oldest kid... b.) you've never been through the recruiting process before... and c.) again, how do I say this nicely... sorry, but it's unlikely to go the way you want.

great perspective, thank you for sharing