Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a 2027 thread, but agree that Next Level 2028 is top team at that age group. Last three times Next Level-Madlax played during this spring and last summer, Next Level won every single game. Madlax is well ahead of BLC, but that gap is closing.

Is it really???

Madlax is the better team. With better players.

Then why has NextLevel won three in a row?

They have not.


Madlax beat NL 7-3 in the Fall.

Also Madlax have beaten better teams. Check scores vs common opponents.

Uhhh...Madlax 2028 has also lost to much "worse" teams in the fall. They lost so many games that they changed their team name retroactively after the tournaments were played to Madlax Monuments. What a complete joke.

What is the story with VLC 2027? Looks like that had a pretty solid season in AAA HOCO. Where did all the players go and why?

Prostart has had decent HS teams but are not starting to go into younger youth teams and plan to play in HOCO at 2027. Many of the kids in South River and ALC did not have a HS option and went to Prostart, now they can go earlier. Word is the tryouts were well attended and a lot of talent from other teams in the area like True.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d never heard of Prostart until recently. Apparently they’re a well respected club.

Very strange. I have multiple sons playing travel lacrosse (including one 2027) and I have never heard of Prostart. Not in HoCo, not in any tournaments, nothing. Do they go by a different name? What am I missing?

I’m not sure what you’re missing but I’m missing it too. Apparently they have their own tournaments. Weird.

Anonymous wrote:I’d never heard of Prostart until recently. Apparently they’re a well respected club.

Very strange. I have multiple sons playing travel lacrosse (including one 2027) and I have never heard of Prostart. Not in HoCo, not in any tournaments, nothing. Do they go by a different name? What am I missing?

Anonymous wrote:NVYLL participation is way down. The number of teams is up. Not enough players to fill all of these clubs. The clubs did it to themselves by not supporting NVYLL

This is an issue for most sports. COVID really did a number on participation at all levels of sports (think basketball, soccer, football, etc.) for several reasons. I can tell you talking with several AAU/Travel basketball coaches that all said their tryout numbers were down. I know Arlington Travel Basketball's tryout numbers last fall were at about 50% of what they normally would have been. I think ATB could barely field one 8th grade girls team when they normally fielded 3 teams after a large tryout. ATB has done a bunch of other dumb things - some of them imposed by Arlington and others dumb decisions on their own.

First, most rec leagues didn't play in 2020 and only travel teams did play. Thus, kids that played on travel teams didn't play other rec sports. They get more concentration in that one sport and it becomes more of a commitment as you age up. This means another sport that a good athlete can play gets eliminated as they age up. This impacts 27s, which are 8th grade and looking at HS. This means some kids are focusing on one sport.

Second, some parents are still limiting their kids ability to play sports and other activities because of COVID (for what ever reasons those are). That further drives down numbers.

Anonymous wrote:VLC 2027 won’t be fielding a team this year. Not enough players to field a team and boys are moving to several different clubs. It should be interesting to see how things work out this year.

Weren't there two VLC teams last year? There should have been the VLC-Cavs combo team and then the VLC team that existed before. Or did they only have 1 team last year. That is quite a gut punch to go from 2 teams to 0 teams in less than a year. Though I know several VLC parents that weren't happy with the merger/purchase for a variety of reasons (some related to the purchase some not). But, I guess that is to be expected in any type of merger/purchase - be it lacrosse or business. Unhappy people move with their feet.

I’d never heard of Prostart until recently. Apparently they’re a well respected club.

If including Annapolis area teams I would add Prostart. They will for a force in the future.

Ok, the original post asked what is the landscape, so here is my best crack at ranking the 2027 DMV options from best to worst, now that VLC is out of the picture, and the chances of making the team for a new player. I am including Annapolis in the DMV, but that may be a stretch geographically for some.

1. Hawks - great team but unless you're the next Gary Gait, no chance of making the team as a new player
2. NextLevel - clear #2 to Hawks, but equally difficult to make as a new player
3. MadLax - tryouts roll into the fall and if your son is good, they will take him; if not, they will still take him with the promise of Capital (A team) but then shuttle him between A and B teams
4. True Annapolis - they will take anybody, anytime, with a credit card
5. DC Express - The A team roster ("Black") is supposedly locked down, but they have holes to fill, and if your son is an upgrade they will probably take him
6. Hammers - this is the sleeper team and will probably pick up the better VLC players, and by fall could potentially beat all the teams on this list, except Hawks and NextLevel

These six are the A level options, and the next tier are HardLax (not sure if they have a 2027 team, but I think they do), the MadLax and DCE B teams (called "DMV" and "Orange" respectively), and the various True teams (DC, VA, etc.) New teams are popping up all the time so I probably missed a couple of B level teams.

NVYLL participation is way down. The number of teams is up. Not enough players to fill all of these clubs. The clubs did it to themselves by not supporting NVYLL

That is unfortunate. Most teams have already had their tryouts and formed rosters. Teams will always make room for a new player that fills a position need, or is good enough to elevate the team overall. But the worst time of year to add a player is right now - when the ink is barely dry on the roster and kids who attended tryouts were turned away.

That’s too bad. When did they make this decision? I hope it was in enough time for other boys to tryout and make teams.

VLC 2027 won’t be fielding a team this year. Not enough players to field a team and boys are moving to several different clubs. It should be interesting to see how things work out this year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 2028 banter is great, but here is my two cents to the OP question about the 2027 landscape:

NextLevel - By far the best, would beat the other three by 5-10 goals or more. But the roster is too big, so the bottom half of the roster will be looking at new options for fall, plus probably a couple of starters. And, they always choke in big games, such as the Hawks.

MadLax - Used to be competitive with NextLevel and Hawks, but no longer. Defense is good but has too many players, and the offense has tanked since they went to parent coaching.

DC Express - This team picks up where BLC ends, and the 2027 BLC team was AAA this past spring, compared to the 2025 and 2026 teams that were elite. But DCE will be drawing from Team Maryland, other DC teams, and the Baltimore teams.

VLC - This team was top half of AAA in the spring, and is working hard to recruit from Hammers and elsewhere. Potentially an elite team by next spring, but not certain.

Bottom line, there will be some movement this fall, and when the dust settles, NextLevel will remain the best in 8th grade, and DCE will probably pull even by 9th grade. Hope this helps.

This is a great summary. It’s just interesting how DCE is typically strong but the feeder BLC is not. I wonder if they’re able to recruit some of the top players from the clubs you described above.

Not strictly accurate to say BLC is not competitive with NL and Madlax as a whole. For years 27 and 28, BLC teams are weaker because both squads lost several key players during the COVID restart in 2020. NL and Madlax were quicker to get back to the field and parents of kids in the 27 and 28 age groups bolted for organizational issues dealing with field time in 2020 on light of COVID. For 29 and down and 25 and up, the three organizations are pretty even and it just depends on the year who is better. So hard to say what will happen with DCE 27 and 28. Could be outlier weaker teams like NL has at 26 or maybe the make up the gap with player movement. Hard to tell because 27 and 28 are so different in this way from other years.

Yes I remember the COVID challenges. I also remember hearing rumors about BLC blowing up over some parent coach issue. Not really interested in rehashing that. I simply bring it up to say the 27s may struggle more than the 28s.