Has lacrosse “bubble” started to pop??

[co2519]

Continuing the thread jack...

We are all looking to see what the impact will be with the new recruiting rules.
1) Will private teams' importance grow less or just shift right?
2) Will grade repeating disappear/decrease because schools will get to see the prospects mature more?
3) Will non-hot-bed players get more attention since there is more time to evaluate?

Not related to the new recruiting rules but also germane: How will CTE/Concussion awareness impact lacrosse?
1) We can stop the "We want three sport athletes" charade?
2) Lacrosse will be lumped in with football as a sport to avoid?
3) Will the insurance companies charge dramatically more to insure youth lacrosse?
4) Could lacrosse be looked at as a less violent alternative to football and gain a slice of their pie?

Lots of things to consider inre the lax bubble.

The latest trend I see (up close) is 2021 (HS) kids "promising" to do a PG year, and then playing down a year with the '22 class, and their club teams letting them. It's awful.

[smoova]

The latest trend I see (up close) is 2021 (HS) kids "promising" to do a PG year, and then playing down a year with the '22 class, and their club teams letting them. It's awful.

Based on the first two letters of your username, I'm betting we know each other.

[6ftstick]

Fascinating thread

Posters rejoicing in bad news about the sport we love on a lacrosse site.

Ridiculous waster of time. Go away already.

[smoova]

Fascinating thread

Posters rejoicing in bad news about the sport we love on a lacrosse site.

Ridiculous waster of time. Go away already.

True - the best way to improve something is to ignore its shortcomings ...

[Dip&Dunk]

Fascinating thread

Posters rejoicing in bad news about the sport we love on a lacrosse site.

Ridiculous waster of time. Go away already.

From 6ftstick's profile:

Most active forum: POLITICS
(558 Posts / 98.94% of user’s posts)Most active topic: The Mueller Report and Impeachment
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[HooDat]

Fascinating thread

Posters rejoicing in bad news about the sport we love on a lacrosse site.

Ridiculous waster of time. Go away already.

who says it is bad news?

I couldn't give a rat's rear-end if the sport "grows"....

what I do care about is the sport being available to kids, KIDS, who might enjoy playing it.

If we don't call out the hucksters that are harming our sport here - where should we go to do so?....

sorry, I guess we're getting in the way of someone making a buck...

[QuakerSouth]

Yeah, well, youth sports is a BIG business, and yes, there are a lot of hucksters making a lot of money off the backs of kids. There are also a lot of people trying to do good who are making a lot of money.

My biggest issue with all of this is why are all these clubs trying to treat these kids like college or pro players? I mean look at the uniforms, warmups, and travel to Disney (what a scam that whole thing is). And they need new unis every season? Of course not! But there is someone making a living "selling" these unis to the teams/kids every season, and the clubs are getting kickbacks from it.

When I was a kid, we used the same unis year after year after year. They were turned in at the end of the year, and used for the next group aging up. Baseball pants torn at the knee? Some mom would sew 'em up and they were good to go. Travel games every other weekend? Ahh, no.

Let the kids be kids. Adults just muck it up with their own agendas.

Have 20-30 kids show up at a field or court. Within 15 minutes of warming up or shooting around, watch what happens. Almost every kids knows where they stand in that caste system. The two or three or four best kids know who they are. They step up and start picking teams. And everyone respects the picks and decisions. They referee themselves and respect calls. No, they don't agree on every foul someone calls, but they respect the fact that the guy thinks you fouled him, and play proceeds accordingly.

If someone is always calling ticky tak fouls, he will be branded as a complainer, and his calls won't be respected. The respect is seen when a call is made, and both teams of players go one way or the other to proceed with play. The lone complainer will be left standing alone, and will soon get the message that he better be more reasonable, or he won't get picked anymore. He'll end up going home. Self policing. Kids know how to do it.

Now look at the "professionally" run club teams. Coaches think they're gods. They play favorites. Parents are paying the coaches on the side for "private coaching" and miraculously, their kids play more no matter how dreadful that player is. Parents resort to cutting down kids with other parents. Parental cliques form. Johnny or Susie is branded an A player and always makes the top team, and many times, is "injured" during tryouts, so they can't tryout like everyone else. Father is instrumental in club governance. Stays on top team and never has to prove themselves against up-and-coming and improving players who may be better.

Log on to some of these "showcase" or tourney websites. You "must" stay at our partner hotels or your team will not be allowed to participate. Why? because the tournament organizer (read: adults) get a $$$ kickback for every room booked for the tourney. Think about that.

I remember seeing on one of the soccer websites a tab "how to make more money from your tournament." Everything in that tab was basically how to nickel and dime every parent/family out of more money for the weekend. Sad. And sickening.

I look forward to the day when we go back to the old style of play. Less organized. More fun for the kids. More of a learning experience for the kids-whether they were the kid who was picked last, or whether they were one who picked the teams.

Most of my kids have aged out of this garbage, and the last one is a swimmer; and there is no subjectivity there. Maybe it will revert back to the old days for my grandchildren!

[ctbagataway]

Well said, Quaker South. I ran one of the largest youth programs in the country for years and I always told people that youth sports are great, we just need to keep the parents out of it. As stated by another poster, I don't care if the sport grows or not--as much as I love the sport, I just want kids to find something, anything, that they can feel passionate about and have fun doing. And I believe team sports teach valuable life lessons.

With that said, US Lacrosse has for many years now been obsessed with following the examples of hockey and soccer, with an eye towards lacrosse becoming an Olympic sport. My response to them was always the same--first, I don't care if lacrosse is in the Olympics (that received an interesting response), and second, you couldn't pick two sports that are more broken at the youth level to emulate. Both are designed around early selection of "elite" players, funneling ever smaller groups of players into "national" teams. The best soccer players don't play for their high school teams, but rather for elite regional teams. The very best high school hockey players in the US are in Ann Arbor living with a host family playing for one of the two national development teams.

Where lacrosse thrives in the hotbeds, like great football or basketball towns, or Minnesota or Massachusetts hockey, is when it is primarily community based. Little kids grow up idolizing the high school players in their area, wanting to be them and pushing themselves to be better to get there. I have never, ever had a 10 year old tell me that they wanted to play for the AAA Elite Lax Summer Team when they get older.

Sports thrive when as many kids as possible continue to play for as long as possible. There is natural selection and cuts in high school, but that's ok. But it isn't ok if a kid thinks he can't pick up a stick at 11 because it is too late or too expensive to play for a summer team and he/she perceive that as a requirement to succeed.

[pcowlax]

What he said.

[Typical Lax Dad]

+1000

[DMac]

Standing O and +100,000 on Hoo's, QS's, and ctb's posts.
When I was a kid the best summer basketball league in the area was at Cayuga Lake State Park where there was a full length court (no longer there which is just unbelievable) with chain nets. Was a hugely popular spot where not only the kids from town went but the kids from the nearby towns came to as well (most of us played on the HS teams and ended up knowing one another well by summer's end). It went just as QS describes and it didn't cost anyone a dime....cept for maybe some of the campers who might have had a beer or two (okay, maybe four) stolen from their coolers when they went down to the water.
One funny memory that has always stuck with me was the day Cappy, the Newfoundland dog, came by (long before leash laws) and picked up one of the extra bballs at courtside and took off with it. It's not every day you see a dog with a basketball in his mouth.
Youth sports in the US is really ugly these days, glad my days were when they were.

[Dip&Dunk]

to scare the sh** out of you or to give you a lead:

https://www.i9sportsfranchise.com/how-m ... -can-make/

and yes Lacrosse is one of their targeted markets/sports

[palaxoff]

You know the other gorilla in the room we aren't talking about that is having an impact of on the number of younger athletes to fill the college ranks:
Video games, Social Media and Cell phones. There aren't many kids not tempted by these. Last week, tried to get my nephews and nieces to to go surfing, beautiful weather, warm water, and fun little waves. The looks that I got for suggesting this went from contemptuous to is this moron for real. When I was their age I'd have been in the water from Sun Up to Sun down.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Standing O and +100,000 on Hoo's, QS's, and ctb's posts.
When I was a kid the best summer basketball league in the area was at Cayuga Lake State Park where there was a full length court (no longer there which is just unbelievable) with chain nets. Was a hugely popular spot where not only the kids from town went but the kids from the nearby towns came to as well (most of us played on the HS teams and ended up knowing one another well by summer's end). It went just as QS describes and it didn't cost anyone a dime....cept for maybe some of the campers who might have had a beer or two (okay, maybe four) stolen from their coolers when they went down to the water.
One funny memory that has always stuck with me was the day Cappy, the Newfoundland dog, came by (long before leash laws) and picked up one of the extra bballs at courtside and took off with it. It's not every day you see a dog with a basketball in his mouth.
Youth sports in the US is really ugly these days, glad my days were when they were.

Those were the days. Where I grew up, it was competitive..... we played from 12:00 -3:00 inside in the Summer and then from 5:00 - 9:00 outside.....you played in the summer to improve. Today parents have been sold on this: If you want your kid to be good, you have to join a team. It is the opposite. You should work to be good so that you can make a team. Also, just because you showed up at the park, there was no guarantee that you would ever get to play.... unless you had a pick which the older guys would take if you didn't stand up for yourself. It wasn't until I moved to a new town that I realized there was such a thing as "the next 5 play" and "win two and you are off"...... If you had a squad you could stay on for hours! If you were good, a spot would be held for you in case you lost we called our own fouls...but if you called a foul but made the bucket, the bucket was wiped off.....

[HooDat]

So much love...now, get off my lawn!!

but seriously, why can't adults just not screw things up?

[old salt]

How will CTE/Concussion awareness impact lacrosse?

CTE not as much as FB. Don't have the number of repetitive sub-concussive impacts.

Did anyone play Indian Ball in the summer ?

[Fanlax999]

I read the recent posts, and I will add on to them:

>>>>Now look at the "professionally" run club teams. Coaches think they're gods. They play favorites. Parents are paying the coaches on the side for "private coaching" and miraculously, their kids play more no matter how dreadful that player is. Parents resort to cutting down kids with other parents. Parental cliques form. Johnny or Susie is branded an A player and always makes the top team, and many times, is "injured" during tryouts, so they can't tryout like everyone else. Father is instrumental in club governance. Stays on top team and never has to prove themselves against up-and-coming and improving players who may be better.

***This is exactly what went on in my community (and probably at every other lax comm.). My son's high school coach ran a travel team and offered private lessons. Big conflict of interest red flag for me, but hey, everyone including the school administration went along with the money ride. Saw kids who had no business on Varisty gettings lots of playing time. What the heck. I wonder how that happened -- wink, wink. During grade school and MS years, coach's sons got as much playing time as possible, even playing out of position so he could get playing time. The team revolved around the coach's son or they paid off the HS coach to watch over their boys. Sacrificed the team and other highly skilled players for their egos and selfishness. What a joke. Lacrosse is perfect for rich folks to bribe their way on. There are plenty of coaches with their hands out or in the pockets of parents. Greedy, greedy, greedy.


>>>Log on to some of these "showcase" or tourney websites. You "must" stay at our partner hotels or your team will not be allowed to participate. Why? because the tournament organizer (read: adults) get a $$$ kickback for every room booked for the tourney. Think about that.

***Can you say West Coast Starz? LOL. Money grubbers. They own the teams AND the tournament - LOL. But hey, any way to make a buck off the kids and parents, right? The only real fools here are the parents who keep on paying the fees and enabling these guys.



>>>Today parents have been sold on this: If you want your kid to be good, you have to join a team. It is the opposite. You should work to be good so that you can make a team.

***Bingo, hit it on the head!! They are also told, get on a team and get RECRUITED! LOL. Or get on a team and "have fun"; they market that because the team is really terrible and will lose a ton of games by double-digits so they try to emphasis "fun" and less on the learning how to play and get better part. I used to tell coaches my son practiced a lot on his own, so that is why he was so good (which is why they wanted him to join their team). They DON'T want to hear this. They want to say - and you to believe - THEY will make him good by playing on THEIR team - which is garbag. Many players i see lack basic, fundamental skills. I think this is because they never really focused on developing them while growing up with the sport and playing travel ball. Travel teams don't focus on fundamentals. They just want your money and for you and your kid to bang around out there on the field and in the stands. Many times their teams lose, and lose badly. Win or lose, they don't care. They got your freakn money already. That is their main and only objective. if your kids turns out good and gets noticed, any pub, or gets an offer, they are the first to take credit for it. If your son blows, they don't care. So what to them. They got you already on their rat wheel for the lacrosse team and endless fees.

[DMac]

You know the other gorilla in the room we aren't talking about that is having an impact of on the number of younger athletes to fill the college ranks:
Video games, Social Media and Cell phones. There aren't many kids not tempted by these. Last week, tried to get my nephews and nieces to to go surfing, beautiful weather, warm water, and fun little waves. The looks that I got for suggesting this went from contemptuous to is this moron for real. When I was their age I'd have been in the water from Sun Up to Sun down.

Yup, kids don't go outside anymore.
https://www.syracuse.com/news/2019/07/t ... ummer.html

[DMac]

Did anyone play Indian Ball in the summer ?

Played plenty of sand lot ball but never made the rules quite that complicated. Hit to the part of the field where nobody was was an out. Unless you were Dee Dee McNabb, of course. She could hit to any part of the field and have as many strikes as she needed. Anything to get her on base and watch her run. Geezuz H!!!!!

[Typical Lax Dad]

How will CTE/Concussion awareness impact lacrosse?

CTE not as much as FB. Don't have the number of repetitive sub-concussive impacts.

Did anyone play Indian Ball in the summer ?

Yes. We called it something else but that was it. It was fun.