Another Youth Lacrosse League? Eastside Youth Lacrosse Association
After the recent events, there will be a group of programs forming a league of youth teams on the Eastside. Just heard some of these points...
Eastside Youth Lacrosse Association
1. A & B divisions for 7th/8th, 5th/6th & 3rd/4th grades.
2. League & divisional playoffs and championships for 7th/8th & 5th/6th grades.
3. 40"-42" sticks for 1st/2nd & 3rd/4th grades, 40"-60" sticks for 5th/6th grades & 40"-72" sticks for 7th/8th grades.
4. Website tracking and posting of team and player statistics.
5. The league will be hiring, training and assigning it's own referee's for more consistent referee performance and attendance.
Is this a good idea? What will happen to the existing league and teams? Will TYLA break off now? What will happen to Lynnwood's youth and the northern leagues? Will this make regional leagues based on geography or talent?
I heard they are going to
I heard they are going to have an exhibition game some time in the next few weeks between two 5th/6th grade teams,..using the new leagues rules.
Should be interesting.
Emergency on Call
Should be interesting indeed. Watching 5th and 6th graders slash each other with d-poles that are 2 feet longer than the players are tall. What will be really exciting is to watch them trip over the long poles as they try to clear the ball by running down field. What parent does not want to watch their budding young attacker or midfielder have his wrist or arm broken because the 6th grader, with a 72" titanium d-pole, "missed" with his "well coached" slap check?
You are what is wrong with lacrosse and how people view it. Lacrosse is not 10 guys with clubs against another 10 guys with clubs. It is supposed to be graceful (VIOLENCE WITH GRACE)not an East v West rumble in the parking lot.
If it were the latter, we would not have trouble finding fields, now, would we??
Maybe you should actually go
Maybe you should actually go out and watch a few 5-6 lax games. Maybe then you would realize the size of some of the young men playing.
What you describe would be more in line with handing long poles to 3-4th graders.
Having coached at both levels over the last 4 years, I completely agree with starting a new league. This is the first year since begining coaching that I can say my team has not been challenged in a scheduled game. The coaching level has decreased significantly, making the level of play lower than I have ever seen it. Looking back at my scorebooks I have seen a greater number of slashing penalties, this year, over the last 3 years combined. Which I believe to be directly related to teaching improper defensive technique. It has gotten to the point that my players enjoy our intrasquad scrimmages more than their scheduled games. I have also taken to scheduling separate scrimmages against teams that I know the coaches of, so that my team can actually play a real lacrosse game every once in a while.
If we keep watering down the level of youth lacrosse in Washington, the high school level will not be far behind.
How would this change things
Aren't you already playing the clubs who would be in this new league?
I don't see how this avoids "watering down" the competition or increases the skill of coaches.
One of the coaches you played against was Jordan Bayley, do you include him among the lesser coaches?
I think what you are concerned about is the natural result of growth. Many of the youth clubs on the eastside are less than 4 years old (Issaquah, Eastlake, Sammamish, Northshore). When your clubs are still growing interest you don't often get the top local talent, that usually comes later after you have been established for a few years (Like Bellevue LAX which has been around for over a decade at least at the HS level).
There is another component that can impact competitiveness, do you give all your players equal time? Even the less skilled ones? Most programs do, but not all. Also, some program goals are less about competitiveness and more about growing as much as possible and giving the max number of kids the chance to play. Look at the great job the Issaquah youth program has done to grow from nothing, to the biggest program (from a participation standpoint) in just a few years. Many programs are less (or not at all) focused on winning, but in building a base of skills and participants so that by HS they are in the best position to compete.
There is a lot more to youth lacrosse than just being competitive.
Who?
Who is Jordan Bayley? Yes, I do have a problem with many of the coaches I coach against. I go to every educational opportunity available to coaches in the western Washington area, and am often amazed at the small number of youth coaches in attendence. I haven't seen any of the coaches I have coached against in the last 2 regular seasons at a single coaching clinic. So, I hope if someone is starting a new advanced youth league that they require the coaches involved to get some type of training in coaching lacrosse.
Good try
Except one thing "40"-60" sticks for 5th/6th grades" So that kinda shoots your argument in the foot. But thanks for the effort
What new rules
Other than stick length, are there any other rule changes?
Who, what, when .....
Who's talking/facilitating this move, and how does one get involved besides just typing a few lines on this site.
Washington Lax Keeps on Developing!
It’s exciting to see that Washington Lacrosse has reached the point so quickly as to make this a logical next step. TYLA, Westside, North and East all can focus on developing lacrosse to the max in their respective areas. There’s a lot of good energy out there to build lacrosse and this sounds like it can give folks the opportunity to put that into action where they can make the most impact.
BYLW can put it’s efforts into developing lacrosse statewide and provide high-level leadership without having to cater to the needs of the established clubs. Sounds like the next right move in a long series of them.
Hmmm....
So this is what happens when a team thinks it should have won a championship: it goes and creates its own league. " I'm not playing with you anymore." The immaturity here is overwhelming. The kids (and coaches/ parents) should not be interested in statistics and standings; they and their parents should be interested in learning the game. Parents need to pull their heads from their collective butt's and realize nobody cares what happened when they were in 3rd grade. I bet most parents cannot remember what they did in HS 20 years ago let alone what happened in 3rd grade. The point is nobody cares unless they are playing TRIVIAL Pursuit and that is only if there is some ridiculous version of it like "Obscure East King County (WA) Lacrosse" edition that only 2 people will buy. Honestly who cares how many goals a 6th grader can score if he can't read or do the math required to figure out how many minutes he played? Lacrosse is sport and a hobby. Like NCAA says, there are many who play college sports but only a few go onto play professionally. So why put that pressure on a 6th grader? Why do you need a league to track statistics any moron with a piece of paper and a pencil can track? How are statistics a measure of a person's or a team's worth? No statistical measure can do that? Case in point, nobody would have picked Florida to demolish Ohio State they way they did or maybe more appropriate, nobody would have picked UMass to make it to the final game and give UVA a run for their money. So please tell me why you think knowing how many groundballs a 7th grader has is important and why his father cannot keep track of them. Why are championships and statistics important? Because without them, perhaps you live shallow hollow lives with no meaning or purpose. Why do you feel the need to pass that low self esteem on to your kids? Or maybe you are trying to compensate for something you lack (like a championship)? Either way, stop trying to live vicariously through your kids and let them have their own lives. I have been to state championships in two sports and 20 years later they do not mean anything to anybody but me and some friends who I occasionally talk to and see at HS reunions. I went on to college, earned a degree and now a good job. My hope is for my son to have the same opportunity but how many goals he scores this year or next will not make or break him in the future. Wake up!!
?
"So this is what happens when a team thinks it should have won a championship: it goes and creates its own league."
What team are you talking about here?
New League
I think they should post scores online and have playoffs (at least for middle school) because that is good for competition. However, I think that keeping stats of little kids and middle schoolers is stupid, not only because it teaches them to be selfish and they get cocky, but also because some of the statistics are skewed because the youth game is often at such a low level. Lots of teams have one decent player who ball hogs it the entire game and gets ridiculous stats and would get glorified online. Where there are some actual "teams" where the scoring is spread more evenly. We need to have our youth leagues be a strong, spirited team compitition, but it shouldn't be focused on stats. Come on, save something for high school!
Agreed.
I don't think an elitist approach toward middle school is neccessary or right. Perhaps we should work harder to improve the overall quality of teams on the other side of the lake, not just split apart and wish them the best.
great idea.
The current league rules serve to do no more than water down the talent and dumb the game down. I have been coaching at the 3-4 and 5-6 level for the last 4 years, and the league has grown significantly. The first couple years the games were all competative. Last year we had games against maybe 2-3 teams that were competative and this year we haven't played a single team yet that has been properly coached. A direct result of the watering down of thne sport. Not enough trained coaches to handle the # of kids playing. Having a league for the established programs only would do everything to raise the level of play in this state. Also, which programs are showing interest? My $.02
"a league for the established programs only"
I think it will be based on how established the program is, as well as where the program is. If it's regional (which it is), it would rule out the established programs on the westside. This would be for league play only, while still allowing "exhibition" style non-league games against westside opponents. These games would be left up to the individual program or team to schedule.
However, just because a program is located on the eastside, does not necessarily qualify them for this league. I imagine those qualifications would be along the lines of program structure, size and ability of that program (potential & current) and whether or not that program feeds a "high school" affiliated - high school team (i.e. Eastlake, Skyline, Issaquah, Mercer Island, Maple Valley/Tahoma, Sammamish, Bellevue, etc.).
N/A
N/A
...
Regardless of what you may think you can hire referee-wise, you will hire WALOA officials. They will do an excellent job as well.
E.Y.L.A. Ref's
There are no bad feelings towards the actual waloa referee's, and I'm sure that they'll probably use some of those refs, they just want to train and schedule them themselves. It will make it easier for the new league and waloa.
By keeping everything scaled down and in-house, the league won't have to worry about "referee no-shows" at any of their games. The ref's organization as well as the current youth league are both overwhelmed with too many teams and too many games (just ask them). This new league, being run completely by itself, will take a huge burden off of the current youth league and waloa.
I'm Curious
How can you say having another league will reduce the number of no-shows: Will you have your own officials?? Are there trained lacrosse officials growing in the trees on the eastside?? If there are, where have they been while the officials are working 3-4 games on any given Saturday?
new league
Why can't these changes be made with the current youth league, and why are they trying to take the competitive nature out of it anyway (i.e. no playoffs, no posting scores). I definately think they should have those two things, although I think stats shouldn't be posted for youth cuz they'll get all cocky and play selfishly, and there needs to be something saved for high school. We don't want youth to be the same as high school. It should be a big thing when you move up to high school where its big time. I just wonder if this league is gonna spread everything too thin. I like having one statewide league. It seemed the current one was working great last year, but this year they took all the competitive nature out of it, so now it sucks.
Just the opposite.
hitstickyall said: "I just wonder if this league is gonna spread everything too thin."
It will actually do the exact opposite. The current league is spread too thin as it is right now. There are way too many teams and way too many programs for that board to handle. This new league, by limiting it's size to just 8 programs (and all the teams that they have within their programs), will be far more efficiently run and more focused on what those 8 programs want there league to look like.
I don't know how the old league will look after all the eastside teams leave, but the new league, if they run it right, should be far more organized and competitive!
Makes Sense
SeattleLax, I see what you're saying. So basically these two leagues (even though they are seperate) will both end up feeding into the current high school league (which I presume is being ran well). Good point.
Finally!!
I think this is a great idea! Besides all the obvious advantages to the rule changes listed above, the youth leagues need to be more regionalized and limited in size, so that each program in that league can have more input on what they want that league to look like.
Why should the smaller, less structured and less established programs around the state have a say in what the larger and more established programs on the eastside do, and how they run there league and programs.
No offense to the smaller and newer programs, but the larger and more established programs obviously have things figured out. Why should they limit themselves, and hold back the success of their programs to help programs that are 10 years behind them, and 30 miles away.
Why should they help?
The larger and more established programs are exactly who should work to improve the league as a whole, as that is the only way to improve the games and the competition. Unless the "more established programs" try to raise the level of play around them, they will always be "10 years ahead" wondering why they have no-one to play.
Sound theory but...
... but I think what the established clubs would say is that there are other established programs to play and they don't necessarily need 40 unique clubs around the state dictating the terms by which they compete with those programs or by which they coach their established teams/players. Plus, having some level of independence affords different groups to try different things to develop players, programs without having to water them down with 40+ programs deliberations. Then everyone can take a step back and see what's working and adopt it.
That said, I'm not getting the sense that this is an "established" vs "new" issue. It sounds like it's as much or more geographical as it relates to travel and "density" - as well as lining up better with High Schools, WIAAA Conferences and other youth sports programs (e.g. Football, basketball). There have been folks in the north anxious to align similar to youth football for sometime so a move like this should help facilitate that.