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State Tournament

You have to think about this from the kids perspective, not the parents.
Kids are only going to try out for a team, 1)because they love the sport and 2)if it is a winning team.
How many kids would just be like "No im not playing we don't win any championships anyway" Sounds childish, but we are talking about boys and they are competitive. Also who doesn't want to be part of a winning team. Now its like...Well I cant go to Sallies so why even try! What's in in for Sallies to keep winning...to say they are state champs x8...9...10! Why not spread the wings and go elsewhere to find completion. Would that tarnish their name?
 
Exactly. I'm not hating on anyone, just pointing out the obvious. Many of these programs will get better over time but they will never be at the level that Sallies is now nor can we expect them to be given the situation. Many of the teams that are getting better (Dover, Appo, Milford to name a few) are going to continue to get better, but they don't have the numbers that Sallies has and they don't play together year around. Many of these athletes are 2 and 3 sport athletes and focus during the off season on other sports. In fact, some schools in the southern part of the State absolutely rely on multi sport athletes, otherwise many of their programs would fold. The playing field is defintely slanted in Sallies favor, definitely from a numbers perspective and to some degree from a rules perspective.
 
I will start of by saying I am not for or against Sallies, unless we are playing them then I am definitely against.

Tarnish, absolutely not Outofstate12.....I believe that Sallies was asked to join the inter ac conference, but did not because it was an all or nothing offer (football, basketball, lacrosse etc...). I also believe that if it were just a lacrosse offer they would take it and never look back, because winning the inter ac invitational is a much bigger prize than the Delaware State Championship or Pennsylvania State Championship for that matter.

Just by the schedule that is set you know that they want to play as few games in state as possible, just enough to qualify for the tourney. The staff knows that they can only get better by playing better teams which is why you see them playing high caliber out of state teams. It is hard to continue building a program when you can only play full speed with you starters for 24 minutes a game, hard to coach when you are worried about running up the score and tough to remain motivated when most of your in state games are decided by the end of the first quarter. I do not fault Sallies for the program that they have built or they players that transfer in or the kids that get recruited. (Yes recruited, not the hard core college press, but the chance encounter where you tell a kid he had a great game and you could always use another great midfielder. If you think that doesn't happen at more than just one school you're blind.) They put a lot of hard work in and play at a completely different speed than the rest of the state. So to exile them for being good makes no sense to me. I think what get's people fired up about Sallies is that they have no semblance of humility from the bench to the stands.

I do not know if their is a solution. There are 3/4 youth leagues that funnel the majority of their players to the consistent top 10 schools. The 10 strong remain strong the remaining 20 may have a surprise season with a few good players each year, but nothing sustainable and the remaining 14 will continue to beat each other up and lose by 10 goals or more to 75% of their schedule.
 
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just enough to qualify for the tourney.....Isn't that just like running up the score to 20+ plus like some other teams did this year (and got flack for)? Why bother playing any in state team for that matter, they have proved they are better than everyone else so why continue? Play out of states games until the rules change the only thing they would be losing is another state win!
 
Seriously, are you trying to say that Sallies playing Cape, CR, St. Marks x2 and Friends in the regular season is the equivalent of Appoquinimink dropping 28 goals on Glasgow team that scored 60 goals in a season?

Would you want to be on a team that wins the State Championship, but knows that they did not beat the best team in the state to win it?
 
They should just split into d1 and d2 like every other sport. Solve the problem of big schools playing small schools.
 
My point is, what does it prove? That you can beat every team in the state or you can beat a team by 25 is all the same and where does it get you?
 
Does any of this really matter? Sallies has the advantage of taking kids from three states, they get to pick and choose. So if they weren't better, it would be shocking. The initial statement was correct, big fish small pond. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Sounds like if they want to try the ocean, the AC is there for the asking.

LMAO "So if they weren't better, it would be shocking" My best sentence ever!!!!!
 
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The Inter AC idea has precedent although you have to go back before most of you were born. Sallies was part of the old Philadelphia Catholic League at one time.
 
When you hang that State Championship banner in your Gym, no one ever asks who you beat to get there.
 
No one asks because in Delaware everyone knows it's either Cape, CR or Tower Hill
 
FBLAX23 said:
Exactly. I'm not hating on anyone, just pointing out the obvious. Many of these programs will get better over time but they will never be at the level that Sallies is now nor can we expect them to be given the situation. Many of the teams that are getting better (Dover, Appo, Milford to name a few) are going to continue to get better, but they don't have the numbers that Sallies has and they don't play together year around. Many of these athletes are 2 and 3 sport athletes and focus during the off season on other sports. In fact, some schools in the southern part of the State absolutely rely on multi sport athletes, otherwise many of their programs would fold. The playing field is defintely slanted in Sallies favor, definitely from a numbers perspective and to some degree from a rules perspective.
Click to expand...


You assume that the Sals players are not multi-sport. You're wrong - take a look at the 12 all-state selections. 8 of 12 play two or more sports. Of the 1st team selections, all but 1. And they all do well in their other sports.
 
I remember the days when Sallies was just ok . . . . But, even then there were really only three teams that consistently challenged for a state title. Personally, I believe that the emergence of a dominant Sallies has really hurt the other up state schools including the other privates. If you are a really good upstate player which school would you want to go to? Sallies has done such a good job bringing good players in that the program has become self-perpetuating. They have a numbers advantage and the advantage of playing top out of state schools. I've heard people say other schools should schedule harder out of state teams, but that is a lot easier said than done. Think about the issues there. Because of conference play, most schools have limited opportunities to pick up out of state competition. Then you have to assume those schools have room in their schedules to play you and that they want to play you. Another issue is funding. Some schools don't want to allocate additional money for out of state travel. For some schools this won't be an issue but for others it is a big deal.

All that being said, I don't think anything should change. The state is too small to go public/private plus you would then get into the argument of school size advantages. Going to two divisions will probably lead to the same basic problem you have now. Sallies will dominate Division 1 and Tower Hill/Archmere (not sure if they're division 2) will dominate the other one. I think woodenstick has the right idea when he talks about improving youth lacrosse in the state. If youth lacrosse improved in the state you'd have more chances for teams to challenge the Sallies machine like Cape last year.
 
DELacrosse, very well said! However I do think that perhaps splitting Lacrosse into two Divisions like other sports may not be the perfect answer, but I think it would move things in the right direction. There is really no perfect answer, but right now there are several schools, public and private, that are struggling financially and the bulk of these schools cannot afford to go out of state nor are the out of state games readily available. Also, there are still several schools that do not have Lacrosse , most of whom would like to add it but can't for various reasons, one of which is the fact that they would be so far behind the existing competition. This is not a new problem, College Lacrosse is struggling with the same issues.
 
I find it amusing people are so worried about leveling the playing field. Over the past 15 years only 6 schools have won the state title. The playing field has never been even in Delaware. I don't see the gap in talent closing any time soon.
 
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Somebody help me with this but didn't William Penn wrestling drop out of the BHC for a few years in order to get better competition?
 
laxdude1269 said:
I find it amusing people are so worried about leveling the playing field. Over the past 15 years only 6 schools have won the state title. The playing field has never been even in Delaware. I don't see the gap in talent closing any time soon.
Click to expand...

For much of those years lax was a club sport much the same as ice hockey is today
 
No. In 2000 there was 25 teams playing varsity lacrosse in the state of Delaware. It was a varsity sport not club lacrosse.
 
Thank you Bummy. My admiration for you grows by the day except during football season...
 
I just want to point out one thing here. No team is required to play in the state tournament, it is totally optional. Maybe Sallies should take a break for a few years and go find a tournament with players up to their caliber.
 
I think we should keep the tournament it the way it is. Salesianum has been on a dominant run since 2007 but they were upset in the final "three" times in that span so its not like its impossible to beat them. Good programs with good and sometimes great players like TH and Cape will always have a chance.
 
laxdeusa said:
I think we should keep the tournament it the way it is. Salesianum has been on a dominant run since 2007 but they were upset in the final "three" times in that span so its not like its impossible to beat them. Good programs with good and sometimes great players like TH and Cape will always have a chance.
Click to expand...

Upset?

Their coaches must have read:
DFF6B75AE5F34CB9BE0201BA1CFBD311.ashx
 
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