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WMLYC Adds Tiering

12/10/2012, 12:45pm EST
By CMRC Lax

WMYLC Announces Tiering Structure for 2013 Spring Season

Western Maryland Youth Lacrosse Conference (WMYLC) announced today that the 2013 Spring Lacrosse season will implement a new team tiering structure for both boys and girls lacrosse. The new structure will enable the conference to better respond to the incredible growth in both the quantity and quality of lacrosse in the area by expanding the opportunities available to all of our players.

Team tiering is a concept that has been successfully implemented by numerous sports organizations throughout the area and the country including football, soccer, baseball, and softball. The basic premise behind tiering is to group teams based on their skill and capability. Teams within their respective group (or tier) will play games against each other during the regular season and at the end of the year tournament.

The board of WMYLC and the representative clubs adopted the new structure this fall. The tiering will apply to the U11, U13 and U15 age levels. The teams will be tiered based on an evaluation done by each club or organization. U7(Scoopers) and U9 will not be tiered as we continue to concentrate on instructional-focused play for those age groups.

During discussions on the tiering concept, the following benefits to our regional lacrosse players were cited by the WMYLC member clubs:

  • Even Competition – Games will be more evenly matched between teams of similar skill level allowing for more quality competition. This will lessen the number of very uneven scores where the winning teams modify their game play and losing teams struggle with confidence and risk safety. ALL players benefit from more evenly matched competition.
  • Accelerated Skills – With tiering, advanced skilled players will be more challenged with more skill teammates and higher quality competition. Developing players will get more meaningful game action and have more opportunity to handle the ball. Tiering will help ALL of our athletes accelerate their skills, capability, and knowledge of the game.
  • Retaining our Regional Players – With the explosive growth of lacrosse, there are a growing number of opportunities for our lacrosse athletes in the region. Tiering will provide our kids with opportunities to play quality recreational lacrosse without having to travel to great distances.

WMYLC is a recreational lacrosse conference that currently serves western Maryland , southern Pennsylvania, and the West Virginia panhandle. The organization is dedicated to promoting boy’s and girl’s lacrosse in our region and providing them with best opportunities to grow their knowledge, skill, and love for game of lacrosse. More specific details can be found on the WMYLC web site(www.wmylc.org)

CMLAX Response to Tiering

CMLAX is holding evaluations in order to properly and fairly place players on teams and teams in to the WMYLC divisions.  As tiering is just starting this season, we did not have to hold evaluations last season.

For age groups where we have more than one team, CMLAX will hold impartial evaluations of the players in January / February. Based on these evaluations, those players demonstrating more advanced skills will be offered a spot on the A division team. Those players with developing skills will be placed on a B division team.

For age groups where we have a single team, CMLAX will hold an evaluation to determine whether the team should be placed in the A or B division.

Since the first games are on March 16th, CMLAX needs to form the teams no later than mid-February.  In order to ensure we get the evaluations done, we need to hold them indoors.  FISC is the only nearby facility and they did not have any availability in the evenings or on a weekend.  We had to go with Jan 23rd and Feb 7th as the majority of our players have those days off from school.

We appreciate everyone's patience and understanding as we work through this for the first time. CMLAX will make sure that EVERY player that registers has a place to play.

If would like more information, please email Mark Tognetti at cmaa.lax@gmail.com or call 240.215.4265.

Tag(s): Lacrosse  Boys  Girls