If your son got recruited to play college lacrosse, please share your experience and tips...
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
Do not get sucked in at this age. Most kids will burn out if the pressure comes from the parents/coaches. We've noticed over the years that success comes more to those kids who have their own internal drive to make it happen. Also it is very risky to put all your eggs in one basket - especially for a kid's mental health. Anything can happen to derail that dream. While it's great to have a goal like that, parents need to manage expectations while encouraging and letting DK know that it's fine to change directions, serious injuries can happen etc. They have to be thinking also about life after that sport. Just because your kid seems to have talent and/or interest in something, doesn't mean that's their dream. There is little to no money for playing lax in college. Most athletes across all sports do not end up playing 4 years in college - very few actually do. D1 sports are a full-time job, and academics come in second. If your kid wants to be a doctor or engineer, playing sports in college isn't truly feasible. I don't know about you but if my kid wanted either of those professions, I'd not be encouraging college sports at the D1 level. That said if your kid makes it on to a top club team by sophomore year and thus is playing at tournaments where coaches are viewing and/or is self-motivated to get a tape and send it out to coaches, chances are pretty good. However, one doesn't need to do zillions of clinics and so on to get there. An excellent athlete who plays wall ball on their own time/works on stick skills, weight lifts as developmentally appropriate, plays on a top club team and a decent high school team with great coaching plus has high lax IQ (meaning reads the field) should appeal to coaches and stand out on the field. DS played a number of club sports (not travel) until high school, started to focus most on lax as I lay out above and is being recruited now for D1 but hopes to use it to get into the best academic school he can. Hopefully he will keep his mind open about D3 NE schools. Basketball and soccer can help build lacrosse skills too and the better coaches will prefer kids to get broader skills from a variety of sports while young. Often injuries are fewer using this route. FWIW Madlax has a $1200 annual fee on top of other fees and is not worth the money in my opinion aside from the horrible reputation of the owner. There are plenty of other clubs out there. |
Anonymous
| Are D-3 schools restricted by the recruiting rules for D-1. In other words, can a coach have direct contact with my son before junior year, and can they make an offer at any time? |
Anonymous
Great post, PP! |
Anonymous
The odds of any high school kid playing Division 1, recruited or not, is very low. The odds of getting a scholarship even lower (and usually it will just be a partial scholarship). And with the way the sport is growing in other parts of the country, those odds are going to decrease even more over time. This website seems to have fairly reliable data in this regard: http://www.scholarshipstats.com/lacrosse.html As others have said, let your child dictate what they want to do. If they love lacrosse, have the ability, and you have the funds, then sure, let them play club ball. But don't do it solely with your eyes on the prize of a scholarship. |
Anonymous
No they are not. D3 can reach out before Sept of Jr yr (D1 must wait until then to call/reach out). They can and do but generally I hear they generally get commits later during summer between jr and sr year and throughout sr year. DS has received lots of interest from D3 his sophomore year but is not ready to commit anywhere. I'm sure they would be happy if he'd lock in but he has no interest in doing so before he sees what his D1 options might be. Because of interest in D1, I think a lot of D3 commits come later (except maybe for NESCAC schools). The kid has to get a read to see if they can pass the admissions bar. He did go to one event which was useful because they talked about the recruiting process at a Q and A that parents also attended. Otherwise, DS just replies thanks and I'll let you know what tournaments/club team I'm playing for...he is being looked at by D1 schools now so I'm guessing nothing will shake out until end of junior year. The kids need test scores, more grades and more time in front of the recruiters/visiting colleges. You can visit any school one time officially for the sport and there's a limit of 5 (I think) for D1 - if you're lucky to have interest from 5 D1 schools that your kid/you think might be a fit academically as well. |
Anonymous
| Does division 2 start to come calling at some point? All I hear about from parents is my kid wants D1 but D3 is recruiting him. I never hear a word about D2 teams. And thank you all for the input. Great discussion. I’m the parent to posted on the 19th Great discussion. I’m the parent who posted on the 19th about my 9 year old. |
Anonymous
Yes, they are emailing our DS now along with D1. I don't think DS is interested in any of them as they are not schools we are familiar with - but they may be great for others. If you go on the NCAA website you can see lists of the schools in each division. I think that D2 and 3 may hold off some to see who's left after D1 gets to call. Most kids aren't ready to commit immediately unless it's a dream school. Also the rule change goes into effect this year for the first time so we won't really know until later this fall how things will shake out for 2020s. |
Anonymous
+100 |
Anonymous
Note: D2 Lax programs can offer payers "more" money than D1 programs. D3 schools don't have athletic scholarships, but can offer merit aid and grants based on acedemics and demonstrated need. However, take a look at the D2 Lacrosse schools to see if the academic fit is there... https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/lacrosse-men/d2 |
Anonymous
actually, the percentage of HS lacrosse players who play in college is higher that other sports... Check out stats from the NCAA... http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/estimated-probability-competing-college-athletics |
Anonymous
True, but 12.4% is still pretty low, and the question I was responding to related to the odds of playing Division 1, which at 2.9% I'd still characterize as very low. |
Anonymous
But still a low 12.5 percent and dropping as more schools add lacrosse programs. |
Anonymous
| My DS (2019) has played club for the past 5 or 6 years, but not with the area's top teams. His intended college major is very specialized, so it allowed us to limit the number of D3 schools that were options both academically, geographically, and from a lacrosse standpoint. As someone else posted, D1 lacrosse is a full time job, so that wasn't on option in our view. He hasn't officially committed, but will do so soon. We got almost no help from his HS coach or club coach in the recruiting process, but it worked out fine. I hear people talk about 'emailing' coaches, but my son never did that. All programs now have recruit forms on their websites, so simply fill that out. You may not hear back right away, some coaches reached out to my son a good 6 months after he filled out the recruit form. One more bit of advice - do your best to create a good highlight tape. Having that to showcase your son's abilities is invaluable. Good luck!! |
Anonymous
|
We live in Virginia. I’m having a hard time seeing how a Div 3 NE school is going to be a better option than UVA. I see college commit lists and the players are ending up at schools I would rank below UVA.
If there’s little to no scholarship money, why the obsession over getting “recruited”, especially in our case if we feel out son has the ability to go to UVA based on academics and test scores? |
Anonymous
For some kids it is purely the love of the sport. For others, it may that the small amount of scholarship money or financial aid makes a difference. Of course, not all athletes in this area live in Virginia and so do not have the benefit of in-state tuition. We have 2 recruited athletes in Ivies now and 1 who walked on to his Ivy. Because they are at Ivies, there is no financial benefit (no scholarships or merit aid). All 3 are in sports that they will never play professionally, one a lax player, but they do it because they LOVE their sport and they are scholars who LOVE their academics. I wouldn't say that we were "obsessed" with getting "recruited" but it was something our kids actively pursued because they are competitors who wanted to parlay their skill on the playing field into the best educational options they had. As we found out, in their particular sports, there was no latitude given for SAT scores and subject matter tests. Our kids had to make the cut just like everyone else who was admitted but it was their "hook" and it was part of the process. They are thrilled to be at their schools now. Others have already said that it is like having a full-time job and that is very true. When our kids aren't studying, they are at practice, with trainers, PT if they got hurt in a game, etc. Being a college athlete at a top level school is not for the faint of heart. Not only are you competing at the top level in your sport but all of it is while maintaining grades while also having social lives and doing typical college student activities. IMO the biggest drawback is no junior year abroad; however, all of our kids recognized this before they started. Given that, though, our kids realize that while they may be missing that one opportunity, they gain in having 4 years of the wonderful range of experiences it means to be a college athlete, including the places they've been, the people they've met and the things they've done. Good luck to your son. It sounds like he has a lot of opportunities and a good idea of what he wants for his college experience! |