Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Can someone tell me if their girls have had a good experience playing at SR or Visitation. My youngest wants to apply and I'm hearing mixed things. Do they coaches really pick favorites? A few friends I know have daughters who used to play lacrosse but are no longer playing because of how horrible they felt HS lacrosse was run. I'm not trying to stir the pot. Just interested in hearing how things have been for your daughter whether JV or Varsity the past 3 years or so.
Visitation has a strange habit of hiring the parents of players (in 2 of their main sports, incredibly) so, yeah, theres just a wee bit of favoritism that goes on there.
I am going to get dragged for this but is my honest opinion: be realistic on how good your daughter is/what her lacrosse goals are before applying to those schools. If she is likely to be a power 5 conference D1 commit/Ivy commit/plays for a top club A team, all of this is moot and no need to read on as she will have a place on either of those teams.
My daughter has several friends over the years (or sisters of her friends) who sit the bench at SR or Visi who will play D3 in college. Saying that, I think the programs are really amazing and being part of a winning team is cool - and those players did learn a lot practicing with such talented starters and some of them wouldn't make a different choice. The flip side is they could have started at other ISL or public schools. I also know some talented girls who left lacrosse for other sports and may have been better served by attending a girl a lesser ranked (in lax) HS where they would get tons of playing time against these good teams. But they would have to endure not making it far in the tournament /getting beat by big goal differentials. That would be a non-starter for some kids. Or who knows, maybe they would build a program (I say this a little tongue in cheek) but that is what SR did.
You have to weigh what your daughter values and where you think she will fit. Attend a game and get a feel for what is best for your daughter first-hand. Also, she can glean a lot of valuable information from the experience of older girls in her club.
Good luck!