PP and I totally agree. Just a caveat for parents, these clubs make their money by number of recruits, and will collect players that will get recruited. Your kid will get better as player based on work they do outside of the club, not because of any coaching they get at the club. You're paying all that $$ for tournament exposure and that's it. |
| If club tournament exposure can be limiting, for a non-starter due to fewer minutes, how valuable are prospect camps and showcases for recruitment? Assuming a solid player-not top tier D1. |
| What is the club tally on ‘24 recruits? Seems like NL has a major lead. What is going on with DCE? |
| Everyone on here is saying club is more important to recruiting yet websites prominently list the high school and very little info on clubs… |
I must see different websites. Typically it is the club the posts on social media about recruits. It is all about the club. College coaches rarely watch any HS lacrosse in season. Go to a good summer tournament and all the top coaches are on the sidelines. |
Next Level has the most by far, 12 including at many top schools - UVA, Michigan (3), ND, Maryland, Duke, Hopkins, Ohio State, BU, Bucknell, Delaware. Madlax has five -Syracuse, Bucknell, Villanova, Delaware, and Princeton. DCE is just not a top team for the 2024 year. |
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I think it is a combo of school and club, in the best circumstances. In our experience recruiting came from:
Playing in good club tournaments sophomore summer so big plus for being on a competitive club team Nike National/Under Armour exposure which does tend to be influenced by what high school and club you play for, as demonstrated by who is running/coaching these events NHLHS exposure which is based on high school team Having solid film from spring and summer demonstrating strength against other established, known teams and players, both high school and club Having coaches in high school and club, plus recruiting director, who work together in talking to interested college coaches and sharing information |
Great post and couldn't agree with you more. (our son recently went through this whole process |
Would also add in your pre Junior year Summer do your best to go to/get invited to certain top showcases, Juniors Open and MainStage come to mind, looks like BIC is also doing well. |
When you say “do your best to get invited” what do you mean? How does one’s child get invited? |
From our experience your club coach can help with getting invites, would start there. I also think some of these you can send video for evaluation and invitation (just check websites) but would always start with club connection if there is one. |
| Juniors Open has been spamming our inbox. Is it a good one? |
Definitely in the past it has been good and has a solid reputation. I would say it was decent this past year, 2.5 day event (Friday evening to Sunday), most important day was Saturday where there were a lot of high level coaches on the sidelines, on Sunday there seemed to be very very few (a couple on the sideline, I think there was a good tournament on LI that weekend as well). Their social media presence/promotion this past year seems much lower than before. One nice thing is that there is only one game at a time for the rising juniors so no competing games. Not sure if really necessary for the rising sophomores unless you think it gives you a leg up on getting an invite for the next year, no coaches watch the younger kids. Overall I would say MainStage was a bit better from our experience but do not regret Juniors in any way. Though we did not attend, Best in Class seems to be a solid one as well with some now top level commits having attended and they are strong on promotion. With MainStage in MD and BIC in DE they are also a bit easier in terms of travel then having to head up to LI for the weekend. There are probably a couple of other top showcases so say there are 4-5 top showcases then doing 2 or 3 that fit into your schedule should work out fine. If on a top club team then likely getting another ~4 good summer tournaments which is plenty of summer lacrosse and plenty of good views. If your club is not playing in top tournaments then maybe up the showcases a bit but all together feel 5 to 6 opportunities is plenty to get seen and get video against top competition. |
| NXT fall showcase than NLF at IMG or NLF elite 120 are good NLF elite 120 is invite only. This is good advice for 2025 class. 2024’s who are not comitted should do a prospect day at a school that is of interest. Coaches are not discovering 2024 players at a random showcase at this point. |
| BIC actually focused on instruction which was refreshing. |