If your son got recruited to play college lacrosse, please share your experience and tips...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

You don't see an advantage to playing lacrosse for Tufts over going to UVA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

You don't see an advantage to playing lacrosse for Tufts over going to UVA?

Plus not all players have the academic edge needed and lax gives them a bump plus our kid wants to play in college and no way he's getting recruited to UVA. If yours does and could care less if he plays in college then sure he can go to UVA. Ours wants and frankly needs the focus that lax gives him to make it through college. I agree that the tricky part is that a kid's playing ability and a strongly competitive college happening to be interested do not always align. At the same time, most Ivies probably have 1-2 kids per team there for their grades so if that's where your kid's stats are at, he should go for it and see what happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

You don't see an advantage to playing lacrosse for Tufts over going to UVA?

What I see is Tufts costing $56,382 for out-of-state, versus UVA costing $17,350 for in-state. So, unless Tufts is making up the difference somehow, UVA is clearly the way to go. $156k over four years to play lacrosse? Screw. That.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

You don't see an advantage to playing lacrosse for Tufts over going to UVA?

What I see is Tufts costing $56,382 for out-of-state, versus UVA costing $17,350 for in-state. So, unless Tufts is making up the difference somehow, UVA is clearly the way to go. $156k over four years to play lacrosse? Screw. That.

True that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

You don't see an advantage to playing lacrosse for Tufts over going to UVA?

What I see is Tufts costing $56,382 for out-of-state, versus UVA costing $17,350 for in-state. So, unless Tufts is making up the difference somehow, UVA is clearly the way to go. $156k over four years to play lacrosse? Screw. That.

Getting into the Lax Bro network at a top SLAC like Tufts...priceless.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies, I did wonder if lacrosse could boost him from possibly UVA to possibly Ivy League. But the top clubs in this area rarely seem to send a player to the Ivies.

Does going to a private school with a stong lacrosse program help enough to be worth paying for over public school? Or is it such a crapshoot that it’s not even worth basing big decisions on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the replies, I did wonder if lacrosse could boost him from possibly UVA to possibly Ivy League. But the top clubs in this area rarely seem to send a player to the Ivies.

Does going to a private school with a stong lacrosse program help enough to be worth paying for over public school? Or is it such a crapshoot that it’s not even worth basing big decisions on.

If the goal is to play lacrosse in college, there are 2 parts to the recipe. Play for a well known club. Play for a well known private school. Obviously your kid needs to be talented. But talent alone without the aforementioned 2 parts make getting recruited a tough road to hoe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

You don't see an advantage to playing lacrosse for Tufts over going to UVA?

What I see is Tufts costing $56,382 for out-of-state, versus UVA costing $17,350 for in-state. So, unless Tufts is making up the difference somehow, UVA is clearly the way to go. $156k over four years to play lacrosse? Screw. That.

True that!

I have a friend whose son played football at an Ivy. Cost of attendance there was less than UVA in-state. My D just graduated from a top 50 LAC and we paid 1/2 tuition. Ignore the sticker price. It means very little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the replies, I did wonder if lacrosse could boost him from possibly UVA to possibly Ivy League. But the top clubs in this area rarely seem to send a player to the Ivies.

Does going to a private school with a stong lacrosse program help enough to be worth paying for over public school? Or is it such a crapshoot that it’s not even worth basing big decisions on.

If the goal is to play lacrosse in college, there are 2 parts to the recipe. Play for a well known club. Play for a well known private school. Obviously your kid needs to be talented. But talent alone without the aforementioned 2 parts make getting recruited a tough road to hoe.

I thought this must be the case too but in reviewing college commit lists I noticed some public school kids going to big time lacrosse schools and private school kids going to less impressive schools. They all play club of course. That’s why I wondered if the school matters much if you are on a top club team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

You don't see an advantage to playing lacrosse for Tufts over going to UVA?

What I see is Tufts costing $56,382 for out-of-state, versus UVA costing $17,350 for in-state. So, unless Tufts is making up the difference somehow, UVA is clearly the way to go. $156k over four years to play lacrosse? Screw. That.

Ocean City and the Maui are both beaches. So unless Maui is making up the difference in cost, OC is clearly the way to go.

[Anonymous]

Club is the only thing that matters. Even the private school kids play and get recruited at the high level club tournaments.

As a parent the most important thing you can do is to encourage your son/daughter to pick a school they would want to attend without lacrosse. My son ended up playing at a mid-level D1 and the level of commitment and time is much greater than I could have imagined. If your child is a STEM major it will be very difficult. During the recruiting process most coaches are upfront about this and we even had some coaches tell us they didn’t want engineering students.

On a positive note being a recruit made the admission process very easy and if you are a good student most schools will go out of their way to provide academic aid to recruited athletes. My son ended up quitting lacrosse after two years even after playing in every game as a freshman and sophomore so he could focus on school. He lost his lacrosse scholarship but he kept his academic scholarship which was much much more. Even without lacrosse he loved the school and ended up getting an engineering degree and a great job upon graduation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Club is the only thing that matters. Even the private school kids play and get recruited at the high level club tournaments.

As a parent the most important thing you can do is to encourage your son/daughter to pick a school they would want to attend without lacrosse. My son ended up playing at a mid-level D1 and the level of commitment and time is much greater than I could have imagined. If your child is a STEM major it will be very difficult. During the recruiting process most coaches are upfront about this and we even had some coaches tell us they didn’t want engineering students.

On a positive note being a recruit made the admission process very easy and if you are a good student most schools will go out of their way to provide academic aid to recruited athletes. My son ended up quitting lacrosse after two years even after playing in every game as a freshman and sophomore so he could focus on school. He lost his lacrosse scholarship but he kept his academic scholarship which was much much more. Even without lacrosse he loved the school and ended up getting an engineering degree and a great job upon graduation.

x1000 for the poster's own bolded statement. Injuries happen. Priorities change. Beloved coaches leave. Your kid MUST be happy at the school without lax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am just curious: What are the odds of a kid in a program like Madlax getting recruited to play Division 1 in College? I have a friend who spends thousands of dollars a year on her son's lacrosse activities (camps, clinics, Madlax, HS, etc) and they are really fixated on Div 1. Her son is a HS freshman; mine is a 9 year old who idol-worships this kid and is a decent athlete (runs well, swims, has played rec soccer.)

We feel it's a little early to start thinkng about college scholarships for a 9 year old. But my firend tells me she was already thinking about it when her son was 9 and it's not too soon to start.

I hate the pressure to get a kid to specialize this early, but my son does seem pretty drawn to lacrosse.

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.

Great post, PP!

+1 for the post.

[Anonymous]

Club matters less, and school more now that recruiting has been pushed back to junior year. Agree still need to play for a top club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Club matters less, and school more now that recruiting has been pushed back to junior year. Agree still need to play for a top club.

What's the logic? Recruiting push back enhances importance of school over club?