My 10 yo daughter is not a superstar but absolutely loves the camaraderie of her travel team. No idea how long she'll play but she loves being on a team with a bunch of sporty girls.

Unless she’s having a blast or is a legitimate college prospect, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to keep throwing money at these travel clubs when the kid is in high school.

Anonymous wrote:Ours played travel through high school, one of our biggest regrets. She missed out on so much bonding with fellow students at her schools over that time, birthday parties and school sports for example. If we had to do it over, we often tell ourselves travel sports would be off the table.

I don’t understand this. My DD is still able to do all these things and travel lax. We had the opposite experience.

Anonymous wrote:This is what’s hurting the house leagues in the area. There aren’t enough players to have house league and travel programs fielding teams for the spring seasons. Ultimately it’s making lacrosse have smaller numbers.

This is true for soccer…but all the club players that are 3rd graders on DS’ lax team also play rec. I don’t think it’s affecting rec lax much if at all in this age group.

Anonymous wrote:Travel in third grade is just a way for clubs to make money off of paranoid parents. I’d wait until 5th grade to judge how interested she really is before you start spending serious money.

+1 it’s really getting insane how clubs are ruining youth sports. Parents feel their kids have to start basically out of the womb so their kids have a chance of getting into a great college via sports recruiting. If only they would talk to adult children who have been there done that. They would find the vast majority hated it after their freshman/sophomore year of college. But their parents would never tell you that.

Huge difference in the quality of play between a good travel/club team and rec. If they’re good enough to make a club team and most likely want to make lacrosse one of their main sports you should strongly consider a club team sooner than later. Even the highest levels of rec can't compare to a good club team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And what about girls who start later?

My daughter is only in 3rd grade and some of her friends are already playing on a travel team. She really likes lacrosse but we didn’t even think about travel yet. It seems in the soccer world, travel starts young and folks make it sound as if your kid will never make a travel team if they don’t start in second or third grade. I thought kids started getting serious about lacrosse a little later than soccer.

80% or more won't be playing.

Less than one percent will play in College

13% of HS players play in college

I think the real question I think you are asking is: “is third grade lacrosse worth it?” And the answer is another question: “What is the likely alternative?” If the alternative is she’ll be getting lots of physical activity and socialization. There is no way travel lax is worth it at third grade. On the other hand, if the alternative is lots more screen time I think it’s definitely worth it.

All three of my kids did travel lax early and I’m glad we did even though one did not play in high school. The socialization and physical fitness they got from early lax translated into happy and athletic high schoolers. My one non-laxer is on the track team and loving her life.

As for skill development if your child is fit and reasonably athletic they’ll pick up the game fairly easily in late elementary and middle school. I know lots of kids who started with soccer and baseball, picked up lax in middle school and had good highschool lax careers.

Two caveats to what I just wrote. 1. If you don’t do early travel the transition to travel later can be rough. Your daughter will be competing against girls who have more experience and connections to the coaches. You may have a season or two sitting on the sidelines but if she wants it she’ll get there.

2. If she is going to a particularly competitive high school that might change the calculus. Travel pedigree does mean something to certain programs so watch out for that.

My final piece of advice is not to even consider college recruiting until you see how her freshman season goes.

Anonymous wrote:Ours played travel through high school, one of our biggest regrets. She missed out on so much bonding with fellow students at her schools over that time, birthday parties and school sports for example. If we had to do it over, we often tell ourselves travel sports would be off the table.

I agree with this 100%

Anonymous wrote:And what about girls who start later?

My daughter is only in 3rd grade and some of her friends are already playing on a travel team. She really likes lacrosse but we didn’t even think about travel yet. It seems in the soccer world, travel starts young and folks make it sound as if your kid will never make a travel team if they don’t start in second or third grade. I thought kids started getting serious about lacrosse a little later than soccer.

80% or more won't be playing.

Less than one percent will play in College

Anonymous wrote:Ours played travel through high school, one of our biggest regrets. She missed out on so much bonding with fellow students at her schools over that time, birthday parties and school sports for example. If we had to do it over, we often tell ourselves travel sports would be off the table.

Not our experience at all. Interesting to hear so many differing opinions. Sounds like every kid and family is different. Keep your eye on the ball and make sure you are listening to your kid - you can Always change course!

Ours played travel through high school, one of our biggest regrets. She missed out on so much bonding with fellow students at her schools over that time, birthday parties and school sports for example. If we had to do it over, we often tell ourselves travel sports would be off the table.

To answer the initial question. Of the girls that start travel in 3rd grade or so, somewhere between a quarter and a third will be playing travel lacrosse in ninth grade based on our experience.

Anonymous wrote:My daughter started travel in 4th grade, and in 8th grade it's still one of the best things that she does. If she loves it, I would go for it. It's great to be on a team since it started, she will make great friends, and the tournaments are very fun for all the kids.

Mine started in 4th grade and is now in 9th, I think the key is to also do other sports, mine did soccer and bball and even field hockey mixed in.

I'll bite, my 2nd grader is on a girls travel team. It sounds ridiculous. But she was bored playing rec the past two years, and this is the only option for a higher level of play that challenges her and keeps her interested. They have one local tournament a year. All games are local. It isn't really that big a deal.