I have done a fair amount of coaching of high school sports. Sure, there can be significant upward curve from middle school. Generally the middle schoolers who plateau are those who dominated initially because they were more physically mature than other kids. A smaller, less physically matured, but skilled athlete, can benefit from increased size and strength later on.

One caveat, though, to keep your expections relatively modest: I generally have not seen big changes in aggressiveness between middle school and high school. More passive, less aggressive players, in my observation, rarely take on a new persona in high school. And being relatively passive vs. very aggressive is a major factor in whether there will be success at the high school level.

With that said, if your son's lack of aggressiveness is more a factor of being a littler guy at a new school, perhaps he will develop more fire when he gets bigger and feels more ability to compete physically and athletically. However, if it's more just his nature, the athletic ceiling is probably limited -- "highly skilled" alone just won't do it. Doesn't mean he cannot have a great experience learning from being a role player on a team -- but you may want to internally re-calibrate your own expectations for high school success and college chances.

Anonymous wrote:As long as we're talking IAC lacrosse, may I ask the experts to weigh in on whether my DC is destined to ride the bench? Just transferred in to one of the schools in middle school, came from a school where he rocked it and was the best player on the team by far. New school not so much. He is supremely skilled, but small and young for his grade, which seems to hold him back. He doesn't play aggressively enough, which seems to be largely what he is lacking. Is there time for him to catch up? Does the playing field become more level in high school, or since he's not on top now, will he always be considered one of the average players? Have you all seen strong, but not the best, players rise off the middle school bench to be starters in high school? I just hate to see him so disappointed and also wondering how much time and money we should continue to put toward the effort. For the record, he absolutely loves playing, no matter what.

Does he play for a good club team. If not, there is no way he will do anything but ride the bench for the rest of his playing days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good Lord, lacrosse is screwed up. Here's the previous post, rewritten:

My son absolutely loves playing lacrosse, no matter what. And he's really good at it, but is currently getting limited playing time because he's small and young for his grade. Even though he's still just in middle school, should he quit playing forever right now because he's only considered an average player and not one of the very best in his entire school?

I wish the original question was as ridiculous as it sounds, but just look at the posts that came after it. Minds are made up by 8th grade. I agree it's completely screwed up, but it's the nature of sports in this town. Imagine spending your whole childhood playing a sport you love only to be sitting on the bench throughout all of high school. He'll be required to play a sport, so of course he'll choose lacrosse, but will feel awful when he has to sit and watch everybody else play and contribute. The other poster was right, I can't handle the truth. I just want to help my son get where he wants to be.

I have 2 sons that played college lacrosse. One was committed by freshman year because he hit puberty in 7th, was 6'2" freshman year and maxed at 6'4". He was a middie, played varsity all 4 years, played a top 10 D1 program.

But my "star" little guy was 5'6" freshman year. 8th grade and Freshman year sucked. But by junior year he was 5"11", maxed at 6' in college. He wrestled to get stronger and more aggressive. By junior year he was starting again and a "star" player. He had to work harder in the gym and running to get strong and fast. He had D1 offers but he settled on a higher academic smaller sized D3 school... Butter fit all around.

I have a 3rd son, never cared too much...played JV, made varsity but rarely got in.. did not play college lax, had tons of time for volunteering, jobs, clubs. Summers were better, lax kills your summer opportunities.

Anonymous wrote:Good Lord, lacrosse is screwed up. Here's the previous post, rewritten:

My son absolutely loves playing lacrosse, no matter what. And he's really good at it, but is currently getting limited playing time because he's small and young for his grade. Even though he's still just in middle school, should he quit playing forever right now because he's only considered an average player and not one of the very best in his entire school?

I wish the original question was as ridiculous as it sounds, but just look at the posts that came after it. Minds are made up by 8th grade. I agree it's completely screwed up, but it's the nature of sports in this town. Imagine spending your whole childhood playing a sport you love only to be sitting on the bench throughout all of high school. He'll be required to play a sport, so of course he'll choose lacrosse, but will feel awful when he has to sit and watch everybody else play and contribute. The other poster was right, I can't handle the truth. I just want to help my son get where he wants to be.

The crazy ones and the haters were certainly proven wrong this week about Landon being overrated. Not.

The Landon assistant coach who cursed out the Bullis players last year should be fired, but wasn't even reprimanded.

The Prep player who is playing his 5th year of Varsity lacrosse shouldn't be playing, but nothing is done.

Sometimes Middle schoolers can be star players based on good stick skills. Throwing and catching the ball are critical parts of the game.

But the better athletes start to catch up in high school. And the bigger, faster, more athletic kids become the stars. The coaches play the kids that will help them win.

The "X" factor is competitiveness. Those who have an abundance of it are going to go through the work it takes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as we're talking IAC lacrosse, may I ask the experts to weigh in on whether my DC is destined to ride the bench? Just transferred in to one of the schools in middle school, came from a school where he rocked it and was the best player on the team by far. New school not so much. He is supremely skilled, but small and young for his grade, which seems to hold him back. He doesn't play aggressively enough, which seems to be largely what he is lacking. Is there time for him to catch up? Does the playing field become more level in high school, or since he's not on top now, will he always be considered one of the average players? Have you all seen strong, but not the best, players rise off the middle school bench to be starters in high school? I just hate to see him so disappointed and also wondering how much time and money we should continue to put toward the effort. For the record, he absolutely loves playing, no matter what.

You want the truth? You can't handle the truth...

But here goes. If he is not a star on the middle school team, there is no way he will catch up.
It'll be the reverse. Many "stars" in middle school will find that they will struggle to get playing time in JV, and many will never make tvarsity. You are in lacrosse country, where toddlers are running around with lacrosse sticks, and the IAC, next to the Baltimore conference, the most competitive in the nation.

Plus there will be some top lacrosse kids come in at 9th grade and further push your kid down the ranks.

Anonymous wrote:As long as we're talking IAC lacrosse, may I ask the experts to weigh in on whether my DC is destined to ride the bench? Just transferred in to one of the schools in middle school, came from a school where he rocked it and was the best player on the team by far. New school not so much. He is supremely skilled, but small and young for his grade, which seems to hold him back. He doesn't play aggressively enough, which seems to be largely what he is lacking. Is there time for him to catch up? Does the playing field become more level in high school, or since he's not on top now, will he always be considered one of the average players? Have you all seen strong, but not the best, players rise off the middle school bench to be starters in high school? I just hate to see him so disappointed and also wondering how much time and money we should continue to put toward the effort. For the record, he absolutely loves playing, no matter what.

You want the truth? You can't handle the truth...

But here goes. If he is not a star on the middle school team, there is no way he will catch up.
It'll be the reverse. Many "stars" in middle school will find that they will struggle to get playing time in JV, and many will never make tvarsity. You are in lacrosse country, where toddlers are running around with lacrosse sticks, and the IAC, next to the Baltimore conference, the most competitive in the nation.

Good Lord, lacrosse is screwed up. Here's the previous post, rewritten:

My son absolutely loves playing lacrosse, no matter what. And he's really good at it, but is currently getting limited playing time because he's small and young for his grade. Even though he's still just in middle school, should he quit playing forever right now because he's only considered an average player and not one of the very best in his entire school?

As long as we're talking IAC lacrosse, may I ask the experts to weigh in on whether my DC is destined to ride the bench? Just transferred in to one of the schools in middle school, came from a school where he rocked it and was the best player on the team by far. New school not so much. He is supremely skilled, but small and young for his grade, which seems to hold him back. He doesn't play aggressively enough, which seems to be largely what he is lacking. Is there time for him to catch up? Does the playing field become more level in high school, or since he's not on top now, will he always be considered one of the average players? Have you all seen strong, but not the best, players rise off the middle school bench to be starters in high school? I just hate to see him so disappointed and also wondering how much time and money we should continue to put toward the effort. For the record, he absolutely loves playing, no matter what.

Can anybody actually verify his punishment?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did the Bullis rapper get expelled or suspended?

Heard he was expelled

I will admit my knee-jerk reaction after I saw the vid was to boot the kid the hell out of our school. But was he really just "rapping" lines from movie? If so, the school might be overreacting, worried about a PR nightmare if they did anything less.

Anonymous wrote:Did the Bullis rapper get expelled or suspended?

Heard he was expelled

So they have those depth players that can help^