It's amazing to me just how uninformed people are and how many of their impressions are incorrect.

Consider the tiny coaching staffs of most DIII schools versus the ideas on there about DIII recruiting. Most of these schools have a head coach and maybe one or two assistants. The amount of time they can spend on or with a single protect is very limited because there are an ocean of prospects out there because of the growth of the sport.

They depend on casting a broad net and then hoping to find some interested prospects. Schools will send out hundreds letters to just about anyone they can find on any list they have. Those that return the completed questionnaire become possibilities.

They also depend on a few key contacts they have at certain schools. That might be an alum (Coaching or not coaching) or a head coach they have a history with. The idea here is to find a kid who can play at their level and that would actually consider their school. They may eventually vector in on a few top prospects and call them, send hand-written notes, etc.

Because DIII's don't give scholarships they have no real commitment to a prospect. What they want to do is to get as many kids to apply as they can and then try to sort it out with Admissions.

DS started getting real interest at the beginning of junior year. The emails are personal and they gauged his interest by asking for his fall tourney schedule and spring schedule. The majority of the emails are just pay -to-attend prospect days which are fundraisers for the LAX programs to raise $ rather than recruiting events. That said, some of the prospect days have been fantastic!

Anonymous wrote:DS is a freshman in a public VA high school but played club, attended Blackwolf camps etc. We are suddenly getting emails for various college camps, mainly in MA and NY - I think one was from Stony Brook to see what D1 is like or something. I'm assuming they just bought club email lists or does US lax give out our emails? Guess I'd better go read the recruiting link just above.

yep...

DS is a freshman in a public VA high school but played club, attended Blackwolf camps etc. We are suddenly getting emails for various college camps, mainly in MA and NY - I think one was from Stony Brook to see what D1 is like or something. I'm assuming they just bought club email lists or does US lax give out our emails? Guess I'd better go read the recruiting link just above.

Our experience with three boys is that here is less chicanery and subtle and not-so-subtle misrepresentation with D1 schools. It's because there are more rules and the scholarships (even partial ones) and paid official visits are finite goods and represent real commitments from the school.

I would not sound the death knell of Madlax and its clones just yet. Sure, a coach may trust the honest feedback of a high school coach, from let's say the IAC or WCAC, but a coach from MoCo or PG or Loudon, etc. what the hell do they know?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have an opinion as to which "recruiting camps" are good for HS lacrosse players looking to play at selective Div III schools (e.g. Williams, Amherst, etc.)? I already know about prospect camps that these schools offer.


BTW, this is sort of useful...


http://www.wackylax.com/prospect-showcases

I thought colleges recruit through the clubs and not so much high schools. I also thought the prospect camps were for high school recruiting and not college recruiting but I am fairly new to lacrosse world and could be mistaken. I welcome feedback from more experienced parents.

From our experience, high school play (in the WCAC) was more valuable then club play. In fact, more than one college coach was surprised our DS was still playing club. We were told by coaches that a number of guys they were looking at were not playing summer club, but using that time to go to prospect days and camps instead.

Look at Amherst's Good to Great - http://goodtogreatlacrosse.com/page.asp?content_id=36575

Other good ones for NESCAC's and SLAC's - http://www.newenglandtop150lacrossecamp.com and http://www.elite180lax.com

This is also happening on the girls' side, BTW. I've heard college coaches say that they discount what club coaches tell them about kids and put more stock into what they hear from the high school coaches because they're not getting paid to get kids recruited.

http://www.nescac.com/admissions/admissions

This article could be dated...

http://lacrosserecruits.com/blogs/news/blogs/club/2013/10/21/lrnews-101-the-nescac-an-overview/

Read this first:

http://www.uslacrosse.org/sites/default/files/public/documents/players/boys-college-recruiting-guidebook.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone out there have a son who was recruited to play D3 lacrosse? When do offers (at least tentative ones) go out, and do they usually put a time limit on when you can accept?

Are you sure you understand the DIII process?

What "offers" are you talking about? What form do you imagine these "offers" will take?

There are given grants... that are set aside for their athletes. Good news, if you quit the sport the grant does not go away.

Rather than sniping at each other, or speaking in gibberish, can someone in the know talk about D3 recruiting?

Rather than have someone lay it all out for you, why don't you start with reading the NCAA Handbook on Recruiting available on their website. Then you would understand the rules, as a starting point. And what the coaches say and do would make sense to you. And you would be able to recognize the clueless among the posters on here.

At the DIII level, no one signs anything. There are no formal offers, because there isn't anything to offer (Like a full or partial scholarship) There is no financial aid except as part of the regular Admissions process. Financial Aid packages may include a combination of loans (which need to be repaid) and Grants (which do not). If the a school is tying financial aid to recruiting in DIII they are in violation of NCAA rules. The idea that a school has a reserve of grant money reserved for athletes is absurd. What would be the difference between that and a partial scholarship? I suspect that either the poster above misunderstood what they were being told or that there may be some untruthfulness going on here.

The coach may or may not have a number of "passes" with Admissions. In the NESCAC, they use the Ivy Academic Index (AI) as a guide. Football and Basketball get the lion's share of slots in the lower AI tiers. If you are interested in that you can download a copy of the guide too.

Agreed, there is no grant for D3. It's all about getting the coach's support for admissions. No clue when he makes this "offer". My kid got picked off early, crazy early if you ask me, by a D1 program. Not much cash there, just about enough to cover the meal plan and his plane ride home twice a year. We sunk five times as much into club lax and showcases than the total grant!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone out there have a son who was recruited to play D3 lacrosse? When do offers (at least tentative ones) go out, and do they usually put a time limit on when you can accept?

Are you sure you understand the DIII process?

What "offers" are you talking about? What form do you imagine these "offers" will take?

There are given grants... that are set aside for their athletes. Good news, if you quit the sport the grant does not go away.

'

There is no such thing as an athletically-connected Grant in DIII.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone out there have a son who was recruited to play D3 lacrosse? When do offers (at least tentative ones) go out, and do they usually put a time limit on when you can accept?

Are you sure you understand the DIII process?

What "offers" are you talking about? What form do you imagine these "offers" will take?

There are given grants... that are set aside for their athletes. Good news, if you quit the sport the grant does not go away.

Rather than sniping at each other, or speaking in gibberish, can someone in the know talk about D3 recruiting?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone out there have a son who was recruited to play D3 lacrosse? When do offers (at least tentative ones) go out, and do they usually put a time limit on when you can accept?

Are you sure you understand the DIII process?

What "offers" are you talking about? What form do you imagine these "offers" will take?

There are given grants... that are set aside for their athletes. Good news, if you quit the sport the grant does not go away.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone out there have a son who was recruited to play D3 lacrosse? When do offers (at least tentative ones) go out, and do they usually put a time limit on when you can accept?

Are you sure you understand the DIII process?

What "offers" are you talking about? What form do you imagine these "offers" will take?