I was hoping to solicit some feedback from out-of-state families that has a son that goes to an MIAA school. My son plays club lacrosse in Maryland and is in middle school, we have had some conversations with some coaches about him attending school there for High School to play lacrosse. Have you found it worth if for him for lacrosse (obviously they are all amazing schools to attend academically and socially for the kids)? Our local HS is not a lacrosse powerhouse, so this is an attractive option for lacrosse for our family. We are obviously far away from knowing if he can develop into a player that can play at the next level, but I fear he won't have that opportunity if he is playing locally for a school that does not have a lot of lacrosse athletes. I would also love any feedback if your son lives on campus, we do not want to move to Maryland, so that would be our only option. You only get so many years with your kids, does the chance of playing at the next level outweigh not having your son at home all of the time? I am ignoring the financial implications at this time as I am aware of the cost (which is insane but it is what it is).
Everyone here will detest my comments, which is great in and of itself. Here goes....
This board is full of dads (like myself) who pay hefty tuitions for their kids to attend some pretty great schools. So we're biased. I've played HS, college club, and mens league lax, and landed 3 college degrees in the process, and if you're considering spending money on a lax school (HS or college), it had better pass the "broken leg test" for you and your son. The dads who are commenting who have actually done their job as fathers, have evaluated for this along the way, through HS (for some kids, their choice of HS was made before they were born). And you need to spend enough time on the campuses / with teachers / with students (as others say, we're really talking about McDonogh and Boys Latin) to evaluate "will my kid enjoy and benefit from school here, even if he breaks a leg in Week 1 of the season, and can't play for another full year?"
High school and the first 1-2 years of college can be turbulent times for young men and if the thing they love (lax) is stripped away from them for some reason (academics, injuries, coaching politics, kid lost a step in the off season, etc), he needs to be somewhere where he is NOT MISERABLE. Yeah, I know, all the Landon and GP and CHC and BL and Spalding dads on here will say "Oh those things will never happen to my son." Sure.
So, spend some time with it. Even just those two schools (McD and BL) are very different in terms of culture, educational expectations, class sizes, girls, etc. Another thing to consider is that at most of the MD private schools, about 25% of kids hold about 75% of the sports rosters, so it would be normal for you to talk to coaches of other sports your son may play. And again "I'm sure this will never happen to any of the sons of the BOTC dads but" if for some reason or some level, lax is a no-go, and your kid is an "athlete" in terms of his identity, he better have another sports coach at his school that he loves and respects.
Lastly, academics matter "almost" all the time in terms of admittance. There's a long line of dads (who used to be) on this page who were sure their former HS lax domination would translate into their kids getting into these private schools. But that is not a given. Unless your kid is a nationwide-known-lax prodigy OR you're a major donor to the school where your kid's applying, his performance in the classroom so far, matters. For BL, the focus is really, is your kid going to be a distraction in the classroom, does he need unknown extra resources, and is he going to be an academic headache for his coaches. If your son's not already considering this "minimum standard," and he wants to play in college, he needs to get this through his head immediately, because this standard holds for college as well. For McDonogh, the standards are higher (on paper and in terms of "do the students comply with teachers and do the work") but I'm not convinced one group of kids is fundamentally smarter than the other. They are different brands of education.
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