So if you had a 22 who should they play for? Is anyone "doing it right?"
No brainer...If good enough...Crabs! If not...any of the rest
Poor business practices. Nice practice facilities. Mainly nice parents. Average coaching. Formulaic. Subject to replacement at any moment due to brand centric nature of business plan. Agree that before club expansions, they WERE the Mercedes Benz of clubs. Now a very good "import" but made in Japan.
Lots of good competitive clubs at all levels. I would suggest that you not subject your son to mindless driving great distances for a club, but try to stay local and support his educational requirements, while at the same time giving him the opportunity to compete at an appropriate level. If you son is able to play for an MIAA-A team in high school, that will be his most direct path to success in terms of numbers of opportunity to play in college. Club is no "guarantee" of placement, but can help if the program director is "respected" by college coaches approached which is a big "if" these days. College coaches generally dislike clubs and their growth and are staging a sort of rebellion against them by running their own camps, evaluations and events outside of the club circuits. No club organized recruiting events are a good means of assistant coaches to earn a fee without doing much. A VERY complicated world has emerged. MIAA-A schools have superior guidance departments and awareness of enrollment requirements and can exert influence in process. Need grades and test scores -- of course -- but can be a great resource to place your son both academically and athletically. Clubs used to be the way, but that is now changing somewhat. Will be interesting to see how all of this shakes out in the next few years. (Same analysis is applicable to WCAC and other "power" conferences).
I agree that playing for a MIAA-A school is the best bet for college placement. Same for some other Private school leagues. But what is the best way for a Public high school kid with good grades on a avg high school team? Top Club team, Prospect days, or showcases or all of them.
Coaches will find great players even if they aren't in the MIAA. They need to be on a top tier club that exposes and promotes their kids. They need to be on a team where they can showcase their talent, not ride the bench. Showcase and prospect days, but not for another year or two for this group.
Agree with all of this. Though whether a public school HS coach or a private school coach, all of that community/fraternity know each other, and can send video and commentary to ANY coach on behalf of a potential recruit -- as effectively as any club coach or organization. Case in point is a kid from a very average HS that I know that did not play on a club, but who had the full endorsement of his head coach -- a veteran of 25 years coaching at every level. These guys know each other and operate in a very small community/fraternity as can easily be observed at the several conventions held each year in Baltimore. This Coach reached out through his contracts to the service academies for the kid and he was eventually able to steer him into a USMA invite to campus where he worked out and was recruited.
There are so many ways to expose a prospect. There is no one right or more effective path. Point being that club lacrosse is just another and very uncertain path. It has yet to demonstrate supremacy of the process. I still contend that if you play in a power league in HS, every coach of note will know that you play, for example, in the MIAA-A or WCAC or in a public school in AA, Baltimore, Montgomery or Fairfax counties. Cheap to research, and even cheaper to send an email to the HS head coach. Of course, you should have a video available and sell yourself once introduced by making a trip to a college of choice and working out in the manner that such college of choice wishes you to workout. Showcases = crap shoots. No demonstrable metrics as to results at this point. Prospect days are similar. They each represent trying to find the "diamonds in the rough". Guidance office + head coach + campus visits are as effective as you can get at this point, though alternatives, as noted exist. Truthfully tougher for kids that don't play regularly in the "hotbeds" which force a good number of those kids to schools that board, or attempt to gain attention through a willingness to transfer or perhaps do a PG year.
When you say visit I agree but I would say a visit followed up with you playing for this schools prospect day is a great way to get on that roster. Because no coach will go all in from Video and other coaches saying he is great. They will want to see your son up close and personal. So I guess I am saying step 1. Get video step 2. reach out to schools you think you fit 3. If they reach back schedule visit and inform what prospect day you are coming to there school. These steps are what I would say work best for the D2 and D3 kids for sure. The D1 kids are found because they are who they are. They pop out on every field they play on at all times. Its like Po*n you know when you see it. There is no definition.
