There are two primary ways to build a competitive team; rely on athlete development or use free agency. Obviously, the two can be used in combination as well. Since MLB instituted free agency in the mid 1970s, the game has changed, and the money involved has increased exponentially. Winners: the players and owners. Losers: the fans who pay exorbitant ticket prices, often to watch their team lose to a club with a fat payroll and a winning record based on free agent talent.
League rules attempt to enforce some level of parity in order to keep the competition viable. The NFL has done a pretty good job of this using salary caps, while the other pro sports have succeeded to a lesser degree.
Some lacrosse clubs and high schools develop players, working for years to teach the game and build teamwork. A few players will come and go, but the core of the team play together for years. Most of the successful NY/CT club and school teams do it this way, and this used to be the case in the MIAA, arguably the most competitive HS lacrosse conference around.
The other way to build a roster is to recruit a majority of the team's members, with annual tryouts and cuts, often cutting players who have been with the program for years. This seems to be the way (at least over the past few years) the most successful (in terms of W/L record) Baltimore area lacrosse clubs have constructed their rosters. Now, the MIAA schools are getting into the talent war, with some schools using host families and boarding facilities allowing for out of area recruiting of skilled players from wealthy families.
Those who followed MIAA football over the past 15-20 years can guess where this is headed. Gilman School allowed their football coach to use free agency (as in, free tuition) to recruit out of area standout players to build a roster. The team started winning more games, eventually building a roster that dominated the MIAA. Sure, the winning was fun, and at first everyone was happy. Once the parents who paid full tuition at Gilman started seeing their kids ride the pine while recruited athletes took the field, the newness wore off and the school realized what was going on. Bye Biff!
As MIAA schools increasingly embrace boarding as both a money making endeavor (collecting full pay tuition + room and board, with some schools charging more for out of area kids than they charge local kids) and as a way to strengthen their rosters, parents will go through the same learning process. First, the rah rah - we are winning more games, yay us! Later, once families who have paid full tuition for Johnny or Susie since preschool start seeing more and more out of state recruits take roster spots from their kids, the backlash will begin.
You can bet there are Trustees these days at non-boarding MIAA schools asking their Heads of School whether adding boarding capacity is a way to kill several birds with one stone. Hey, we can get more full pay students, and recruits who will help us win championships and also be top college recruits - what could go wrong? Indeed.
Fair competition should be the main goal of any conference regulating body. Is it fair for a school to recruit from a national talent pool to play against school with a 25 mile recruiting radius? I don't think so. Sadly, I also don't think the MIAA will have the courage to deal with this problem. Did it do anything about Biff's football program? Bueller?
So, the talent wars in MIAA lacrosse have begun. CH, BL, and McD, for example, have boarding facilities and recruit top athletes who also happen to be high school students.
Who is this good for? Is it good for the students? For the ones being recruited, sure. Is it good for the others, who lost a roster spot to someone with rich parents from out of state? Not so much.
Is it good for the school? Maybe early on, but as time goes by, history has shown us that local parents will start to vote with their feet (and their money). Maybe their kid won't be on an MIAA championship team, but at least he will see the field, so they will choose ________ (fill in the non-boarding school here).
We already see the impact money has on MIAA sports, with varsity roster spots given to kids of wealthy/influential families who otherwise would play on JV (oh come on LB, you know this is true). There will be an increasing stratification in the top ranks of the MIAA, between schools that recruit and schools that develop. Will the regulating body step in and do something to ensure fairness across the conferences? Or will the market forces (which comparatively move at a snail's pace) be the only way this all shakes out?
Wow..... You lost me on chapter 7 of this long post
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