Originally Posted by Anonymous
The whole nation has been short on talent since Covid. Not just the MIAA. Lots of kids hung it up.

I think it's going to get weirder. The MS age kids who are playing "serious" lax are almost all 3-sport athletes. In fact if you look at other sports, there are almost no single sports athletes anymore at the 2028-2031 age groups, except "track kids" and maybe "swimmers." Think it applies to 2026s and 2027s as well....we'll know for sure in about 6 months.

How did this happen? Especially the 2027s - 2030s were at MS / upper ES age when covid hit, parents of athletes signed their kids up for any and every sport that was willing/able to hold practice starting in Summer 2020. And the kids have generally stuck with multiple sports since then, at much greater percentages than, say, the 2018-2023 classes.

Why does this matter for lacrosse? It means that while the same # of teams has been filled across all sports, the number of total athletes is sharply down. On the surface, who cares, we still see fast, coordinated kids on the field in the 2026-2031 classes. But as they get forced to "make choices," I am definitely concerned that the best and fastest lax players (who traditionally would have given up lax by 10th at the latest, for monetizable sports) will eventually drop the sport.

An example, one family friend is getting heavily recruited for upper D1 football, though he's a respectable lax player. He's spending weekends touring with football coaches. No hitting the wall, no fall lax tournaments, etc. If he gets a D1 football offer he likes in the next 6 months, it's hard to see him risking injury in his final 2 lax seasons.

Next spring, I think we'll see the real drop in talent. And no it's not just in the IAC or MIAA. Club, rec, and school teams nationwide - and in other sports too - are struggling to find adequate coaches, players, etc.