Coaches are under pressure to win, and to win you need to recruit well. So the coaches are compelled to go earlier and earlier to keep up with recruiting. I am not asserting facts about these early deals, 4 year guarantees, calling anyone a liar, etc. But the bottom line is if a coach wants a 9th or 10th grader today he will say and promise anything, and for the first year he will honor it. If the kid can't play when he gets there, the deal is he will change the deal and put that money into players he needs to keep on the field to win. Early verbal kids don't develop, don't work hard, arrive with a sense of entitlement and don't perform they will lose their status and some of their scholarship to the kids who earn the playing spots ahead of them. Nothing wrong with taking an early deal or securing a spot that is going away to a good school, that is what lacrosse offers and the families should take it. Just saying that there are cautionary tales out there in every major program. IL ranked HS kid who has career stats of getting in one game and picking up a couple ground balls during a blowout.
