US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Conflicts! When HS Coaches Incorporate Summer Tournament Teams in Town

If the NCAA prohibited recruiting a kid (verbal commitments) until 11th grade a lot of this nonsense would stop. Parents (trying to compete with each other) wouldn't be compelled to put their kid on a 3rd grade travel team, nor would they be in a speed school before they enter elementary school. There is plenty of blame to go around, but there is no incentive to stop it. The parents are paying, the coaches are collecting and the colleges are competing for kids before they even have hair on their legs. What a mess.

I love it early recruiting. listen guys my son played in college and in the pro ranks for two years. in which he.lived at home while playing "pro." couldn't afford to take his girlfriend out. so he gave it up and got a real job. stop w the early recruiting. let me know when lax players Start making millions

YJ's want you to commit in 8th grade if you can. So to do that you need to be playing in Kindergarten. Used to be you joined a club team in middle school or later for a year a two to play summers and see some coaches.

Clubs are the big winners. You cant tell me any college coach wants to lock up a 8th or 9th grader with 4 or 5 years of uncertainty ahead of them.

Lacrosse is the only sport with a truly toxic sideline because of the race to verbally commit. IMO it has wrecked a GREAT team game

Your all crazy, every sport that offers money has early recruiting...The only difference is that other sports continue to recruit kids that have already verballed, thus making the verbal meaningless. That is exactly what will happen in lax over time.

If you don't like the club scene, don't try out and play PAL. Stop telling us the world of pain clubs have caused and don't tell me what a mistake I made by having my 9th grader commit verbally.

Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it is the wrong choice for me. open your mind and think--different strokes for different folks--not exactly the black plague.

My kid plays 2 different sport, because he loves to play, and yes, he also gets great grades. Football in football season, lax is pretty much all year round.

Having a great time with club teamates--if I am willing to spend the time and $, why do you care?

Go to any school game, the club parents are in one corner and everyone else is together. You don't see that in any other sport. Everyone is so concerned with this commiting stuff that only affects a few yet it infects entire teams.

In response to those with negative comments about summer travel lacrosse I will add my opinion from personal experience.

Club travel participation is a choice made by families that have a love of the game and a player who has some talent. There are many clubs with many different talent levels with many different summer schedules to fit any families preference.
If your choice is to not participate that's fine but a general statement damning those that do is ridiculous.
Many families see the summer travel tournaments as a family experience and an opportunity to travel to several states and often combine vacations and trips to theme parks as part of the excursions.
If a player excels and is seen by college coaches and recruited as a result of playing club ball then that's great and it does happen...often. If college recruiting does not happen then so what, the experiences shared and lessons learned will last a lifetime.
Remember it's a families personal preference to participate in travel lax and if managed properly can be a great few years for the whole family.

Your all crazy, every sport that offers money has early recruiting...The only difference is that other sports continue to recruit kids that have already verballed, thus making the verbal meaningless. That is exactly what will happen in lax over time.

If you don't like the club scene, don't try out and play PAL. Stop telling us the world of pain clubs have caused and don't tell me what a mistake I made by having my 9th grader commit verbally.

Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it is the wrong choice for me. open your mind and think--different strokes for different folks--not exactly the black plague.

My kid plays 2 different sport, because he loves to play, and yes, he also gets great grades. Football in football season, lax is pretty much all year round.

Having a great time with club teamates--if I am willing to spend the time and $, why do you care?

Sounds like a guilty conscience to me. Worrying did your child make an informed decision in 9th grade. Congrats you get to brag around the water cooler and on the summer circuit. Time will tell if you made the right choice. And speaking of "why do you care", why do you? Last I checked this board was anonymous.

Sounds like a guilty conscience to me. Worrying did your child make an informed decision in 9th grade. Congrats you get to brag around the water cooler and on the summer circuit. Time will tell if you made the right choice. And speaking of "why do you care", why do you? Last I checked this board was anonymous.

Sounds like a guilty conscience to me. Worrying did your child make an informed decision in 9th grade. Congrats you get to brag around the water cooler and on the summer circuit. Time will tell if you made the right choice. And speaking of "why do you care", why do you? Last I checked this board was anonymous.

Well, well well, good morning to you.

Nice comment to my post, not going to take the bait this morning and call you names, but perhaps later after my meetings...That said, I will share a few thoughts that might be helpful to others below.

For you specifically, I will say, no to the guilt part but yes, I have a little angst that my kid only got 50% scholarship for lax, we were praying for 75%. But on the bright side, if his grades stay where they are and he scores 1800 on sat, he will get 25% more for merit...

For all the other people thinking my poor 9th grade kid was forced to grow up too quickly and choose his college (top academic school), perhaps the economics of school haven't been properly analyzed in your mind? Do you guys all know what school costs? Unless you are staying in your State, you are looking at between $50k and $60k per year.

Of the roughly 65 D1 lax programs, about half offer little to no athletic money and little to no merit money. That also applies to some great D3 institutions like Amherst and Williams...

If you don't make too much money (in this one area of life not making money actually makes you money) the need based aid can help tremendously and is much better than lax money because you are likely to get the same award all four years.


However, if you are reading this board you are probably not going to qualify for need based aid, which means either, you can pay the $50k per year without concern (great for you!) or you and your kid are borrowing a ton of $.

So when someone says I made my kid grow up too quickly and choose a college too young, I say at least this way he has a much better chance of graduating without huge $$$ in debt hanging over his head or mine. Yes, I know the verbal is a verbal and anything can happen...

Would JH have been a better fit than Michigan or Ohio State or Penn State or syracuse or virginia? Should we have waited for the IVY or Duke? Ivy and Duke are not giving me any money otherwise we would have waited.

Who knows how this will all turnout, but if my kid stays healthy and works hard and graduates with little to no debt, I really don't care which one of the above...He doesn't know what he wants to do for a living but how many people knew what they wanted to do for a living when they were 18? How many people changed majors after getting experience in something that excited them? Isn't that what you are supposed to do in college? I tell mine, find something you are passionate about and you will be successful...

If you were all being 100% honest, you would be thrilled to have your kid attend anyone of the schools mentioned above.

So, no, I don't have guilt over this particular decision. I have made more than my share of mistakes, but after much careful thought and consideration, I really can't see any downside.

Perhaps the person that thinks I feel or should guilt can share with me the reason why I should be feeling guilty?

For you specifically, I will say, no to the guilt part but yes, I have a little angst that my kid only got 50% scholarship for lax, we were praying for 75%. But on the bright side, if his grades stay where they are and he scores 1800 on sat, he will get 25% more for merit...

Great post. I would add that the decision to support your child's interest in playing more of anything in the end guarantees nothing. This goes for all sports. Statistically speaking, the numbers are not in ones favor for scholarships and success at the next level. Enjoy your time as a family, in the cars to practices and tournaments where you can mold and raise your kids to become outstanding adults.

Never forget youth sports is a business that gets bigger every day. The only guaranteed scholarships are going to the kids of the guys running them thanks to all of us participating in them.

Roster of 50, 13 scholarship spots, 9th grade

Say the top 35 players get something, then the bottom 15 are walk ons. That would mean a 37% scholarship offer if all 35 got the same amount.

Say top 10 players get a 50% offer, then #11-35 would get a 33% offer.

You can see how the math works If the school is fully funding their available scholarships which some don't

If your kid got 50% scholarship to go to any D1 school you should happy as a pig in sh*t. You kid must also be one of the best players on the east coast because 50 to 75% scholarships in lax don't really come around much considering each team only gets 13 full's per year. To give 50% to a 9th grader is unheard of unless he is they next Miles Thompson. Your kid is either a stud or your post is BS. Carry on.

You sound like another jealous bitter person who sits around waiting for others to fail or to have misfortune. Good thing you have an anonymous board to post on because I am sure you would not display your ugly sentiment out in the open.

If a child is offered the opportunity to commit to UNC, Hopkins, Virginia, Princeton, Loyola, Penn, Maryland, Northwestern, Stanford or Georgetown you believe that they should not commit to any of these schools. Until when? When do you believe the perfect time to commit is? Just how much information do you need in order to make an informed decision?

Another moron misses the point. If my son received a 100% scholarship offer in 9th grade, does that make this good for everyone else or just my son? I am making the larger point that it is bad for everyone. It forces parents to buy into this travel team dream from the time they leave 1st grade. Who can afford to wait? Not get on an A team early and you risk never cracking the A team (seen plenty of Express/91 politics to last a lifetime). It pushes everything up, as D1 slots are taken early by players that may have not even played a varsity game yet. I say the system is broken and we have individuals who want to tell us how great it is for "Little Johnny." Kudos to you and Johnny, but to [lacrosse] with Little Bobby, Billy and Jake (there seem to be a lot of them those days) who are auditioning for travel and college coaches before they even have their first kiss let alone their first girlfriend. Something very wrong here. By the way, most college coaches agree with me. They abhor most travel programs and will tell you they hate recruiting 9th graders. But then they cop out and say, we have to do it in this current competitive environment and rules.

Why is it bad for everyone?

Nobody is forced into anything.

My Town Has “A” & “B” Teams at a very young age and the Town Politics are just as bad if not worse than that of the Club Teams.

Who cares if they haven’t played a varsity game yet? Obviously the College Coaches don’t care. The Majority of HS lacrosse games are not competitive. College coaches will be all over the 2017 and 2018 club games this summer. You might even see a few casually observing the Top 2019 games.

What difference does it make if they recruit early or late? They are going to recruit the same kids. If the recruiting timeline was pushed back would that open up more roster spots? No, it would not. Little Billy, Bobby and Jake would be in the same situation.

I vote for BS

Wow, sounds like a bunch of jealous parents to me. I say congratulations to the kid and his family.

The rest of you need to get a grip and focus on your own kid and his/her deal...