BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2020

what team had a Princeton commit ?

I think two things are in play here. 1. Lacrosse people live in their own small world. In that world you have this ecosystem of early recruiting, rankings guys following little boys around, insular club / prep guys looking to harvest the events gold rush. 2. Lacrosse people have increasingly numbed out a cognitive awareness of the much bigger world around them. In that world there are other stakeholders that matter more who see lacrosse from the outside looking in. Admissions officers, university administrators, the general pool of alums, graduate schools parties, endowment managers/solicitors. Generally speaking, these other stakeholders don't hold minor sports dear in general, and few care more about lacrosse in specific over other sports.

This leads to something else: this minor sport gets attention for all te wrong reasons because of a bad set up. Increasingly this has started to, and will continue to a greater extent, some brushback. I'm a large donor to one Ivy that has been blasted by recent negative attention to 9th graders with no grades committing to UPenn. The coach had to be shamed into at least bearding his early moves last year. I know people in a high capacity at Duke where I have a graduate degree, and Danowski now has a seven year streak of bringing commits through with an average of 2 that failed minimal admissions standards but were still presented to admissions. He puts those kids in boarding schools for a PG year when admissions fails them to repair. I get a strong sense Duke wants a university with better academic profiles in minor sports, most prominently men's lacrosse. The new coach at UVA was told when he was hired that one matter to be fired for cause was committing any 9th grader and 10th graders would have to be vetted and held for approval by admissions where a pre-read is requested beyond the early read which happens after junior year.

The landscape will change soon. It has to. A fellow lacrosse dad mentioned to me yesterday that Princeton...yes, Princeton...publicly committed a 9th grader less than one month into high school. My first private thought was Madalon was the wrong hire. My second thought is forces a lot bigger than Madalon will mark him, and he'll be gone in due course of 1-2 years like Bates (who also had his critics in the administration before the incident last year). My third thought was as obvious as it is that Madalon will look awful internally now, it is highly likely that won't occur to him now or for some time. That's lacrosse.

He committed to the Ivy League admissions process, it is way, way too early to see if he will ever step foot on Princeton's campus. This really does make the whole early "commit" thing look very, very silly.

The amount of negativity on this forum from the pathetic loser Dads who son isn't getting any looks anywhere is truly amazing to me. I feel sorry for all of you that walk around envious of others and spew negative vibes.. How about be happy for that kid and anyone else on this forum who has used the sport we all love to their advantage!! . You are all miserable haters.. Not a shot you are happy at home or in life in general. Truly pathetic.

Congrats to that player and his family! A ton of work ahead but enjoy the journey and embrace all the opportunities that will come your way as a result of landing a spot on a Top Ivy League team!

"Young man, work hard, study hard, stay out of trouble and you *will* go to Princeton." Seems like a much better deal than any other 9th grader who aspires to an ivy has right now and a great way to keep a kid focused through high school, good for him.

I think you missed the whole point. I'm sure the kid is a good player and a smart kid too. I'm not making any point except for this: from the perspective of Princeton internally outside this little bubble of lax daddies and bros & club guys, this looks like abject stupidity. And from the outside looking in at Princeton it is also a very bad look. This is a school that represents, albeit informally via a sports coach, that a kid is committed to attend before a single high school semester or grades, SAT's etc? That cheapens out the prestige Princeton is craven to uphold. The point is not a personal attack on a kid/family...it's simply a point that there are certain exclusive schools like, say, Princeton for example that have alums & others chomping the bit to pay millions in donation pledges to secure their kid a seat. These same universities are trending away from that considering the most qualified kids aren't Topper the 3rd per se, and smoking out better applicants to fill out with legacies is a slippery slope. Too much of that and you're university isn't as selective and it more broadly impact the university to the negative. Sports -- same thing, except for that little distinction that the school doesn't add money in the till to do lacrosse knuckleheads a solid.

I agree this guy made my point a lot better then I did. The kid must be very smart. But the optics to the outside world look bad. People roll their eyes when a kid is a early verbal to a "dumb" school. So when you throw in a Ivy it looks really bad to the school. I am just shocked a Ivy would let this get out to the public. I think the smart move would of been to promise the kid a spot but say not to put this out to the press.

The "smart" thing would to be to wait until the Junior year. Any if ANYONE says "oh, but there won't be any good recruits left", is out of their mind. I would guarantee that is top schools started waiting to recruit, the whole thing would slow down. Seriously, our sport looks ridiculous.

This is not new. Ivies like Cornell, Penn, Princeton and Brown have been taking 9th graders for a couple of years now.

"Our sport looks ridiculous" says a very negative person. A positive person or parent makes statements like " keep practicing son and make sure you study hard because maybe you also can leverage your good grades and ability to play lacrosse at a high level to get into a top University"

If (or when) my 3 sport, 4.2 GPA, 35 ACT son gets in to a similar college because of lacrosse all I have to say is God bless "our ridiculous sport"!!

doubt it was PU that put it out to the masses?...maybe was a parent or the kid himself.....I somehow don't think powers that be at Princeton hang on BotC..

Your son took the ACT before 9th grace and got a 35...OK The douchebaggery is strong in this one. You do know this is a 2020, therefore 9th grade forum, right genius?

He doesn't have a 4.2 either [lacrosse]****. That's what he is projected to score after several pretest. Go back to checking on your 35k IRA filled with Penny stock losers.

This frank the tank?

Your 8th grader has taken pre-test ACTs? Really?

Another fogo gone - 91 to Terps. Kid has not been at BL for more than 4 weeks and Ty boy claiming him as the 12th MIAA committ of 45 commits. At least we know he is not a holdback since he is from public school. Congratulations to the kid - great to be picked up by Terps as a fogo.

First on-age MIAA commit (maybe ever)?

Why do you say claiming he attends a MIAA school and you would assume he will be playing in the MIAA the next four seasons.

My children play in the MIAA and the reclassification of kids to improve their athletic standing is out of control. I'd have to bet at least 10 of the commits are reclassed. Sad.

I can not understand why anyone from a MIAA school is shocked by this trend. If you are willing to pay 12k to 39k a year for your kid to have a advantage in life. Why would it shock you that these same people would pay for another year of school so their kid gets a advantage in the recruiting world.

I'm not shocked by it. It is just rampant. I find it comical that there are several kids in my son's grade (2018) that are double holdbacks and they still are not committed. Oh well...

Wait till the 2020 and 2021 start seeing the field, It is crazy the amount of children heldback a grade or two. Now where are the apologists telling us its not cheating, hit the wall,play up, etc..

Well just look at how well they must be doing in the class room. That should help them in the long run. If I was 17 taking sophomore English I am sure I would of got a A+.

Your punctuation and usage sux!!! You would probably get a B at best.

Great point thanks for letting me know my education level and writing skills effect my knowledge of lacrosse. This is why I pay the money I do for my son to attend a private school. He has past his old man.

I like to think your son knows how to use "affect" and "passed" in a sentence too....

I like to think your son knows how to use "affect" and "passed" in a sentence too....

Thank you I just signed up for some night English classes. You have inspired me to better myself.

I agree that repeating grades for athletics (8th grade / 9th grade) is sad. I wouldn't put boys who started in an MIAA school in pre first in the same category.

How is VLC 2020 looking? Retooled or same old, same old.

"Sad"??..."Sad" is the reality that the family pet has died or that we have to choose either Hillary or Trump? A summer birthday player reclassify and getting recruited to a top school that kids wouldn't otherwise get an opportunity to attend is F***kijg phenomenal!!! Whooowho! Yay.. Back flip. Whooowhoooo.

YES! FINALLY! A smart person in the room!

They may be in another category ..but they still were held back. No one actually cares about them or even holding back 8th graders. Parents do what they think is right for their child. The problem is when they want an advantage in youth sports that others same exact birthday dont get. Get your advantage in MIAA MS teams and HS teams. Getting an advantage in youth sports over other 9 thru 14 year children is sad.

Yes!!!!!!!!! Finally a smart person in the room!!!!!!!!

Been coaching club and rec for many years, and can honestly say I've only seen a small handful of kids out of hundreds that gamed the grad year club system at the "youth" level after repeating grade in school. It seemed foolish, and those small handful could have been competitive up one year. Now they are in HS and all bets are off. There is no logical reason to play up once you hit high school because of the way colleges differentiate the grad years for their recruiting. The majority of private HS kids are going to be somewhere near a year older than public school kids in the same class because of pre-first or lateral transfer from public, and that is just a function of private schools evolving into modern times, versus public schools plowing through with the 1-12 grade system that is very old. Once they are in HS, the one year on average age difference should not come into play, and quite frankly, those that carry on the argument are probably not as competitive at that point, but have a hard time letting go. Men get separated from boys in HS, regardless of 1-2-3 year age differences. DI schools can generally evaluate the talent even with a 1-2 year spread, and DIII schools don't get serious looking until they are around 16 or 17 anyway, at which point the spread should be meaningless. If you are now starting HS and still complaining about and labeling "holdbacks", you lost your way about 1-2 seasons ago, and it's really code talk for animosity against private school students. Even at the youth level, we seem to be arguing 99% of the time about a 1% problem.

A handful??? Much more than a handful! Who is talking about HS?? Most people are complaining about the many many prefirst/holdbacks gaming YOUTH sports. Most people that write something negative are usually referring to Youth sports.

It is a strawman to bring the argument into HS lacrosse.

It's a HS forum. 2020 is HS now. They teach that type of math in private school.

ahahahahahahaha!

If you mean that 1% are gaming the system to get an advantage over the other 99, yes you're right.

More than 1% in MD club. In your world as long as its only a few people cheating at anything it is ok! That what you teach your kids. As long as you are with just a few..cheat away or game the system.

"I can't believe we decide to reclass our son. I feel terrible that he is a few months older then some of those public school boys and how will he ever explain that he is a summer birthday to his classmates at Duke and his future employer in Silicon Valley". ...Said no one EVER!!!