BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NEW JERSEY LACROSSE NEW JERSEY FORUM Top Boy's Club Teams in New Jersey

Whether it is right or it is wrong, some kids may choose a lower academic D1 for the experience over a better academic D3. It does go both ways. I am not saying one way is right or wrong. If you are recruited by say Penn State and Tufts, what do you do? To each his own.

I do not think that this is the scenario that the poster was envisioning, a prior post mentioned Drexel (not knocking Drexel in any way), so the discussion was really more focused on a kid choosing Drexel for the D1 experience over a much higher rated (academically) D3 school. A kid that is getting recruited by Penn State is in a much different category talent wise than the kid getting recruited by Drexel, and probably 75% of the other D1 schools. However, using your example, I would probably go with Tufts, a top recruit would get a lot of playing time, get an amazing education and be in a position to perhaps win one or more national championships, and as another poster noted earlier, many of the D3 schools offer equal, if not better, financial packages than the D1 schools

You’ve just exposed yourself for not knowing anything about the college lacrosse landscape. The difference in recruit talent between Drexel and Penn State is marginal at best. If you can get recruited by Drexel you can get recruited by Penn State and vice versa. The widest margins in talent are obviously between the upper level (consistent top 10-20 teams) and the bottom 10-20 teams. Your post is pure ignorance

BTW - In re-reading your post, I see that we are on the same page, I just got caught up with the Penn State/Tufts part.

100% agree. Every one of this kids that commits in July to a top D3 academic school are capable of playing D1. A wise decision for the long game.

This is so very incorrect it’s astonishing.

You’ve just exposed yourself for not knowing anything about the college lacrosse landscape. The difference in recruit talent between Drexel and Penn State is marginal at best. If you can get recruited by Drexel you can get recruited by Penn State and vice versa. The widest margins in talent are obviously between the upper level (consistent top 10-20 teams) and the bottom 10-20 teams. Your post is pure ignorance

No..you just exposed yourself. If you think that the Drexel kid and the Penn State kid are on the same level, you are sorely mistaken. While both of those kids may look good on paper, and maybe the Drexel kid puts in some quality time on the field, to most knowledgeable observers, that Penn State kid is far better and possesses those intangibles that the Drexel kid simply does not have. Yes, a kid getting recruited by Penn State can get recruited by Drexel, or any other D1 for that matter, but the inverse is simply not true, and I would venture to guess that a lot of the top D3 players would have a better shot at Penn State than the Drexel kid.

I would argue that Penn state, despite this past season, has significantly more recruiting pull than Drexel.

September 1 is days away. Very exciting time for some of our kids. Who in NJ will be off the board early?

Without using names.....LE Goalie, Tri State Goalie from Lawrenceville, Mad Dog Goalie....BBL Middie from DB, LE Defender from DB, LE Attack from Pingry, both BBL attackman from Westfield and SHP, Tri State Middie from Red Bank, Tri States three attacks from SHP (2) and Princeton are all outstanding scorers but system guys but will go, just not sure how early. I am sure there are others but if you look at Inside Lacrosse's recent article, college coaches feel the 2024's have a smaller amount of star power kids, but have a large group of mid to above average kids who could play in college.

This is actually a pretty fair assessment. In regards to the Inside Lacrosse article, for NJ, I think that the 2024 class will play out a lot like the 2023 class.

Looks like an RBR dad's post. Overlooking the RFH 4 stars.

I am from Union County. I don't know the Red Bank kid personally. I know the two Inside Lacrosse 4 stars from LE. The defender is almost 18 and the DB and Westfield LE defenders are a step ahead. The middie is a really good player but I did not anticipate him to go early as the person who posed the initial question asked and that is how I responded. Sorry to offend you.

If you are from Union County, how do you know the defender is almost 18?

If you look at the defender's highlights he turned 17 two weeks ago. You are 100% an angry daddy from the Shore.

If you look at the defender's highlights he turned 17 two weeks ago. You are 100% an angry daddy from the Shore.

No skin in the game, great kid and great player, but RFH 4 star is a reclass, RBR kid is also legit, he will be off the board pretty quickly. Imagine if the Lawrenceville kid stayed home, then your head would really explode about the shore kids.

BBL and LE had commits in the past 24 hours.

BBL fogo to Navy. LE Defensemen to Cornell.

LE D pole from Westfield. I guess the dude was right about him saying he was better then the other guy. But i am sure the other guy will go soon also.

I would caution against equating early commitments with being a better player. That perception can put unnecessary pressure on a player to make a hasty decision.

While it makes sense that top schools will offer their top guys early… I think its better to encourage the kids to take their time with the process. Take visits to multiple schools, even multiple visits to the top schools on your list as you narrow it down.

No matter when you commit, everyone will arrive on campus the same day (and at the bottom of the team “pecking order”)

I agree with taking time on commitments. As we saw with McCabe Millon, they really don't mean anything. You can change your mind a year later and still only be a senior. I guess it makes sense to committ and then you have a free option to change your mind for the next year or so. It seems like kids change their minds more than schools do, but I guess some of the top academic schools have strings attached like test score and grades. At the end of the day what is a commitment? A verbal agreement with a minor?

Other than bragging rights, not much value to jumping on an offer unless it was your absolute first choice and you have done your due diligence on the school, the lacrosse program and the coach. It is a very stressful and difficult process for high school junior to manage, the more time they can spend evaluating their options, the better. While some may think that it is better to just get the commitment over with early, the truth is that the stress is still there until you kid signs a NLI (if they are going the D1 route). The college they commit to will be constantly tracking them throughout the year. There were several D1 commits on my son's team, and the college coaches attended many games this past summer. While it is unlikely that a school would pull an offer, the thought is always in the back of your head.

I agree with most of this but a factor you have not mentioned is that kids will get a time table for an answer on an offer. If Harvard gives you an offer, that offer does not last an eternity and if they give that spot away, your offer could be gone.

I think that is why we are seeing most of the 2024 early commits be at places that are very very difficult to pass up. (BBL kid to Navy, LE kids to Cornell and Harvard)

Great point about the time table. I think this is especially difficult for Goalies and FOGOs as they take fewer per class. You can’t wait around forever for an answer. I have seen them get the most pressure for decisions but it does happen for other positions.

While I don’t have any recent experience, I would expect players would get weeks or even a couple months to make a decision (all depending on their unique situation). For me, it would be a red flag if an offer were given with such a short time-line that the recruit wasn’t afforded the opportunity to visit multiple places.

Feel free to correct me on the timing if you’ve been through it recently!

I think that the timing has a lot to do with the schools level of interest in the player. A top 50 kid definitely has a lot more flexibility. Also, if you start to track the process on places like Inside Lacrosse, you can see that many of the top schools do not fill out their rosters right away. While there were some September commits, several of the D1 kids on my son's team committed early winter junior year and into the summer.

Anyone have a pov on whether Leading Edge or Prime Time are better programs for middle school players? It seems PT has more top tier hs players but that may be function of their location near Brunswick and other good CT lax schools. I live in NJ and it would be a longer drive to have kid on PT but was wondering if anyone thinks PT is noticeably better in coaching and player development.

Prime Time has an excellent reputation and almost no one who is really good there every leaves. That being said, as with all top teams, make sure your kid is not at or near the bottom of the roster/pecking order, especially if he wants to be an offensive player. But this is mostly true at all the top teams. Also will need to watch how that pecking order changes, if at all, as he gets older. These teams will look to improve each year, and do tend to attract the top talents as the kids get older - much easier to make the team at 5th grade than at 9th grade.

You will also need to factor in bridge crossing - tolls are expensive.

I can only speak of PT, as I had two children play for PT. Also, I live in NY and I've known several other families that have PT players and NEARLY everyone is happy at PT.

PT teams definitely improve over the years; they have no problem replacing players with newer and better players on the younger (middle school) levels. The HS teams might take 1 or 2 new players, but the window of opportunity is so small for those levels.

I always thought PT's business model of; One team, per grade, is great. This helps the owner/director (ND) in being able to give each HS player the necessary help in being recruited.

FYI, PT conducts its winter, weekly training at Chelsea Piers (Stamford, CT).

PT is a top program

Cannot go wrong with either. Both programs are quality programs with great reputations.

If you live in NJ, support the local team. Makes High School more fun

LE is really a HS program or 8th grade and up. I would bet there aren't many kids from the 6th grade team who are still on the team by 10th grade.

Agreed. Both are great programs, just depends on what works best for your life as far as travel to/from practice. Nobody can argue that one program is more successful than the other. While LE obviously has their supporters and detractors on this forum, I suspect that you can probably find plenty of similar banter about PT on BOTC. Personally, if it were geographically feasible, I would have put my kid on PT.

That simply makes no sense whatsoever.

Neither LE nor PrimeTime have nationally competitive middle school teams.

If you are looking to get in early for a good HS program these are two good options, but don't expect loyalty in HS because you joined them in 7th grade. They are competitive HS programs and will be constantly looking to improve their rosters, so the bottom third of the roster is always in jeopardy . . . regardless of when you joined the program.

If you're looking for elite middle school teams where you can play with and against the best in the country, there are better options for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.

Not at the middle school level. Leading edge is a waste of time until high school. Prime time is a little bit better at the middle school level.

SHP Attack (2024) committed to Air Force

I do have to say. I am not a LE guy by any means, but for the amount of detest their 2024 team has gotten in the past couple years, they are doing pretty well right now when it comes to recruiting. They somehow find a way, every year. Cornell Harvard and Villanova already.

You’re giving credit to the club but those kids are going to those schools no matter what club they play for.

Buy local!