BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Boys 2017 Fall 2013/Summer 2014

Not kidding myself. The # of 2016 commits from the schools outlined above are not huge yet (check Inside Lacrosse) but obviously there are several and classes will largely be filled by the summer for many of these schools for 2016s. For 2017s, yes there is activity in terms of reaching out to kids and expressing interest, but it will likely take the next 2 years for the 2017 classes to be largely filled, most heavily next year.

From Ty Zanders (Inside Lacrosse) twitter today:
Spoke w/ Dom Starsia on early recruiting: "It's embarrassing to be on the sidelines watching 9th graders... We're at a point of crisis."

I do not listen to what they say, I watch what they do. They might stop with the early "public" verbals but they will not stop trying to identify talent in the 9th and 10th grade. The Schools you mention are no different, they have less "verbals" but they are out there doing the same thing. One reason they might have fewer committed 10th graders is that the other schools are more appealing to more student athletes.

The "early verbals" might go away but the recruiting will not.

Generally agree with what you say. Also agree the Ivys by definition have a smaller pool of kids who can play there because of academic index requirements.

BTW - another 2017 committed today to UVA per Ty Zanders twitter. He is a 2017 but re-classified as he was on 2016 MadLax team last year. Not complaining, just the facts.

Generally agree with what you say. Also agree the Ivys by definition have a smaller pool of kids who can play there because of academic index requirements.

BTW - another 2017 committed today to UVA per Ty Zanders twitter. He is a 2017 but re-classified as he was on 2016 MadLax team last year. Not complaining, just the facts.

And by the way, this was the young man at the heart of the MadLax email issue

I love reading you guys whine about this age thing, which is completely a nonissue.

I will enjoy seeing my 2017 son pummel your teams. My son, by the way, is a 19 year old freshman. Deal with it.

Poetic justice for Cabell.

I love reading you guys whine about this age thing, which is completely a nonissue.

I will enjoy seeing my 2017 son pummel your teams. My son, by the way, is a 19 year old freshman. Deal with it.

THAT WAS THE GREATEST POST IN THE HISTORY OF LACROSSE. DEAL WITH IT!!!!!!!

Go ahead complain, another cheater taking the spot of 2017 cause he wasn't good enough to impress in 2016. Went from good to great by playing against little kids. Just the simple facts. don't be afraid to say it like it is.

Question. How does one hold back or otherwise reclassify their son after he's already started 9th grade? My son's school would never allow it. They would claim they are not lacrosse incubators. Is it too late?

I am a parent of a 2017 player, and I am as disgusted frustrated as many others on this early recruiting process. Lacrosse is an expensive sport, and club dues for most of us run $2K to $5K per annum before any apparel or travel expenses to tournaments. I have heard some horror stories of club does running over $10K a year and really have no idea if that is true...maybe another poster could take that one. Add a private school tuition and it is a lot more. It should be sufficient to play for a good club and play competitive high school.

I am impressed and a bit jealous that on LI you have so many top flight public school teams and a very competitive league unlike anywhere else for public schools.

But everyone has the additional problem of too much is never enough with the showcases. As a parent, I could easily fill a dozen weekends with camps and showcases and club owners and coaches are tied to encouraging this to the kids to get noticed. A dozen more things at another $400 to $700 for 1.5 to 3 days of lacrosse to get noticed. If your kid is a Turtle or an LI Express or a Crab, is this really needed? Just me asking if there is anything empirical to validate the showcase business model. For a California kid, I get it that they would flock to these constantly. Is it worth it for a LI or MIAA school kid do that?

I took our son to our first two "prospect" days at universities in the recent weeks and have to say this does it for me without anyone's advice. For $200 or so a try, you can go to a school you are targeting for prospect day and at that day there will be a range of coaches from other schools that are D1 non power ranked to D3. That makes sense to me that the NCAA coaches know that a coach from a D3 school is not taking dinner bread from a UVa or a UPenn, so let the kids perform all day long in front of the audience they and the families want with the full attention of the coaches all day long. We have all been at showcases where the coaches have no choice but to move their lawn chairs around at each halftime to see every team or player, and then it becomes a sordid lottery whether or not your kid is on the field or is in a competitive game when the coaches they want to impress are watching. At one Fall tournament my son's team went up 6-0 quickly and the coaches filed out quickly and that is understandable...hard to evaluate kids beating up on a lesser team.

I think these prospect days are a big game changer. Already we have been in touch with two of our top choices and the coaches have each corresponded with us directly about the recruiting process. That is more than we had three weeks ago waiting on the club owner to arbitrate what players he wanted to showcase which sadly involves a lot of politics and nonsense that fills this thread up with repeat complaints. Long live prospect days.

Excellent post and something that should be cross-posted onto the college forum. BOTC agrees with your assertion that a year of private High School, combined with the costs of a full season of lacrosse and travel can certainly be in the $20,000-$25,000 range which begs the question : exactly how much scholarship money do you actually expect lacrosse to deliver for you?

Your last paragraph is extremely compelling. Lacrosse parents are now finding out what soccer parents discovered a decade back. Parents can actually control their child's recruiting cycle with carefully planning showcase days and targeting those college prospect days where they know that their student-athlete's target coaches are in attendance. While team showcasing will always have value, the fact is that parents should no longer be depending on the club coach to determine the trajectory of their child's recruiting arc.

Again, thank you for the contribution.

Our approach has been to put together a really solid video from the fall, fortunately when coaches were watching his games this fall he played well enough to wet their appetite, and then try to be smart about his rising sophomore summer about how much he plays. It is just too hard for guys this age, with the rare exception, to just be on all of the time.

I know some families who are almost going the complete other way and almost focusing entirely on prospect days of targeted schools and a showcase or two. Most of that crowd has the luxury of playing on high school teams which have some sort of cache to help get them into the semi-competitive showcases to broaden their exposure.

The other question is how much exposure?

14 and 15 year kids are not men, and I've seen it with my own son and they just can't always flip that switch and perform. That's what kids do. We were at a big tournament in Maryland this fall and had quite a few coaches watching the 2017 team. So many in fact that we were all really surprised.

Over the course of six games if you had seen my kid in three of them you would have said where I can sign him up, two of them were, ok this kid is good we want to see more, and the other game you would have said wth is the big deal.

I think my son has had the opportunity to play with or against all but one of the early announced 2017 commits, and I would say the same thing about most or all of them., and that is the problem or dilemma as I see it with doing too many or even any of the prospect days as a 2017. We have been politely begging off since it requires us to do a lot of traveling.

Our approach has been to put together a really solid video from the fall, fortunately when coaches were watching his games this fall he played well enough to wet their appetite, and then try to be smart about his rising sophomore summer about how much he plays. It is just too hard for guys this age, with the rare exception, to just be on all of the time.

All it takes is one so so game in front of a target coach and you are done. Sometimes less is more, and while you have to play the exposure game it is a pretty tricky tight wire to walk sometimes.

Interesting post. My son's club coach has told him to stay away from the prospect camps as they are make or break situations.

Of course it's not going to stop. These guys are still going to go after the very best players. They don't want to miss out on losing them to someone else. And as long as some schools are going to play by those rules other schools are going to be forced to do the same thing Otherwise they miss out on the best players. Happens in every other sport includin hockey,football and baseball. These are highly touted players. These guys don't make many mistakes in recruiting this is their job. They are not wrong very often.

This is not accurate. Rock and Ryan Pride to UVA, Alex Trippi to UNC. All publicized, all reclassed.
Congrats to the boys!

This is not accurate. Rock and Ryan Pride to UVA, Alex Trippi to UNC. All publicized, all reclassed.
Congrats to the boys!

I guess I have a hard to time saying congrats - I don't know the facts, but there is a growing, disturbing trend which is the reclassifying game. It sure seems like a twisted arms race of sorts where if you don't chose to play the cards are stacked heavily against you.

Besides Will Rock, none of the top DC/MD kids have committed yet. The top players are still on the board. The families who pushed this are committed.

Trust me.... We are all very tired of the "reclassified" situation. But let's not judge those who do so in order to help their kids. If i had a child whose only chance to compete against the best of Long island was to "reclassify; then maybe i would see things through their eyes. Cheaters will always be cheaters.

They will do as they must to remain competitive with the true LAX hot bed: Long Island

I personally know there are several (at least 7) LI true 14 yo 2017's who are in the process of choosing just who to commit to and they all understand that there is no race here. Their families understand that the real importance here is helping the players pick the school which will best serve their educational options. Young as they may be; these kids are advanced enough to understand that their budding abilities are going to afford them great opportunities. With their parent's guidance; they will have the schools of choice amongst them which include all of the afore mentioned LAX powerhouse schools as well as IVY academic powerhouses.

Patience is truly a virtue. Long Island will as usual be very well represented across the board amongst all of these fine schools.

And they won't need "reclassification" to do so...

Long Island LAX: No reclassification needed.