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
They scout young kids in every sport.
"Lacrosse is the only sport with a toxic sideline" - I don't think so.
I can tell you that college coaches want to lock up (some) 9th graders because they do it. If they didn't want to do it they would not do it. In any event, it is a small number of 9th graders who commit. Just about all of the early commits at Top 20 programs were recruited by multiple schools. The top programs fight for the same players.
The top college coaches at the top college programs identify the top players and they absolutely want to commit the top players.
The problem this sport has is that many of the parents are used to getting their way. Many of the parents can't understand why another child is being recruited by Duke and their kid is not. Many of the parents can not accurately asses their kids ability. They parade their kid around to every camp, clinic, showcase and tournament and try to sell their kid to a college coach. They send countless letters and emails boasting of their kids abilities on the field and in the classroom. They send highlight films. They ask the club director and or HS coach to call the college coaches. They send their kid to go talk to the coach after a camp or clinic.
It is part of the college coaches job to identify and recruit talent. If a college coach likes what they see when they watch a kid play they will reach out and initiate contact. The coach will tell you if they want you to be a part of their program. Have you ever been to a recruiting clinic or camp at a top school? Coaches make it their business to open a dialog with the players they are interested in. Don't get me wrong, the coaches want the player to be interested in the school as well, they do not want to waste their time on a player who has no interest in their school.
Just because the parents run around trying to get a top program to commit their kid does not mean the coach will do it. There are a lot of parents who want their kid to commit to a top school. However there are only a few spots to be had. The coaches drive the process. The coaches commit the players they want. If they do not get the players they want maybe then they will settle for someone else.
After the dust settles and the top 9th and 10th graders commit then coaches will look to fill any remaining spots if they did not get the players they wanted.
If you are not interested in one of the schools that "actively recruits" then I guess all of the other stuff works. I guess you can market a player to those schools. I do not think you can market a player to Maryland or North Carolina. I believe the top programs go after and recruit the players that they want.
