My D19 plays lax but we are not in a major lax area and she’s not a star, and she doesn’t play on any club or travel teams (because there aren’t any close enough to us). She’d love to play in college and we are happy when a college on her list offers lax, but it’s not a deal-breaker if it doesn’t - club or intramural is fine also.
That said, should she be registering with the NCAA or something? Is she shooting herself in the foot by not being proactive about this? She doesn’t expect scholarships or anything, but heck, if it maybe got her a smidge higher in the admissions ratings than if she didn’t have lax in the mix, we’re all for doing what we can.
I just don’t want to find out we missed the boat by not taking some crucial step. I’ve looked quickly at the NCAA site and see about registering to get an ID. Is that about it? Fill out a profile, maybe visit with coaches when we visit colleges and that’s it?
Thanks - sorry to be really clueless.
Check with @twoinanddone – his daughter plays D2 lax and did not (if I recall correctly) come out of a powerhouse club.
Registering and being eligible with NCAA is necessary in connection with scholarship offers, but not required for players who are only looking D3.
You don’t need to register with NCAA until she wants to take an OV or even until she is about to enter college. If she ends up at a D3, she doesn’t need to register at all. Don’t do it yet.
It really depends on the school and the level of lax if lax will help her get in. The first day of recruiting for her class for lax was yesterday (although many are already recruited because the rule didn’t change until April) so she has plenty of time. Send in the questionnaires for the schools she’s interested in. If she wants to be recruited, consider going to recruiting camps next summer. She can also go to one day play camps around Florida. There is one at St. Leo’s in Sept and one at Florida Tech in Nov (others probably have them too).
Thanks, those are really helpful replies! What is an OV?
I’ll take a look-see for questionnaires at the colleges on our list (and it’s really early times yet).
We are in PA and there is no way we are going to fit a lax camp into the fall of junior year. Just won’t be happening. Maybe next summer…
A couple things…
- Get some game video that can be sent to coaches.
- When you visit schools, meet with the lax coach. Ask what they need to evaluate whether your D is a fit with their program.
- Look NOW to see if your D's target schools have ID camps. That is a good way to be seen by coaches.
Women’s lax has traditionally been an early recruitment sport to the point, although that may be changed by the new NCAA rules. I mention this so that you’re not surprised when you talk to coaches and find out that early as you are in the process, they may be ahead of you.
To be recruited, even at a school that only gives you an admissions boost and not a scholarship, is work, so you’re smart to be exploring whether that’s viable now.
I didn’t think any part of PA was ‘not a major lax area.’ She has a lot of competition in the mid-Atlantic schools.
You’re thinking of Main Line Philly area … we are not there…
PSAC is a very competitive conference in D2 women’s lacrosse. There are 10-11 schools spread across the state, like Shippensburg, UIP, Bloomsburg, Seton Hill that are pretty good and recruit. The D3 schools in PA are good too - Gettysburg, F&M.
I don’t know lax, but you need to do a few things asap. Everyone including LAX is able to talk to coaches as of last Friday.
Try to get someone to give you an honest assessment of what level your daughter belongs at, preferably someone familiar with recent college recruiting and play.
You don’t want to waste time at places that aren’t realistic.
Create an academic and athletic resume. I could pm you one, but it is for a different sport, and you can find ones for LAX online to use as a format that would be better.
Get some video put together. Search threads or someone familiar with LAX can get on here and let you know what exactly they want. I’m guessing highlights but different sports are different.
Create an introductory email to send to coaches. Check other threads for what to say, but personalized each one. My son has an intro sentence that said something like congrats on 10th place finish at NCAA tourney, or something like that. Then he had a sentence at the end he changed. The middle was the same for everyone. Personally he didn’t bother with the info sheets but did emails instead and it seems to have worked fine. Attach the resume and a transcript to the email.
Use this board, there is a wealth of experience on here.
Thanks, working on the honest assessment and will have a better clue, I hope, in the next week. There will be no video before next season. There just won’t be.
I’ll see about the email also.
OVs are official visits to the college where they pay for your child to visit the college. Usually it means for an overnight visit. There are strict rules that the colleges must follow- here’s a start
http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/future/recruiting
^^^D3 does not reimburse for travel, but will host player and pay for meals on campus. In terms of video, the lax parents can better answer, but for other sports, coaches also want to look at skills video in addition to game video. For example in baseball and softball, they want to look at fielding, hitting, throwing (from the field and pitching if applicable) and running video’s. Throwing videos would include a simultaneous radar gun reading on velocity and running would include a stopwatch time over measured distances.
On video, there may be resources from last season, even if you did not film yourself. If there are other parents on the team who filmed games, approach them to ask if they would share film. Or if the coach had someone filming, see if you can get access to that. If there are one day camps between now and spring season that your daughter attends, film those. Some of the film my kid used was from my phone – it worked, coaches really just want to see what the level of play individually and often, as a team, is, in order to see if it is worth having a conversation.
There are a lot of D3 programs, and not all of them are super competitive. Sometimes, being an athlete who can contribute to a so-so team is enough, if it is a school a student likes. Good luck, it is a long process, but I enjoyed seeing my kid mature as he progressed from his first ever (less than smooth) coach meeting to his final conversations in senior year with a variety of coaches.
Guys, read back above where I said she’s not a star. Srsly. This is overkill for the level she’s at. … at least, it seems this way to me. Lax is an EC to her and I’m just trying to ensure there’s not a barrier to her playing in college by me accidentally ignoring some NCAA procedure now.
If the question is “do I have do anything so that my kid can play as a walk on”, the answer is no. But the OP talked about getting an edge in admissions, and the only way to do that is to be recruited. As an EC – i.e., not a sport for which the applicant is being recruited, it is no different from any other activity.
As you are building your list of schools of interest, take a look at the lax results – are they winning their conference and going to the national tournament? Then almost certainly not worth talking with coach because the recruiting process is likely to be very competitive. But if they are middle of the pack and below, then contact coach before a visit to campus and see if can meet to discuss the program and its needs. A few coach meetings and you will likely feel more informed about what the expectations are for high school lax experience and how it would translate to college.
As @gardenstategal noted, for sport to help nudge the needle in admissions, a student has to be recruited, and that means jumping through all these hoops – game film, questionnaires, coach meetings, camps etc. Alternatively, if someone is not interested in going the recruit route, then their sport commitment can be a notable EC, but no better or worse than youth symphony, an after school job etc.
OK, thanks, that makes total sense.
My non-star daughter had good luck by just filling out the recruit questionnaires on the athletic pages of college websites. She got invited to lots of camps/clinics and visits from being entered into their recruit database.
I don’t know what types of schools your daughter is interested in attending, but there are a lot of DIII schools that have very low key athletic programs and are not super competitive. My kid has a girl on her team who had never played the sport before last year. And the school is quite competitive academically (obviously not athletically). If you don’t want to go to a lot of trouble, I’d just fill out the forms and see what happens. Do be aware that even the some of the most competitive schools will invite and keep inviting athletes to their camps and clinics even if you’re kid is not a top prospect. So do some research on the school’s statistics, and their roster to see what kind of program they have and what type of kids are on their team. My kid was very short for the sport she played, so I looked at the rosters to see what coaches were open to recruiting shorter players. You can also look at the player bios which usually give some information about their athletic achievements. Don’t waste your time and money going to camps at schools with programs way above your daughters abilities.
After she attends a camp or clinic, it is totally appropriate to email the coach to ask for feedback. We appreciated the honesty of the coaches that told our daughter that she was not a priority recruit. She still applied to the schools anyway, but we knew if she was accepted, playing her sport would not be part of that college experience.
Hope that helps.
@Gatormama daughter is a goalie which changes a lot as far as recruiting goes as a team either needs one (or two) or doesn’t. Her daughter isn’t going to play D1 or use it to get into D1 schools, but her skills might be a good fit at D2 schools (lots of those in PA) or D3. Lax recruiting for those schools mostly happens as juniors and seniors so gatorkid is right on track. Film is okay but not really necessary at this point. She can get her name out to those schools she’s interested in. Coaches really would prefer to see her at a camp or showcase tournament next summer over seeing some game film.
Recruiting for D2 schools is sort of different. Many of the top ranked school do recruit sophomores (now only juniors can be recruited) and are full for 2018 and 2019, but other top teams still have a lot of room. D’s team has 2 recruits listed for 2018, which is 2 more than I expected to see on the list. Team is ranked 6th in the national rankings, and still wide open for high school seniors with lots of scholarship money to give out. It is much harder for her coach to recruit because the player has to be interested in a STEM school. There are also plenty of spots still available at D1 and D3 schools with teams not ranked in top 50 of their divisions. Goalies? There are over 250 schools that offer women’s D3 lacrosse, 120 in D2, and about 150 in D1. Every single one needs a goalie (or 2).
I think there is a lot of luck involved in finding the right school, but the player has to be willing to give schools they might not have considered a chance too. D took a chance on a new program and it worked out very well. Gatormom’s daughter seems willing to look at a lot of schools that will be a good academic fit and where she’ll have a good athletic opportunity (maybe with a little money thrown in).
One last thing - someone upthread mentioned looking to see if target schools had ID camps. What is an ID camp?
Thanks again for all the guidance. You have all been hugely helpful.