Boys LAX Recruiting Timeline & Questions under new rules

DS is a 2020 recruit and D3 coaches from NESCAC and other highly ranked SLACS are now pursuing him in earnest since he’s not committed to any D1 schools. He did have contact with some D1 coaches during jr year and has had some recent contact as a result of summer play. He has friends though who were specifically been pursuing D3 NESCACs the whole time who are now getting the run-around and are still trying to figure it out because D3 coaches who showed interest now have seen kids this summer and are shifting interest to them.

Our experience has been that summer after junior year is when the D3 coaches are really deciding who they want to go after. This is the first year with the change in timing so it may shake out differently next year. This year it seemed a player really have to be a top 100 player to commit D1 junior year. We seen that a lot of lower ranked D1 programs haven’t yet filled their rosters.

Inside Lacrosse has some sections where you can see how many commits for 2020 have been recruited for each D1, D2 and D3 school and for what position. It’s a good place to monitor if your son is interested in specific schools with solid engineering. College club is also an option but can be costly. For example UC Berkeley has a pretty solid club team and obviously great engineering. I believe University of Texas started a club team.

Competition is tough and being on a great club team next summer could help him. Having seen my nieces and nephews in engineering the past few years makes me think it would be quite difficult to do both! Many schools don’t allow it.

@NancyNC Thank you, this is very helpful. I didn’t realize you could look up commits. My son probably isn’t a Top 100 player, yet his goal is a spot on a D1 roster - perhaps that isn’t realistic. Most of the schools he’s looking at don’t offer any athletic money but given how competitive admission is, it would be great if he had a little support from the coaches. His first priority is academics but he’s been an athlete since age 5, its part of his identity and he would really like to continue as long as possible. Thanks again.

There used to be a webpage called Laxpower and it had lists and lists of recruits. They’d put up the new list when the students were sophomores (back when that was allowed) and there were hundreds of names on the lists, boys and girls, the day the lists went live. By the time they graduated, the lists of commits would be in the thousands. Sad, but Laxpower is no more.

I have to disagree that D1 schools only have 100 early commits. There are thousands who commit as juniors. There is some shifting around, but most will go to the schools they commit to as juniors. I was watching the World Series of Lacrosse and many of those 13 year olds were already ‘committed.’ Very unofficial, very likely to change, but some of those kids have older brothers and cousins playing in college and they know where they want to go.

The successor to LaxPower continues to have commit lists: www.fanlax.com.

I can’t vouch for boys, but for girls the 19 and 20 lists are pretty good. There are some girls I know who are committed that do not appear, but many are listed.

If you know a few commits to schools you are interested in, Google them and see if they have posted highlight reels to YouTube, Hudl, etc. You can even look up current first or second years (i.e., 17s and 18s) on the rosters of target schools.

If your son compares well to them, you are in good shape from a lax POV. Many other threads here discuss the academics side of NESCAC and Ivy recruitment.

Even on laxpower, the recruits were self reported or reported by the schools or clubs. There were tons that weren’t listed until the school reported them after the NLI were signed.

I never claimed the commit lists were comprehensive, but for the schools I looked at they were (as I said) “pretty good”.

We ended up attending quite a few showcases and prospect camps, here’s our impression:

UnderArmour tryouts - 2 evenings, not a sleepover. Tons of coaches, good value for the money.

US Lacrosse team tryouts - highest level of play, worth the money even though there weren’t any coaches watching.

Brown - 1 day prospect camp, well organized and worth the money

Dartmouth Great by Choice - 3 days, a lot of money, not a ton of play time. There were college coaches coaching the teams and some on the sidelines but we felt Dartmouth was really milking parents - everything seemed like it was an extra charge and there were just too many kids. We would not recommend this at all. If you’re interested in Dartmouth go to their 1 day events in the fall and winter.

Elite 100 - Well organized, college coaches coached each team and there were lots on the sidelines, multiday but my kid’s team was coached by his #1 favorite school so it was worth it.

Madlax Showcase - Disorganized, really poor value for the money, would definitely not recommend.

Lehigh - Multiday event ended up getting cancelled/changed to a 1 day event. Very few kids because of the change but a good opportunity to get insight from the coaches and players at a D1 school.

Vassar - Multiday event but cheaper than the others, not too many kids, all college coaches and lots of playing time. Significantly better than the Dartmouth event.

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Also, NIKE Philly Showcase right before Thanksgiving. Horrible weather but great facility, tons of coaches.