My son is a junior lax player from the west coast. He grew four inches his sophomore year (too late for DI) and performed well at various lacrosse showcases the past year, falling on the radar of various DIII (NESCAC, predominantly) coaches. He is having a great junior year so far on the field and in the classroom. We are trying to come up with the best game plan for summer before senior year when most coaches will make decisions and submit pre-reads to admissions. He has been invited to a bunch of prospect days, but $$$ is a huge issue since attendance will involve multiple trips across the country and, obviously, considerable travel for his family! Plus, many of the days conflict with one another. Is there a “best” showcase event he can/should attend in lieu of the prospect camps? Or is it just the case that in order to get the “best” look he should attend the prospect days of his top choices? Want to make sure we are not missing anything here . . . Thanks for any advice you can provide
He should ask his coaches, club and high school. It is likely they went to school on the east coast.
Most of the coaches go to all the big showcases, even the ones in Denver and California, but certainly the ones in Maryland and Philly. You might be able to hit one showcase and have a number of schools see him. He should start a dialog with the coaches and see where they’ll be. It takes a little work as they might be able to contact him directly, but can call one of his coaches, and son can send emails with where he’ll be and some distinguishing things about himself.
If he is good enough for the NESCAC(tough), he’s good enough for some of the mid D1 schools if he’s still interested. There is always some swapping around before the NLI are signed. Duke, Virginia, Hopkins aren’t going to happen, but look at the next tier of schools ranked 25-50. You never know.
Check this out. http://www.preplaxshowcase.com/. If you decide to go, have your son identify the schools that most interest him and send an email with his resume and highlight tape to the coaches attending from those schools. There will be opportunity for interaction with the coaches between sessions and he should make it a point to introduce himself to his targets. Follow camp with emails expressing interest. Prospect camps are best if he receives an invitation from the host coach to attend. Good luck.