Hello - any help appreciated as new to the Prep school world. S26 applied to many but best chances look to be Brewster Academy, Lawrence Academy and Kimball Union. Will be playing on the lacrosse team at all of them. Any insight into these 3 would help as there is not a lot out there about them (also applied to Middlesex, Portsmouth Abbey, St Marks) Thanks
Not much help on the LAX front. I think they are all adequate teams. In terms of academics, I’d say that they are definitely not pressure cooker schools. A student can challenge themselves if they seek it but they might have to push a bit to be placed in challenging classes.
Have you visited all three? Kimball Union and Brewster are very rural. Brewster has a cute town surrounding it while there isn’t much of anything around KUA. KUA isn’t far from Hanover/Dartmouth though, so there is a nice place to visit within a short drive. Lawrence is in the same small town as Groton. A bit to do in the town itself , a short ride to a small entertainment/shopping center and then just about an hour to Boston.
I liked that students couldn’t fall through the cracks at Brewster due to their weekly faculty meeting format. I liked the humanities discussion we observed at KUA and S23 has a lot of friends from middle school at LA. LA does tend to clear out on weekends as it is only around 50% boarders.
I’d say Middlesex, Portsmouth Abbey and St Marks are a small step up in terms of academics and athletics, but that’s NOT to say they will be a better fit for your child. You want to pick the school where your child with thrive and not just survive. Will your son be developed in LAX or will they spend a lot of time on the bench? What teaching, motivation and discipline style does your kid respond to? Are they excited about the classes in the course catalog and can they see themselves making the campus their “home” for the next few yeara? Are there other clubs or activities that interest them (LAX is only a one season sport at boarding school unlike a club team).
What year will your son be entering and what is important to him in a school?
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Thanks - I think we are pretty good with determining best school for lacrosse. And I totally agree on the academic difference between the schools. We have spoken with all the schools’ lax coaches and very happy with the development he is being “promised”. All that said we do have a few favorites but was looking for some inside info on week to week type things that happen at the school - issues or great things if you know what I mean? We have heard KUA also has a lot of kids leaving on weekends which is why they have some “closed” weekends where kids do not leave but Brewster does not have that issue as much. Of course it all depends where he gets in - but yes we have looked at the other sports and clubs in the schools and all seem like they have great options, just wondering a bit more about the personalities of each one if I am making myself clear enough. Thanks for all the info!
He is entering in as a 10th grader -
As a mom of athletes recruited to BS, I would say speak with the coach(es) and players of your son’s primary sport multiple times if you can—revisit days will be another opportunity. Have your child have those frank conversions of where/how the coach sees him contributing immediately and in the long term. If they wont start on varsity or if they are on varsity but initially won’t see a lot of playing time, do they develop players and move them up or do they fill positions with seniors/PGs they bring in? If they play a very specific position how many do they already have and how many are they looking to bring in? Do they offer off season training? Even though he’ll play other sports at most of these schools, many offer fall and/or winter lax training to some degree. Also consider his club team commitment and airport accessibility for fall tournaments. Another big question—if part of the appeal is the coach themself, does the coach have any intention of leaving in the near future (most were honest, and of course unexpected things happen). The bottom line is going into a BS school as a recruited athlete creates a different admissions process and school experience, so although you want your child to love it regardless of their sport, if they don’t get what they were expected it can be a rocky road.
As for top lax programs there are some stronger ones out there, but if you’re not playing who really cares, so look ask lots of questions. Best of luck in finding the right fit!
Thank you - looks like we are on the right track. We have done a lot of what you have detailed here, most of the coaches want him as he will add to their varsity program right away and most offer great off season training and we have so far spoken with 4 of the school’s lax coaches 4 times or more and met most of them in person as well. One in particular may be leaving the school so you are right when you say do not go for a coach as that coach would be a main reason we would go to that school!
A great deal of what you are saying is similar to what we went through for our other children when they were thinking of playing their sport in college - always look at the school first, sport second as one never knows if a coach leaves etc.
We are looking forward to March when we find out “for sure” the schools he gets into and then plan on doing a tour on our again on our own as well as taking advantage of the re-visit days.
Thank you very much for your comment!
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Just saw your post. I would say don’t worry so much about the perceived top academic or perceived to lax school since it’s overall fit that matters. Things are constantly changing—a school may be working to improve their academics or a school sports program is rebuilding and within a year that school is a powerhouse by bringing in tons coaches/recruits.
I do think he is very smart to look at the percentage of day students. One child is at a school with a 20%+ day population. Also it’s near enough to a major metropolitan area where even a decent number of boarders go home if they don’t have sports or other commitments, especially in the winter. So it can be a ghost town and a little lonely on winter weekends and that was something they didn’t consider. My children have never been much on the off campus activities but have at least taken in a few pro and college sports, as well as a cultural trip or too into a nearby city. But most schools have weekend activities—it’s whether the kids choose to participate.
nvm.
All of the Founder’s League (I.e. AOF, Taft, T-P, Deerfield, etc)…had a son who played at T-P and his Junior year had 26 D1 commits on the roster
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KUA had trouble filling their enrollment this year as they were still in open enrollment last I knew early summer (this may have been an issue more than just this year). Past coworker’s daughter was heavily recruited to play softball there at the end of last school year as well as other teammates of hers from the southern portion of the state. She had not looked into BS prior to the coach contacting her.
We used to live in Hanover before moving about 5 years ago and while you hear of some day students there through the sports you play (amazing ice arena utilized by local teams for starters), there are also some very strong school districts in the area and many don’t choose to apply for that reason. It is a beautiful campus with many new buildings and the area is gorgeous but I’d investigate more as to why their enrollment isn’t full.
First, congrats on getting the coaches’ attention from those great schools. Second, please know you will have the leverage to talk to the coaches and hear their plan to put your child on varsity, a starter or even on first-line, only between M10-A10 when you can pick one school out of multiple accepted. During that period, the coaches are selling their school to you and are more willing to give concessions to your family. The coach’s promise will make a huge difference once the season starts and other parents start to advocate their children to the coaches. It will also protect you from newly recruited players, including PG, taking your kid’s position in later years. Once you are on the JV roaster, new varsity recruits from next year will pass you and occupy varsity spots because their parents use their one-time leverage to secure varsity positions. So, please do negotiate with the coaches before A10 commits to secure your child’s meaningful experience at HS lax.
[If your son is interested in being recruited by college coaches] Unlike PA, DMV, CT, and LI schools, where lax media or college coaches intensively follow their high school games, NE prep schools in MA and NH are followed less by media and coaches. There are some, but they are still talked with tone of “let’s find hidden gem.” Therefore, I would consider HS lax a meaningful experience at schools and rather use club lax as a college recruiting vehicle if you attend prep schools in NE (and there is that issue of club lax teams from lax hotbed states getting more attention, though).
Agree that the top NEPSAC lax teams (Taft, Salisbury, Deerfield, AOF, etc.) get the most attention/coverage and are invited to the national tourneys where they’re match up against the top DMV and other hotbed area private lax powerhouses. And agree on securing your guarantees, although it doesn’t always come to fruition since the coaches want to win. It’s clear that even though some freshman lax or hockey recruits will make the roster, they often rarely touch the field or ice until junior year because they’re competing with and against 18 and 19 year old men who are much more physically developed. For lax or hockey at the top schools most recruits come in as juniors, seniors and PGs to fill a spot along with some reclassed sophomores who are “developing”. These older guys coming in are physically developed and have already proven themselves at the varsity level vs. only having playing against graduation or birth year opponents.
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Thank you - that is very interesting to note and we will keep it in mind. We did hear a few students / staff mention that on weekends kids often go home (except when they have “closed” weekends - which not every school needs to do). So as S26 would be a boarder that is a bit of a concern. Yes - KUA has a beautiful campus and an amazing indoor year round lax field but 5 miles from “civilization” haha. A bit of a concern to note they are having trouble with enrollment given all their pluses and that so many kids are leaving public schools in record numbers since Covid.
First thank you and (Boardingschoolx2) for the lax info. That is really good to note about the M10-A10 time period and if he is accepted to more that one of his top choices we will do some real deep digging with those schools and coaches.
And you also helped to confirm some of what we have been thinking - that the club team will still be very prominent in helping to get him recruited to play in college if that is still what he wants 2 years from now (I am not doubtful of that, but kids can change and we support him in whatever he wants to do). Really appreciate everyone taking the time to help us navigate all of this as it is new to us and was never really on our radar until a few coaches reached out to him.
You may already know this, but make sure that you research typical timelines for lacrosse recruiting.
Top D1 recruits are often done with in fall of Junior year. D3s and NESCAC are later but are mostly done by the summer before senior year.
You have a 2026 so next year (first year of potential BS for your son) will be the year that your son needs to be seen if he’s aiming for D1.
Ask the coaches, and current students, how they handle weekend club commitments and make sure that you factor in ease of access to your son and his potential tournaments.
We switched clubs from a home club to a club near school but kid has barely attended ANY practices because it’s 2 hours from school and 9 hours from home.
Recruiting tournaments for us require a flight, hotels, rental car. Sometimes kid is flying themselves (after taking an hour Uber to the airport) to tournaments and meeting a parent there. Hopefully that’s not the case for you.
Getting recruited is like an additional class for our kid. The emails, making film, communicating with coaches (who aren’t allowed to write back), and attending clinics and tournaments has put more stress on our kid than we were anticipating. Kid is aiming for high academic D1 so it was never going to be easy. But it’s a lot.
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Thank you. Yes I really need to start paying attention to the timeline - since he will be a Sophomore this fall I / we still have a little time but it pays to prep.
We have had a lot of conversations around club playing etc and most of them are very flexible but as you did we may end up switching to one closer depending on the school so that will be another adjustment to keep in mind when deciding.
He is aiming for D1, still looking at all programs, but he figures he might as well aim high right out to the gate and if it does not happen then he tried his best. He has a really good attitude about it and thanks for letting me know all the extra time/work that goes into it. We have an idea but it is always good to hear the reality!
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We looked at most of the schools you bring up. Happy to share our insights. We interviewed and chatted with lax coaches:
- Lakes region (good academics, very good lax, not heavy PGs, lax quality varies but the top 3-4 teams strong)
- Founders (strong academics and lax but ?lots of PG’s depending on school, Varsity playing time could be an issue)
- ISL (rigorous academics, no PGs (although plenty of repeat transfers))
- others
We wanted good academics but not pressure cooker academics
He wanted the chance to compete for a starting role either right away for after 1 season
Aid was important
I’m not sure it is critical to switch club teams. Probably tough to do club practices during the school year regardless
Thank you - I would totally concur with all your observations! Your breakdown of academics and lax info pretty much is exactly what we have thought and/or encountered.
I would say we are spot on with my son’s “wish” list as well - solid academics, no pressure-chance to be on varsity and in rotation, and of course aid (fingers crossed here as we have a unique year that will need some explaining …) we would like to stay with the same club as they have been very good to us and we like most everything about them but wherever he lands if the coaches feel it would be best for him to switch we would be open to that.
Where did your son end up if you don’t mind me asking and I hope he is happy!
This might be a dumb question, but what is Lax? I’ve seen it quite a few times here, but I’m completely confused as to what it means.
Lacrosse. It’s a very preppy sport.