<p>Hi I could really use some help here. Will try to make this brief by only including relavent information.
My son plays for one of the top three lacrosse teams in the country. He is a strong solid player, not the best but holds his own and made the cut to play on this team for three years now. He is also only 9th grader to play varsity lacrosse. He is now in 10th grade. He defnitely wants to play college lacrosse. He is attending a few tourns. in Nov. and going to some camps next summer.
We are overwhelmed, I am a single parent who knows nothing about this sport, because its so cut throat I dont' trust other parents on the team who A. I really don't know ( I work full time so really don't know anyone beyond a hello and goodbye and B. their kids are basically my sons competition and this is a very cut throat team and group of people.
Trying to get as much info as I can online, and obviously want to do the right thing for my son, even though it seems nuts to even be thinking about this in 10th grade, it is the reality. At least for lacrosse apparently. I don't want to wake up one morning and suddenly feel like we are behind the power curve, and missed out on things.
So...is there anyone by chance reading this who has some solid experience based advice as to what my son should be doing at this stage of the game, he is A-B+student who takes a rigorous course load including Latin, he has high hopes of attending a strong school.
Happy to provide any more info you might need, just send me a message or post here, thanks so much in advance!!</p>
<p>You are not nuts. You need to start now.
My information may be a little dated – my son graduated from high school in 2005.</p>
<p>As a sophomore, he needs to be getting out and about this summer at camps. I assume you are on the east coast? He also needs to concentrate on his grades – since there is little pro lacrosse and most of the pro guys have a real job plus their sport, use lacrosse to get into the best school available, and take the academics seriously. He should definitely take the PSAT (if he didn’t? was it given already?) and start thinking of building that admissible resume for the admissions department.</p>
<p>I will also say that he should attack every practice and every game as if the head coach for Virginia or Duke or Cornell is watching. It all counts.</p>
<p>You son’s coach should be a good resource – both his high school coach and his club coach (if he is playing club …). Don’t count on “guidance counselors” or generic college counselors as they don’t usually understand the recruiting end of things.</p>
<p>This is just a start – PM me if you have some specific questions.</p>
<p>I know little about LAX recruiting, but I do read ESPNBoston frequently, where many local college commitments and signings are reported for a host of sports. One thing I notice about LAX recruits in the North East, is the vast majority of them get snagged out of private schools and elite prep schools. </p>
<p>There also seems to be a bunch of them who transfer from their local public HS after Jr. year, and reclassify as Juniors (repeat 11th grade) at a more rigorous prep school to boost gpa and get bigger/stronger/garner more experienced/attention in the spotlight for their sport. It’s almost a new kind of twist to doing a PG year…</p>
<p>Anyway, here is a list of Seniors who have committed to DI programs for next year:</p>
<p>[ESPN</a> HIGH SCHOOL LACROSSE - ESPNHS | HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS RANKINGS, RESULTS, TRAINING, PERFORMANCE, COLLEGE RECRUITING | HOW TO WIN](<a href=“ESPN - Serving Sports Fans. Anytime. Anywhere.”>ESPN - Serving Sports Fans. Anytime. Anywhere.)</p>
<p>And beow is a list of current HS Juniors who have verbally committed, for the following year:</p>
<p>[ESPN</a> High School LACROSSE - ESPNHS | HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS RANKINGS, RESULTS, TRAINING, PERFORMANCE, COLLEGE RECRUITING | HOW TO WIN](<a href=“ESPN - Serving Sports Fans. Anytime. Anywhere.”>ESPN - Serving Sports Fans. Anytime. Anywhere.)</p>
<p>If you haven’t done so already, maybe take a look at these kids’ bios - find out what kinds of elite travel teams they play for, which showcases, camps and tourneys they attended, and how they performed while there- what their academic and athletic stats & accolades are, etc.</p>
<p>It seems like his team’s spring season and the summer camps, tournaments and showcases which follow will be pivotal for getting him on the radar of schools where he wishes to study and play at the next level.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>If you haven’t seen this already… looks like there might be some good info here:</p>
<p>[Recruiting</a> Roundup | InsideLacrosse.com](<a href=“http://insidelacrosse.com/Recruiting/]Recruiting”>http://insidelacrosse.com/Recruiting/)</p>
<p>There also appear to be chat forums (much like here), both under the ‘High School’ and ‘Recruiting’ links. Maybe someone there will be willing to lend their expertise?</p>
<p>There’s a goalie, current hs sophomore, who has “committed” to Virginia – I saw that on the Inside Lacrosse feed. Most of the chatter is about current juniors. </p>
<p>My current feel for recruiting is that there is a lot of fuss about the top 50 or the top 100 nationwide – and then it all settles down. And even though Inside Lacrosse will profile their top rising stars, IIRC not all of those rising stars will be stars of their college teams. And a rising star/college star only counts if the college is Final Four potential. There’s a lot of lacrosse going on outside of the elites … a lot of guys finding their niche with this sport and having a great college/academic/athletic experience.</p>
<p>“their kids are basically my sons competition…”</p>
<p>I’m not sure if that is true. Your son’s academic/athletic profile is different from
the other kids on the team. </p>
<p>My D was a recruited athlete on a team that sent five seniors to top private/public universities. Their academics were stellar but their athletic accomplishments was
the ‘hook’ that get them into the schools of their choice.</p>
<p>My suggestion is spending time/resources on SAT/ACT prep. If your son can score high (top 5-10% nationally), his options for both DI and DIII recruitment will be significantly enhanced.</p>
<p>Just looking back at your first post … do you mean that he is playing for a club team (top 3 in country) as well as his high school varsity team?</p>
<p>What position does he play? The attack guys can be really flashy and recruited early. A long pole needs more time to develop, and since they aren’t as exciting are easily overlooked. Not overlooked by coaches - but there’s not the rush to recruit and lock up the talent. Goalies are such a specialty position that coaches would like to get their hooks into a possibility early.</p>
<p>Hi. Thanks so much everyone, helpful advice so far and I appreciate the private messages as well.
To answer the above question…yes he plays on a club team (top 3) and varsity he is a defenseman, but also plays middie.</p>
<p>Hope this helps. Thank you.</p>