Post grad year for lacrosse?

Athletic Recruits
1

<p>i want to delay going to college for a number of reasons, one of the reasons is that i am rather young as a senior and will be graduating at the age of 17, the second reason is that i play lacrosse and i think that another year of growth will help me be more attractive to colleges, the third reason is that my grades aren't the best right now i am going into my senior year i have a 3.1 gpa although i did have a rigorous class load in my junior year(trig/precalc, computer science, english, honors chemistry, ap us history and spanish 3) . i have been to a recruiting camp and a tournament already for lacrosse, i have gotten some looks from colleges through email from the camp but they all felt very generic though as if they were given out to everyone in attendance at the camp.</p>

<p>so here is my question should i attend boarding school for my post grad year? or someone could even try to convince me otherwise.</p>

2

<p>Good luck in the decision making process. My son briefly entertained the idea (not uncommon where we are) but we both are keeping out fingers crossed that this will all work out THIS year and that won’t have to be an option! From the little i know, in nearly every case…the boys do benefit, a year older, more mature, stronger, a full year of improved athletic ability under their belts…I can’t see how it couldnt’ help but when all your friends are heading to college you will be heading to another year of school though I imagine thats a quick phase.
Its obviously quite personal if your parents support it and you have a good sounding board (like an advisor or guidance counselor) thinking its wise, sounds like something to really consider. Seems like its becoming a more popular choice amongst athletes in particular…best of luck, let us know what you decide!</p>

3

<p>kidjonesy,</p>

<p>I’m going to take the counterpoint on this, and let you peer into the mind of a Dad with three athletic kids (two in college this year and a high school junior)…here’s where my thought process goes… </p>

<p>What is the end goal here? How is this PG year going to benefit your employment status after you graduate college. Are you expecting to become a professional lacrosse player or something else? If it is something else (medicine, law, engineering, business) can the PG year help? Would you be taking a PG year if lacrosse was not a factor? Have you looked at how much a PG year cost? Do you have younger brothers and sisters who will be going to college at the same time or following after you?</p>

<p>I’m for a PG year in some situations. You haven’t convinced me you fit my situations. As a parent (who can afford it), I’d be willing to invest in a PG year if it meant my son/daughter would get access to academic schools that are currently way out of reach, there was a serious chance they could become a professional athlete, and they needed to mature. You are very self-aware, and you don’t come across as immature. So, I’m not convinced you fit my PG profile. Just my opinion.</p>

4

<p>You have some good advice here jonesy - I’ll only add that I wouldn’t make this decision in a vacuum. In other words, if you’ve been in contact with coaches and they’ve told you they’d be interested if you had another year of growth or skill development, that’s one thing, but I don’t think it’s wise to just assume on your own that you’ll be a more attractive recruit if you wait a year.</p>

5

<p>Hi Jonesy, just coming in from my perspective. The other posters have listed all the right reasons to to consider a pg year; there are kids who do this for both athletic and academic reasons, and the end goal is always to put the student in a clearly better position from which to apply to college than they were the year before. </p>

<p>For some kids this means an opportunity to focus on their academics in a new, more stimulating and certainly more structured environment. For athletes, it can be both to get their grades up and to put themselves in a better position from an athletic recruiting standpoint.</p>

<p>I have seen this happen as I was also once a boarding school student, I knew pg year athletes when I was in college, and a few of my son’s peers are headed towards applying for pg years this fall. Under the right circumstances, it works very well. </p>

<p>For my part, if there was any way I thought it would truly benefit my player, I’d be considering it. For example, one of his friends is a great player but short for his position. However, he grew in the last year and his parents are convinced he has it in him to be even taller and stronger in 2 years than he would be in one. I know a kid who was average sized all the way until high school and then literally put on another ten inches in high school.</p>

<p>My son was always oversized, but we actually know he’s stopped growing. He broke a finger freshman season and we were able to get a wrist xray where the doctor pointed out that his growth plates were fused - a fairly good predictor that he was done growing, and that’s proved to be true. As he really can’t get much heavier or stronger at his height where it will matter for his position, and his grades and scores are not necessarily what’s holding him back, we decided a pg year was not going to work for us.</p>

<p>Have you talked with your coach or parents at all? Because first up, you need to find out if it’s financially feasible; after that you can talk about whether it might really make a difference in your position between this year and next. </p>

<p>As a lacrosse player going into senior year, I am thinking you should be getting much better information as to where you currently stand as a potential college recruit and if a year would make any difference. Lacrosse starts recruiting very early, around sophomore year.</p>

6

<p>I would only advise the PG year if there were several coaches who told you that you were close to being ready/to being recruitable by them and if you spent a PG year developing they would take you in their program. Doing it just to see what happens? That’s probably a waste of money, but if it’s no bother for your parents then I guess I don’t see the downside, either. Academically, I don’t see the point. It’s such a competitive market at the elite colleges that the kids who’ve done well all along will still have better chances than the kids who finally found their way in a PG year. What I have seen work are the kids who do a year or two of local HS then transfer to a boarding school and repeat their freshman or sophomore year.</p>