A number of parents from our son’s high school lacrosse team asked me to write down some best practices and lessons learned from the college recruiting process we went through with Nick – he’s a graduating senior and heading off to study engineering and play lacrosse in New England. An earlier version of this piece was published on the lacrosse team news site.
Teach yourself. First of all, take a little time to learn about college lacrosse and recruiting. Start with the US Lacrosse recruiting handbook – it will answer about 90% of your questions. Do a Google search for lax recruiting articles. Check out relevant content at Inside Lacrosse, Lacrosse Magazine, Top Lax Recruits, LaxPower, and the NCAA.
Remember that all divisions recruit. Division 1 (62 lax programs not including Ivy League) and Division 2 (65 programs) give athletic scholarships and actively recruit players. Division 3 (230 programs) and Ivy League D1 (8 programs), while not offering athletic scholarships, also compete for top athletes as well as those with the academic abilities to succeed in class and, in the case of D3, earn merit scholarships (Ivy schools only offer need-based support).
Start early. If you have any ambitions to play D1 you need to get in front of coaches by your freshman and sophomore years. At most D1 lax programs, recruiting for a given high school class is essentially complete at least a year and a half before that class graduates. In other words, while tremendous junior and senior years would get you heavily recruited in, say, football, over in lacrosse D1 coaches aren’t even looking at you any longer because that window is closed. (Yes, it is crazy; more on this later.) D3 doesn’t get really serious until after junior year, but starting early allows you to do research and campus visits that much sooner.
Reduce your options. This is important for your college search in general, but especially important when you add to the mix looking for a place to play college lax. You want to eliminate schools to narrow your focus as much as possible. Our son’s high school uses a tool called Naviance that is very helpful, since it has a lot of preference fields you can select, weight, and search on: major, setting, size, location, religious affiliation, fraternities, etc. Ideally you’ll end up with a manageable list of genuinely suitable schools. Bottom line is that you don’t want to waste your time, or the coach’s, flirting with a school that is not really a good fit.
Be proactive with colleges and coaches. Take that list you created and start reaching out. Complete their online recruiting forms. Make good videos, and send them the link. Send them an email when you will be playing a tournament or showcase near them. Visit their campus, and when you do, make arrangements to meet them. Coaches have limited recruiting time and can’t be everywhere, so make it easy for them to learn about you, see your interest in their program, watch you play, and evaluate whether you are a good fit for what they are looking for. (The NCAA has rules about when coaches can initiate contact with high school students, but students can initiate contact any time.)
Create videos that are helpful. Obviously, any video should be of good quality and show your strengths. But include extensive gameplay, not just a bunch of quick clips of you making goals or causing turnovers; as one coach put it, “I know he can shoot a goal, I want to see what he does when he misses.” Include clips of your defense, your transition play, your ball movement.
Get online. Take advantage of the free versions of recruiting websites like BeRecruited and CaptainU. You can put most of your key content up there, including contact info, so when coaches do searches (and they do) you have a presence. (The paid versions of those sites provide more functionality, but can be expensive.) If you are somewhat media-savvy you can create a personal recruiting website – you can do one for free or very little money at various places, so shop around and talk to people for recommendations.
Choose your venues wisely. When you’re ready for prime time get yourself to showcases designed for college coaches to see you, events like Blue Chip 225, Brine National Classic, etc. (Most standard tournaments are chaotic and a coach is not likely to pick you out of hundreds of players; the showcases I’m talking about are designed to be matchmakers.) They usually require coach’s recommendations or have several tryout layers. Do your homework on the Internet, and ask coaches and parents which ones are good. And if one of your top college choices holds a prospect day session, take advantage of that.
Be professional. Respond if a coach contacts you, even if they aren’t a top choice. If you email a coach make sure the message is clear and well-written. If you have a chance to meet a coach or talk with them on the phone, have ready a few good questions to ask about their school and program. If you have a social media presence, especially Twitter, clean it up – coaches will check your profile for character traits they don’t want on the team.
Ask coaches the important questions. Ask the coach about how the athletic part fits with the academic part on that campus. (e.g., What kind of academic support structure exists for athletes? Do athletes get assistance in creating class schedules that avoid conflicts with their sport? How many on the team are also in your expected major?) And of course ask lacrosse questions too. (e.g., How does the coach see your skill set fitting into his style of play?)
Cut your losses when it is time. A coach who is interested will let you know. He’ll show up at the showcase, phone you or write you, be available to meet you when you visit campus. If you’ve reached out and they seem to be making no effort, well, maybe they are terrible at the recruiting process (which doesn’t bode well for their program) or, more likely, they just aren’t interested, for whatever reason. Time to move on, then – you should play where they really want you, where you can add a lot of value.
Consider D3 as a choice, not a fallback. Most players will be thrilled to compete in varsity intercollegiate lacrosse at their school of choice, at whatever division level. But if you are convinced that only a Division 1 school will do, step back and think about it to make sure that is the best option for you to thrive and get the most out of college; maybe Division 3 would make more sense.
- Yes, most D1 schools have athletic scholarships, but that is a max of 12.6 scholarships spread across a lax team of 40-45 (full rides don’t happen, and many colleges don’t fully fund their lax scholarship program).
- Generally, D3 places a greater emphasis on the academic part of “student-athlete”; certain majors, such as the STEM fields, are very difficult to do well while playing D1 sports because of time and scheduling demands.
- As you may have heard, lacrosse D1 recruiting is a bit of a mess right now, mostly because of super-early recruiting. (Eighth graders? Seriously?) Ironically this is actually lowering the academic and athletic quality of D1 rosters overall (a discussion for another day). It has become so bad that men’s and women’s D1 lax coaches are currently petitioning the NCAA to institute rules to save them from themselves. Meanwhile, the early D1 recruiting window is shutting out later-blooming good players as well as distorting the recruiting process, and causing many de-commits.
- D3 lax can be very, very good. That has always been the case, but one of the consequences of the D1 recruiting situation is that it is driving a lot of exceptional players to D3 –a lot. Pretty much every top tier D3 program has multiple players of D1 caliber. This is one of the reasons why there is extensive overlap between D3 and D1. “Division 3 is very competitive,” as the US Lacrosse recruiting handbook says. “And some of the best lacrosse programs in the country are Division 3.” Bottom line: top-tier D3 lacrosse teams would routinely beat lower-tier D1 teams.
- If you think you need to go D1 to play in the MLL, two comments: first, there are many D3 players in the MLL; second, you know that the typical MLL salary is under $30k, right?
Remember that grades and character matter. It isn’t just about your stats on the field. Coaches want good players, of course. But they also want good students who will do well academically, who will be good citizens of the college community, who will stay with the college and with the lax program, who will graduate and reflect well on their alma mater. They want team players who understand the value of hard work and can manage their time.
Finally, choose based on the school, not just lacrosse. You want to commit to a school you would be excited to attend even if you didn’t play lacrosse.
Good luck!
Originally published 11 June 2016 on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/college-lacrosse-recruiting-tips-james-irwin/