Comments on: Early Recruiting Hypocrisy And College Lacrosse

By: bballbirtch23

bballbirtch23 — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 23:01:00 +0000

I agree with your article and being a junior and just beginning to get recruited by some d2′s and d3′s and knowing there are kids who are 14 about to commit to college is outrageous.

I’m not from a hotbed (Wisconsin), and hearing about how early the recruiting process starts makes it intimidating and all that more difficult to decide what school I want to go to.

Also valid points about the recruiting showcases. I have gotten 4 “invites” to camps within the past week all over the country, and none of them are cheap, but now a days its necessary for kids from non hotbeds to go to them to be seen even though I play on a club team.

By: Robin Zinger

Robin Zinger — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:10:00 +0000

Related quote from Wayne Gretzky:

“If sport has a high point of the year, it must be the first week of spring.” “…When I was growing up, I used to love this time of year. It was when I put my hockey equipment away and I was absolutely ecstatic to see the end of the hockey season. One of the worst things to happen to the game, in my opinion, has been year-round hockey and, in particular, summer hockey. “All it does for kids, as far as I can tell, is keep them out of sports they should be doing in warmer weather. I could hardly wait to get my lacrosse stick out and start throwing the ball around. It didn’t matter how cold or rainy it would be, we’d be out firing the ball against walls and working on our moves as we played the lacrosse equivalent to road hockey.” “All the good hockey players seemed to play lacrosse in those days and everyone of them learned something from the game to carry over to the other – things athletes can only learn by mixing up games they play when they are young.”

By: relaxbro

relaxbro — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 17:19:00 +0000

Mr. Wilson-
You’re article is right on. I’m one who prefers the high school sports scene over that of the tainted college & cash compensated pro games for the exact reasons indicated in your article. With my son now competing in both lacrosse & basketball at the middle school level, the craziness spelled out in your article is omnipresent. As parents, we can’t & won’t change the collegiant approach to procuring youth talent, however, by actually parenting, we certainly can manage the exposure our kids have to this stuff. And that’s the real problem; not only am I a weekend witness to the “adults” throwing their kids to the wolves, but most laughable is the big bucks they pay to do it! A warning to lacrosse: Do not go the ways of AAU basketball – it’s a dead-end street for 99.9% of kids.

By: laxdog777

laxdog777 — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 14:55:00 +0000

great article !!! To your points we now have 7th and 8th grade club teams playing 12 kids (on a team of 22+) in a summer tournament to insure the 3 kids who are more physically mature get showcased. Any coach who has been through this has seen the kids who shave as 13 year olds are not always the kids who are the best when others catch up at 17. The lacrosse community should learn what coaches in football know and what basketball has learned.

This example is because the club says that coaches are watching 13 year olds to prepare for rising soph offers – really ????

By: Sang

Sang — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 04:02:00 +0000

I REALLY loved the article. I just started playing lacrosse in 8th grade and realized that I love the sport and that it is my sport. However, now I am seeing rising sophomores getting recruited it is a bit intimidating and also I feel like my place at that those good schools are also gone even though I might be able to become one of those late bloomers. I hope something can change.

By: Jedgelax

Jedgelax — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:39:00 +0000

I really appreciate your comments on this rising trend in lacrosse. I have three boys who have played and continued to play lacrosse. The oldest was an AA player in DIII and as I followed with my two younger boys in the recruiting process I have dealt with this head on. While speaking to coaches I have had few of them wonder how my eldest “got away” from them.I told them that while he had some interest from DI coaches most thought he was too small. He had a great DIII career and got a good education but still gets asked why he didn’t play DI. My younger sons are now dealing with this. The middle has only DIII slots available to him. We are considering sending the youngest to PG but are not sure we can afford it. Sadly I think the mistake of this trend will not emerge for a number of years when these freshman and sophs finally get to campus and the coaches find they have made quite a few mistakes in their recruiting. Boys mature later both physically and mentally so why recruit them so young when many are not even close to their peak level. DIII will only become better and closer to their DI counterparts with this trend.

By: oldmanlax

oldmanlax — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 14:40:00 +0000

I agree with most of what you wrote. My experience is on the womens side but the issues are the same. Over the past 6 years I’ve seen recruiting go crazy. Just 4 years ago the calendar was July 1 after Jr year. Kids would wait for the offer call when coaches were allowed to make them. Today there are 9th graders that have not even played a HS season making visits and getting offers. It has exponentially progressed with no end in sight. What grade will the coaches stop at in the next few years? Jr days and official visits are now essentially get togethers for the incoming class 2 years out. They are not at all what they are intended for as an opportunity to visit schools of interest to make an informed decision. 8th graders are now visiting colleges in the summer as possible recruits.
It’s up to the coaches to change this. On the womens side they we’re ok with changing and enforcing their own recruiting calendar a few years back. The IWLCA made a rule for themselves that they could only recruit in November during the fall. The year before that tourneys were popping up every weekend from Sept to Dec and they could not handle the travel and being away from their own teams every weekend. As a group if they wanted early recruiting changed they can and will change it. It’s as simple as that.
The big difference today from when us older folks came up is $$$$$$.
There was a day when the only summer lacrosse HS kids played was the local summer league. You played with all the local college players and grads. Thats right. 9th graders were practicing with college players, grads and even coaches. You think those kids got better?
Today those same college players, grads and coaches are now getting paid to coach teams and camps and clinics all summer. Parents fill their kids schedules and spend thousands each summer to get a chance at the brass ring.
It is up to the college coaches to stop their own madness. No offers until Sept 1 of jr year. In my opinion that would benefit the kids and the coaches alike.

By: Griffin Batten

Griffin Batten — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:09:00 +0000

His entire career and knows what it’s like to play against guys who ate bigger, stronger, faster, and more skilled than he is?

By: Griffin Batten

Griffin Batten — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:07:00 +0000

Great article. I agree, kids should not be committing to schools do early. Things should be done like football, where there is a specific date (during junior year I think) where college coaches can begin recruiting.

When so many kids are committing as freshman or sophomores, how many of them will become busts because everybody else in their class caught up to their size physically, or they stopped trying to improve their game because they already have a scholarship?

I bet if a coach wanted to, he could field a competitive team by recruiting only uncommitted juniors and seniors. I’m sure hundreds of players fly under the radar but could be outstanding college players.

Who can have bigger potential in college, a sophomore commit who has always been bigger, faster, and stronger than every other kid on the field, but gets to college and suddenly isn’t? Or a kid who has had to work hard

By: connorwilson

connorwilson — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:13:00 +0000

Thanks for reading and for the comment!

Agree a lot of the top players play multiple sports still, I’m saying that there seems to be less of that though, and that we could see even less in the future. The kids I am most focused on however, are not the top 50 players in the country, they are EVERYONE else. Does everyone play lacrosse full time? Certainly not. But there are way more kids on that path than ever before, and I’m not so sure it’s helping them as much as people think.

As for the “big schools” thing, that is true! But what if you want to be a _____ major, and while UNC has the major you want, but it’s not as good as the one at Maryland, was the early commit worth it? Did you choose a lacrosse program over a better opportunity for your major? Perhaps. I don’t think that those priorities are correct personally.

The media’s job, has been, all will continue to be, journalism. It is NOT their job to sell, as you said. I think this gets back to my point of the twisted perception of media’s role in the world. Reporting things as they are, and presenting multiple sides to a story is NOT selling anything. It is reporting. There is a big difference. PR companies SELL, media companies report.

I do agree that the NCAA should be the responsible ones here, but sometimes media’s role is to force the issue. This is true in government as it is true in sports. Information communication is key here, not selling, or buying in to, something.

I think your last paragraph is pretty spot on though. It is up to the consumers, but also up to the regulatory bodies. And if the coaches think it is having a negative impact, they too can get involved. It’s not JUST kids and parents at fault here.

By: notaBro

notaBro — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:59:00 +0000

Not sure I agree with some of your points. Take a look at the list of 2015 commits. How many of those guys are playing only lacrosse? From what I’ve read, they all play multiple sports. I bet if you look at the 2014 list almost all of those guys are playing multiple sports as well. College coaches emphasize it. They look for multi-sport athletes. Yes, lacrosse can be year-round now, but a weekend or two for tournaments in November doesn’t rule out playing fall and winter sports. It seems like most of the top players are still playing 2 or 3 sports in high school.

Look at the schools that kids are generally committing early to. They are mostly big schools, Hopkins being an exception, and they are mostly elite academic schools. Big schools have tons of majors, so chances are they will find what they want. Elite schools provide great opportunities for life. Can’t say it’s a bad thing to lock down a Virginia or North Carolina education and degree early.

The media has no responsibility to change what they are doing. They exist to sell. If change ever happens, it is up to the NCAA to legislate it. You’re right that the NCAA seems to be going the other way. Look at basketball. They actually changed the rules to allow even earlier recruiting there.

I agree that kids do too much in the summer, and many of them are chasing a pipe dream. It’s a shame that teaching camps have mostly gone away. It’s a shame that a process that really only effects a handful of the best players is pulling so many other players down the same path when they have no shot at getting picked up by the 10 D1 programs that are recruiting so early. That’s 100% on those kids and their parents who are paying for something that doesn’t really apply to them.