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Guest Post: Chris Meade on Lax Summer Camps

Guest Post: Chris Meade on Lax Summer CampsChris Meade of LacrosseRecruits.com is an expert on the recruiting process.  In his first guest post for LacrosseAllStars, he gives advice for all you HS players and parents. Check out “Lacrosse Summer Camps: School Camps v. Recruiting Camps” after the jump.

Matt Wheeler (left) and Chris Meade (right) of LacrosseRecruits.comMatt Wheeler (left) and Chris Meade (right) of LacrosseRecruits.com

Lacrosse Summer Camps: School Camps v. Recruiting Camps

by Chris Meade, CEO of LacrosseRecruits.com

I thought it would be helpful to address a common question that I have been receiving from many parents and players; is it a good idea to go to a particular school’s camp or a true recruiting camp like the Top 205 or Peak 200?

Both types of camps offer benefits for you son or daughter. You need to understand what each type of camp offers and how you can leverage your exposure.

School’s Camps

Typically, a school’s camp is a great way for your son or daughter to get exposure to/attention from that school’s coaching staff. The camper will have four days to exhibit their lacrosse abilities as well as their personal character. Coaches feel that this is an opportunity to learn more about a particular player’s leadership ability, how they interact with teammates, and their athletic performance over a period of a few days as opposed to a few games.

The downside of attending a school’s camp is that you narrow your scope of exposure. Typically, at the Duke lacrosse camp, there will be Duke coaches and at the Brown camp, there will be Brown coaches. If opportunities at these schools do not pan out, you will be forced to rely on video to give coaches the opportunity to see you play.

Recruiting Camps

Recruiting camps like Top 205, Peak 200 and New England 150 (among others) are the staples of the summer recruiting circuit. Each camp has facilitated the recruitment of hundreds if not thousands of lacrosse players. Coaches have an opportunity to watch players that they may not have a chance to see play during the season. Also, it is an opportunity for players who may play against weaker competition during the school season to compete against better players. As a camper, if you have a few great days at one of those camps, your stock can rise exponentially.

The downside of attending a recruiting camp is these camps are normally larger than school’s camps. To make a recruiting camp worthwhile, you should reach out to schools of interest and make sure that you will be attending a camp where the coaches on your schools of interest list will be able to watch you play. If you do not make these connections, the chances of a certain coach watching you make a great play is very random. You have to be proactive in contacting coaches and making sure they will be at certain camps on certain days.

Of course, LacrosseRecruits.com makes all of this very easy. You can quickly figure out if the program you are interested in will be at the camp you are going to and if so, you can easily send a coaching staff a message alerting them that you will also be at the camp in question and inviting them to view your profile and video with the click of a button.

LacrosseRecruits.com

 

 

 

 

 

About LacrosseRecruits.com

 

LacrosseRecruits.com is built on our love and understanding of the game of lacrosse and our desire to help high school players find the best fit possible in a college. We have played lacrosse for most of our lives, navigated the recruiting process, identified new talent for coaches, worked as counselors at recruiting camps, coached travel lacrosse teams, organized tournament teams, and lived for the game of lacrosse. These experiences along with in-depth interviews with players and coaches have exposed the inefficiencies of the current recruiting process and allowed us to lay the groundwork for an economical and professional recruiting tool for players and the coaches that recruiting them.