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CJ Costabile On Recruiting & Picking A School

StringKing interviewed CJ Costabille on their blog recently, and they touched on a number of different and interesting topics. They also asked CJ for his thoughts on recruiting, and choosing a college, and sent his doozy of an answer over to us, because they knew we’d want to share it! Check out CJ’s unique one question Q&A below, then check out the full interview on StringKing’s site.

There are a lot of high school lacrosse players out there right now deep into the recruiting process. And there are so many factors at play when deciding on a school including education, level of play, social life, and geography, amongst other things.

Can you describe what the recruiting process was like for you? What other schools (if any) were you considering besides Duke? What was it about Duke that made you want to be a part of the University?

The recruiting process has become exponentially faster than when I went through it. However I don’t think the core factors that a recruit should look at have changed, even though they may be a little more difficult to evaluate now. I broke it down into three categories: athletically, academically, and socially.  Everyone will weigh these categories differently. I’ll break each category down further, and in the order that I ranked them personally.

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Athletically – I knew I wanted to play at a school that would compete for a national championship. However when you look at the list of the number of men’s lacrosse schools that have won a National Championship the list is very small, and even smaller when you look at the list from 2000 and on.  I knew going into the recruiting process that I wanted to play and compete at the highest level of the game.  I wanted to compete against the best, and to me there was no better way to do this than to play in the ACC.

Academically – As everyone who plays lacrosse knows, there is not a million dollar contract at the end of the rainbow. Guys who play professionally do it because they love it. Simply playing doesn’t provide a substantial income. This is the reason why choosing a school based on its academic prowess was important to me. I wanted a school that could open doors for and allow me to ultimately choose a career I desired.

Socially – This is not necessarilly in regards to the social climate of the school itself, but more importantly focused on team chemistry/interactions. You have to like your teammates because you will deal with them in every aspect of your college experience. When I talk to people about recruiting, I always emphasize this one because I don’t think most recruits or their parents really think about this. When you get to college you will spend the majority of your time with your teammates.  You will practice with them, you will have classes with them, you will get meals with them, you will live with them, you will go out at night with them, you will spend a lot of time together, which is why it is important that you like them.

For me, I narrowed my school choices down to Duke, Princeton, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. Duke was the last place I visited. Immediately after getting to campus I had this feeling in my gut that this was where I wanted to go. Athletically, the school was in the ACC and had been to numerous Final Fours. Academically, the school was one of the top 10 institutions in the country. However what sold me was the social aspect, the guys on the team, this element was what truly made me feel that Duke was the right place for me and looking back it truly was.

Playing at Duke, my teammates and I were able to win two ACC championships, make four Final Four appearances, and win a National Championship.

Get to know CJ a little better over on StringKing’s blog.

As you can see in the cover photo, StringKing recently sent us some of their new 1S and 1X mesh pieces, and we’re pumped to try them out. We’ll keep you posted on how they fare!