I played another sport at a high D1 level and have coached youths through middle schoolers in the same sport for over 25 years. Now I have kids who play lacrosse as something to compare to. First, I've been on the receiving side of college recruiter calls thousands of times for hundreds of kids from HS All-Americas to D1 through kids who just wanted to keep going in D3 for fun beyond their studies.
I would state unequivocally that I am not qualified to protect who will or won't be a top college prospect in 9th grade. Out of the hundreds of kids I helped through recruiting I coached 4 kids who I honestly believed were no brainer future D1 stars. I was right twice. The other two, a kid dropped into trouble and dropped out of the sport. Another kid was just advanced and developed for his age and was simply the same kid in 12th grade he was in 9th, which was very frustrating for him when recruiters never came as expected. I also don't know or know of any club coach in my sport who would say different, and I have never spoken to a college recruiter who believed they could predict with any quality the college prospects for a 9th grader. Quite literally, what hampers early recruiting in other sports is a widespread belief that is will lead to disastrous results, and the most accurate recruiting that involves a scholarship has the best results the later it is.
I'm not a lacrosse guy, but I am a coach and like the Parcells rule states I can only evaluate what I see. I look at a 2019 or even a 2018 game and I see some kids in a sport not nearly seasoned enough to pass high level D1 sports from a physical, mental, mental toughness or academic perspective. That last one is important because I count so many dozens of kids who got a girlfriend, then the wrong friends, had some problems at home or some other trouble and fell away from the academic potential they had. I don't really care how expert or not Ty Xanders is, because that is moot. Unless lacrosse truly is unlike every other sport, early recruiting is a lighthouse for the soon to be shipwrecked.
A little advice to you, if you want to get reply's and reactions on a post you need to make grand statements or go negative on a kid, team or town or nobody is going to pay attention. And by the way, thank you for your post it was spot on.
Spot on except for the "play D3 and have fun' quote. As if playing D3 is akin to club ball or a beer league. Have you checked into the demands on a mid to high level D3 lacrosse student athlete lately, at a strong Academic School? I assume not. How about a full fall ball schedule that starts day two of classes. Followed by a strength and conditioning test. It includes three fall ball games, 18 practices and many more captains practices. Alternating with both strength and conditioning workouts. This adds up to a 2-3 hour a day commitment 6 days a week past Columbus day. That commitment then wanes to a 4 day a week of lifting and conditioning program, along with team play days of basketball and soccer. Again brining the commitment up to 5 days a week in FALL. Then Spring is chock full of 3 1/2 hour practices that begin at 8pm, 6 days a week. They sometimes go 8 days straight with no day off. All this, while at a school that does not put sports before academics. No excused absences for sporting events, no preferential treatment for athletes when picking courses, no on demand tutors and no special treatment. Sounds like FUN, doesn't it? You might want to re-measure the degree of difficulty of playing D3 sports at a good Academic School.
