US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Boys 2017 Fall 2013/Summer 2014

Long Island parent here... you are right. it is a pressure cooker here.
no excuses for classless behavior - but consider this:

when you take over taxed long islanders, in a bad economy, trying to pay for expensive training, club teams, showcase camps, time away from work, every weekend of summer on searing hot fields...

only for the desperate hope that your son or daughter can get a better education, and or scholarship money... so they don't have to struggle in the same way.

Long Island Lax is NO Longer considered the noval sport of choice for the wealthy elite. Long Island Lax is main steam! Much larger pools of athletes, more pressure to stay competitive...

Can contributors agree with the LI Lax dynamics?

I pity the NCAA coaches recruiting 2017 kids and families. Needy emails, voice mails, psycho Dads showing up at the coaches offices family therapy when the kid doesn't see the field in college. Yup. I hope the pay is good because these college coaches will have two jobs. Coaching a team and managing this mess of needy kids and their parents to manage. Whether college coaches want to admit it, they are signed up for both.

Long Island parent here... you are right. it is a pressure cooker here.
no excuses for classless behavior - but consider this:

when you take over taxed long islanders, in a bad economy, trying to pay for expensive training, club teams, showcase camps, time away from work, every weekend of summer on searing hot fields...

only for the desperate hope that your son or daughter can get a better education, and or scholarship money... so they don't have to struggle in the same way.

Long Island Lax is NO Longer considered the noval sport of choice for the wealthy elite. Long Island Lax is main steam! Much larger pools of athletes, more pressure to stay competitive...

Can contributors agree with the LI Lax dynamics?

I didn't grow up playing lacrosse and am not from LI but went to UVa and had first year roommates in the dorm who played for the team, and then had fraternity brothers who were on the team. All of them were from LI and to me seemed to be pretty average kids family wealth wise. If my buddies needed for their families to pay for showcases, prospect days, clubs year round and other items in addition to playing for their local schools, I doubt those kids would have wound up at UVa. That is pretty telling if my knowledge is true. In the 1970s and 1980s lacrosse was not an elite prep school thing in LI, it was what kids grew up playing in their towns and at their public high schools. They just happened to be really good at it without all this drama and expense that is now in the game.

Yes your 5 foot 2 kid would have made the difference. Loser

Rising sophs showcase score: Suffolk crushes Nassau 18-7. Nice job Nassau coaches with your selections. Ball don't lie. Left off top kids and you got what you deserved. Should've picked on merit. Who's cringing now?

Now that this sport has reached a lowest common denominator recruiting kids before they enter high school, it would not be a bad suggestion for the NCAA to make a rule on commitments timetables like they have with NLI's.

A committed kid in any sport cannot sign a National Letter of Intent until December of his/her senior year. That is when it becomes official with a grant-in-aid student athlete scholarship.

I would propose that the NCAA place into rule that member institutions cannot formally or informally offer out scholarships or commitments of any kind until one calendar year before the NLI date for the class. December of their junior year.

Before the lunatics jump in with calling everyone who is not in for early recruiting a loser, etc., think about what this really does and what impact it will have. For starters you can't tell NCAA lacrosse coaches to not evaluate kids early, and they'd be doing it with your talented 2017 and now 2018 kids anyways. At the coaches' convention in Baltimore this past Fall, all of the usual suspects were preaching for some curbing on early recruiting. The most vocal were the worst offenders starting with Starsia and Petro. In summary, they debated and generally agreed early recruiting extremes were getting too extreme without defining what extreme is and agreed something had to be done. Then they all agreed that the biggest problem is they could not trust each other to abide by a gentlemen's agreement because they were all admittedly terrible about following that in prior attempts. They they got tired and were hungry and wanted to retire to adjourn to lunch, and that was the end of it.

What we are seeing now will continue no matter what reforms eventually come. This the coaches in lawn chairs at tournaments and showcases, the NCAA campus prospect team camps, the NCAA campus prospect days, kids doing highlight videos and sending them in, "unofficial" visits of kids to the campus and athletic facilities and NCAA coaches being tethered to the club and HS coaches via text and calls to speak on kids would continue at this or a worse rate. Again, if the coaches want to evaluate early they will one way or next anyways and the clubs, high schools and families all encourage that through consumer behavior.

But if you put in one plain rule stating no OFFERS can be made until December of the junior year, it would be good for the sports and the business of sports. This includes at least the following benefits:

1. Clubs can remain relevant. Right now, if I were the owner of a strong club like Dukes, LI Express, Crabs I would be really concerned if I will be relevant in a year or two. If kids commit as rising ninth graders, who needs the club? It will start to look silly when club websites show lists of freshmen commits who dropped their club for their prep school Summer team which has been a trend in recent 2 years, or to just do showcases and train in the Summer.

2. Hotbed area prep schools / coaches can look like less of a joke. Right now if I were the coach of a $30K a year or more prep school in Philly Main line, MIAA or IAC school, I would be really concerned if my lacrosse families would really want to pay that freight for prep school to help place their kids at NCAA programs if for the best players it is happening in ninth grade before they hit the field. Public school teams are lifting country wide and in hotbeds, and let's face it the Philly, MIAA and IAC schools are not Deerfield or Andover type places academically. Lacrosse keeps the money till running.

3. College coaches win big money wise. Team camps and prospect days are a gold mine for NCAA programs and coaching staff compensation. But really, if UNC and UVa are "full" for rising tenth graders and have long since been full for rising eleventh graders, what lacrosse consumers are bone stupid enough to shell out cash and time to enroll their kid in these things. UNCA and UVa each have had very lucrative Summer team camps for years. Now who would want to go? Teams or families that bite on those camps stating other NCAA coaches will be there watching too? Those same coaches go to everything else, so that value proposition is worth nothing to the lacrosse consumers.

4. The NCAA admissions offices retain integrity and a standard. UPenn committed kids with one semester of high school grades. Princeton committed a kid just out of ninth grade. The bargain is not solid enough for the admissions offices to do this for non-revenue sports. Some kids let grades slip or can't score on SATs and the commitment is gone, so why make one without the baseline data needed? And that is the least of it. What admissions director wants some lacrosse coach asking him/her to look past something else God forbid like a drug or alcohol related incident or arrest, suspension or expulsion from a prep school, etc.? What admissions officer would even want to risk being in that position?

5. The families and kids don't lose. It is still a 12.5 scholarship sport with roster spots to give each year. Instead of a verbal commitment, a talented 2017 would be getting indications from his club and HS coaches that he is on track for a spot and is being recruited by schools. The best players will take the scholarships and the spots anyways in the end. If you are one of the best there is not a need to worry reform is coming to take your dream spot.

6. Mandating that OFFERS cannot go until December of eleventh grade would, I believe, greatly reduce the "reclassified" game theory families are buying into for eighth and ninth grade. Ok, we all reach Malcolm Gladwell's book with keen attention to the chapter about the hockey players being born in January through March and having an age advantage. The book was referring to 5-7 year old hockey players getting a permanent advantage by being able to play for clubs and get coaching early. Lacrosse has no such limitations. All kids can play somewhere, and being a year older makes less difference in the later parts of high school and beyond. Families also save that extra year of $30K-$50K prep tuition or can save that option for a PG year if an NCAA coach really wants them a year later.

Who loses if this happens? Who does not win if this does not happen?

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Translation: your kid is not on the radar of early recruiting. Therefor; something must be done about the trend so that your "anonymous to D 1 coaches son" can maybe develop more and become a factor later. That can only happen if your reforms are placed and maybe your kid will have a chance; which is not about to happen.

I'm a former D1 assistant coach. Yes, we read these things. A little advice for you: most of my colleagues in college lacrosse don't need two things. Bad kids & bad parents. This post also made its way through the coaching ranks and some of us forwarded it to the NCAA in Indianapolis. Another translation; stay anonymous. If anyone knew your name it would do more damage to your kid than I could say which is unfortunate.

Hey moderators

Can you highlight this former coach's response - there are so many posts just as out of line like this on this board, especially this thread.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Translation: your kid is not on the radar of early recruiting. Therefor; something must be done about the trend so that your "anonymous to D 1 coaches son" can maybe develop more and become a factor later. That can only happen if your reforms are placed and maybe your kid will have a chance; which is not about to happen.

I'm a former D1 assistant coach. Yes, we read these things. A little advice for you: most of my colleagues in college lacrosse don't need two things. Bad kids & bad parents. This post also made its way through the coaching ranks and some of us forwarded it to the NCAA in Indianapolis. Another translation; stay anonymous. If anyone knew your name it would do more damage to your kid than I could say which is unfortunate.

Nice post coming from just another anonymous poster.. Former assistant D1 college coach, huh?

Nice post coming from just another anonymous poster.. Former assistant D1 college coach, huh?

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Translation: your kid is not on the radar of early recruiting. Therefor; something must be done about the trend so that your "anonymous to D 1 coaches son" can maybe develop more and become a factor later. That can only happen if your reforms are placed and maybe your kid will have a chance; which is not about to happen.

I'm a former D1 assistant coach. Yes, we read these things. A little advice for you: most of my colleagues in college lacrosse don't need two things. Bad kids & bad parents. This post also made its way through the coaching ranks and some of us forwarded it to the NCAA in Indianapolis. Another translation; stay anonymous. If anyone knew your name it would do more damage to your kid than I could say which is unfortunate.

Nice post coming from just another anonymous poster.. Former assistant D1 college coach, huh?

Definitely the coach from swr....always bragging about his div 1 day. Ahhaha

Is the arini from shoreham wading river. ....its sounds just like him. Threatening a poster

Not everything has to do with SWR. If nothing is going on on the 1,000 page SWR thread you throw it out on another...Go outside and enjoy the sunshine! GET OVER IT!!!!!

Sad for those boys, they were in over their heads and unfortunately exposed in front of all those college coaches.

When looking at each lacrosse parent the majority are nuts. There is more over the top behavior at any lacrosse tournament by parents then any other sport.

Ha ha. You sure about that?

Your kid obviously does not play ice hockey. Come see a brawl when police are called. This is an extreme, but I think hockey parents may take the cake.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96553

Your kid obviously does not play ice hockey. Come see a brawl when police are called. This is an extreme, but I think hockey parents may take the cake.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96553

Your kid obviously does not play ice hockey. Come see a brawl when police are called. This is an extreme, but I think hockey parents may take the cake.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96553

Is there a summary writeup of the game somewhere? I'd like to see who was highlighted from both Nassau and Suffolk.

Quick Breakdown: Suffolk dominated the game, only reason it was close in first half was that Nassau was man up 6-10 times, lost count. Final score not indicative of actual game as Nassau scored a few in garbage time.