On the recruiting front here is my perspective. For the record, I have a son playing in high school, coach a varsity team and a travel team. The two questions I have are these. How good is your son? Objectively, how good? Because the truth is, if he is that good he will be recruited by top schools regardless of his travel team. He will be known through his high school, his stats, his reputation. It just happens to be that many kids in this category also happen to play on travel teams. So of course the travel teams want and take credit, as listed on their website (as a selling point) of where all their players are committed to. All of the early commits contacted the Dukes and Johns Hopkins and UVAs. Thats the only way it can work under NCAA guidelines. So don't think these coaches aren't looking at last name when deciding on an early commit. Either its a coach's son or older brothers played D-1 lacrosse. Then there is the height, weight and athleticism. My second question, is your son's high school in the upper tier, middle tier or lower tier? If it's the lower tier, you may need a travel team for exposure and potentially have the travel coach be the person you have help you with recruiting. If its an upper tier program and your HS coach is well respected, I would go that route. In some instances the travel team is a necessary evil, but when in doubt, I would defer to the HS coach. And keep in mind one thing Seth Tierney and John Danowski preach all the time. If your son is a true D-1 player we will find him. And one last thing, I know there will be plenty of comments about how their son was the exception to all of the above. I get it. But just be mindful of the fact that for the most part, this travel team hysteria is a total money grab. I know. I get paid very well.
That whole "they will find him thing" is such poor advise, you should really know better if you are who you purport to be. The amount of talent out there has now reached an astronomical level. Granted, if you are a top 50 kid in any given class, yes, maybe they will find you. However, for the average D1 recruit it is without question a marketing and sales job. If your son is not at key events, and tournaments playing at the highest level possible, he will not get seen. It takes money, time and effort from the family. Again, after the top 50 recruits there are about 700 D1 spot left for everyone else every year. With where the talent level is from across the country, there are easily 3,500 kids that could take one of those spots. With that said, it takes a concerted effort to garner one of those spots.
