Jealousy and bitterness is what is ruining the sport.
Do you people ever listen to what you say?
Worrying about what other people wear, really? Worry about yourself and your own kid. At the end of the day there will be an insignificant amount of 8th graders committing (Less than 5). Probably less than 50 9th graders will verbally commit.
If you really want to know where your kid stand look at the following:
When did she actually start getting recruited? When was an offer made? What schools recruited her?
Not all recruits are equal. Even at the top programs, the #1 and #2 recruits are much different from #9 and #10 in the same recruiting class. All of D1 is not created equal. Kids that are recruited by the top 5 – 10 programs are usually much stronger than the rest of the players.
The problem is that many parents refuse to honestly evaluate their children. Many become bitter and jealous and spew venom and hate at players who excel and are recruited over their child. They do it on this site, they do it on the sideline and they do it around town. When another child is having more success than their child they look to tear that child down anyway they can. It’s ugly.
If the kid scores a lot of goals the jealous parents will call the player a "Ball Hog".
If the player is recruited and commits early the jealous bitter parents will go on and on about how it is a bad decision.
If the kid makes an "All Star / Elite / Top Club" team the bitter parents will say it is only due to politics.
If the kid commits to a Top 5 or 10 college program the jealous parent will say the player will never get on the field and they will not pursue a “real major or field of study”.
If the kid commits to Harvard the bitter jealous parent will say my son/daughter doesn't want to go to an Ivy League School.
If the kid commits to a Big D-I School the jealous parents will say we are focusing on academics and looking at D-III schools.
If it is said that the player was offered a significant athletic scholarship all of the know it all parents will say it is not true.
If a kid is being actively recruited by a number of top programs the bitter jealous parents will say we are looking at ABC and XYZ and we visited XXX even though their kid is not being recruited by those schools. (visiting a school or calling the coach and asking to visit is not being recruited. Going to a prospect day is not being recruited.)
It's never ending, on our sideline this past spring we had parents counting out loud the number of turnovers a player had. We have parents chirping loudly "Pass The Ball" however I never heard those words when the Jealous bitter parents child had the ball. If it were not so sad it would be funny.
Couple all of the hate and venom spewed with all of the [lacrosse] Kissing many of these parents do and you have a cesspool of a sideline. Does not matter if it is school or club, the [lacrosse] kissers are there. They will kiss the [lacrosse] of the coach, Club Director, AD, Assistant Coach, Spouse of the coach, Sibling of the coach, friend of the coach, anyone who they think can help. Have you ever noticed how certain parents always have a reason to talk to or email the coach? Even the ones who are bitter on the sideline, they make sure they put on the happy face just before their nose hits the coaches [lacrosse]. Love it when I see a kid who does not get the hype from the club or school get recruited (by top college programs) over the favored ones. The worst are the (politically correct happy face parents) these are the smart ones who never say anything negative in public. They do all of their [lacrosse] kissing and emailing in private but make no mistake, they are there and they are attempting to manipulate the coach. All the [lacrosse] kissing from parents and the misguided efforts of a bad coach will not stop the college coaches from identifying the top athletes.
It's a mess. Hope your club and or town is different".
