Times are a changin' in the lax world. In years past, Chaminade never had to face the pressure of their paying customers being recruited earlier and earlier. Their "system" worked in the world when the best kids were recruited in 11th and 12th grade. What's unbelievably ironic is that it was Chaminade's own coaches who started the Express summer club and ignited the ascent of the entire club lax scene to eventually leapfrog their own high school program in terms of recruiting importance and likewise fueling the environment for early recruiting to catch fire. The early recruiting that they themselves helped to orchestrate has now come back to haunt their varsity program to the point where they will have to cave to the pressure of their paying customers not to have Express D1 commits playing against other 15 year olds.
No Chaminade (or other LI "powerhouse") players are being punished for playing freshman/JV lacrosse, at least not when it comes to recruiting. Chaminade still sends more players to the D1 ranks than just about any school in the country.
While players are now committing to schools in their freshman year, they haven't gotten any better when compared to the school's juniors. Why would Chaminade want to move them up to varsity?
But is a good for a kid's development to be forced to play against average kids if he' s good enough to be recruited by a D1 program as a Freshman?
He would be recruited as freshman based on playing against kids in his own grade. Just because a kids is an early recruit does not mean he's better than an upperclassman that wasn't
That's not an answer to the question about development.
Well I think it is. A lot of the early recruiting is based on projected development. Taking a great player in 9th versus 11th just locks them up earlier so no one can get their hands on them. There is no real way to determine if a player will be as good as they were when facing players that are in their own grade maybe a year older. As the player matures does he develop (height, size, more speed, stick skills, and in a multitude of other areas) I have heard it time and time again this year is better than that year or this year is worse. So would a standout player from one grad year be a stand out if he were in another or just average. I wish there was a real way to determine this. What I do know is that If I were to put my son on a field versus himself from lets say 1 year ago, it wouldn't even be fair. Hes grown 5 inches and added 15-20 lbs of muscle. All that while putting in more time on the wall and training.
What is the issue with what Chaminade does? Its not hurting anyone. The team is fine and has been doing fine the way they are doing things. I will say it again, 99% of the time its the parent with the issue. The issue I have is, you knew the way they did things before you signed up to go there. It was no surprise.
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