Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Some great advice and I thank you but what do you call a college coach that calls a high school coach to ask about a kid or that he has received email saying that they saw him play which I know for a fact that they were at the tournament. To me I call that expressing interest in the kid. They wouldn't call a coach if they were not interested in recruiting him. Not knocking anyone that plays travel but I know kids from my town that went on to play D1 and only played for their hs teams not travel. So my statement is right that you don't really need travel to go to a D1 school. I hope everyone's kid gets looks from D1 schools if that's what you as parents want for your kid. From what I know is that if you approach a coach he will not talk to you about you kid but if you introduce yourself then they are allowed to talk to you and that came out of the mouth of the college scout. If I'm wrong then I would like to hear from you.


Look, I never said you couldn't get recruited D1 only playing HS. I said the ability to do so is very difficult, unless A: you play for a top program, or B: the kid is just "that" good. I'm not involved with any travel team, just been through the process a few times.
With regard to approaching Coaches at tournaments, I wouldn't do it. That's what your travel coach/hs coach or Director is for. They can freely walk up to them and say, Hey did you see #21? What do you think? Kid is very interested in your program. If your son emailed that Coach prior to the tournament, the Coach may have been there to watch #21 play. Again, for most kids this is a long drawn out process. You and the kid need to be very proactive and out work the other kids and families in the process. Again, if your son is the next Rabil, they will find him. I get it. For everyone else, you had better understand the process, embrace it, and work it. In today's recruiting environment you are competing against really good players on a North American level. There are only approximately 740-760 D1 slots per grade per year. Does playing on a good A level travel team, in competitive tournaments, help you in this process? In my experience, definitely. Don't believe me? Go to lax power, look up recruits per grade, breakdown number of recruits from LI. Further, see how many kids from LI at your son's position have been recruited in his year and year above. Not that many kids, and most are travel. Think of all the kids that play attack or goalie just on LI. Then see how many are D1 commits. Not that many... Process in very difficult, and getting more competitive every year!!!


Having gone through this with our son I can verify that the above post is very accurate. Think about it in these terms; with early recruiting becoming the standard, if one follows the rosters of a given college grad year at the D1 programs, it can be seen how quickly these fill up with kids who haven't even played a game of high school ball.

All of these kids play high level lax on great club teams from around the nation and if your son only plays high school ball he will be severely limiting his access and exposure. Surely there are non-club playing gems that will be picked as kids mature and become ridiculously great players in high school and these will not go unnoticed.

If you haven't been to one of these high powered club lax tournaments you would be surprised at the numbers of kids who display extremely high skill sets at every position.

Is it any wonder then that college coaches crowd the sidelines at these tournaments? I don't mean 5 or 6 coaches...I mean double digits at most games representing every great institution and they are paying serious attention.

like it or not, club ball has its advantages.