This was our experience with middle school lacrosse: our son played for both the school team and a select travel team. He had the advantage of being coached by those that were knowledgeable of the game outside the realm of school ball. What we did encounter with school lacrosse, was the school coach has there own philosophy of how to play the game, and at times he wasn't instructing the players correctly and there were conflicts with what the school coach considered the correct thing to do in the face of adversity. We feel that middle school lacrosse is an opportunity to stay connected to your peers and school coaches, but we watched our son take a step back during the coarse of the school season as there were players that couldn't pass well or catch, didn't know there slides on defense and there knowledge of the game was lacking. Our son looked forward to playing for his school and therefore, it was a positive experience.