Here is a recap of my daugher's recruiting process: She is a '21, rated on the rise (50-100) by IL. We were "lucky" to start the process early, since the jr year rule hadn't yet come into effect. My daughter went to school camps at most of her top targets. She played for a club team that was ranked in / out of the top 10 - so she was able to play against all the top teams - which meant that all the various colleges watched them play over a 2+ year period. Our club director guided us well to keeping an evolving top 20 target school list. She then worked diligently to get feedback from those schools - most, but not all, schools would let her know if they had interest. My daughter went into 9/1 with a good sense of where there was mutual interest. On 9/1 she heard from most of those schools, a few disappeared and a few desirable ones popped up. Many others reached out where unfortunately she did not have much interest (due to academics and / or level of lacrosse). She spent a lot of time fielding all calls, being appreciative etc., and then calling all those coaches back to let them know of her position. She was not recruited by the top few lacrosse programs, but was a solid target for the rest of the top 30 group. On 9/1, a couple things to be aware of: generally the head coach calls the top targets, starting at the top top first thing in the AM. the top assistant will call the next group, etc. You can often read into where you are for them based on who calls and when. For many of the schools at the top of my daughter's list - she was somewhere in the middle for them. A few schools said things like "we are moving a little slowly" when it came to scheduling visits, in hindsight that was code for "we are targeting a few others at your position, and are not yet ready to offer you". Also, many schools did unofficials, leaving official visits for the committed class to do together at a later time. The school where my daughter ended up was one of her top targets, the coach gave her time to decide, and fortunately it all worked out. Hope this is useful.
--- "She is a '21, rated on the rise (50-100) by IL. We were "lucky" to start the process early, since the jr year rule hadn't yet come into effect." ---
Didn't the "early recruiting rule change" take effect in May of 2017? How was a 2021 HS Grad engaged in the recruiting process before the "rule change"? Even if coaches reached out when your daughter was an 8th grader they would have had to break off all contact once the new rule was in force in 2017.
Yes, was thinking the same. And when 8th graders were recruited, it was the very top girls, not 50-100 types. Something very wrong with this story.
Not the poster of the original story, but can say for sure the top 2021's were in the heat of recruiting when it did shut down. About a dozen girls from the class had already committed and many were close. My daughter had done a half dozen visits and meetings with coaches and had several offers in hand when it shut down, and was told by the coaches that the offers stand and that if she wanted accept the offers, she could at any time because they were made prior to the shut down (not sure if that part was legal?). She held off to see what Sept 1st would bring and it was by far the best thing. Prior to the shut down, coaches were very uneasy about offering girls that young, and for very good reason, but they were competing with other programs who were willing to do it and the players were getting younger and younger every year. Only a handful of coaches were dipping that young so it was impossible to fully gauge the full interest from all programs for these early recruits. My daughter went from known interest from 6 programs when it shut down, to nearly 60 programs reaching out on sept 1st. Many better options opened up, and you knew all the options on the same day. Best thing that ever happened for lacrosse, for the coaches, and for the players.
