Not one of those parents but the majority, not all, best college players come from the AA rope teams. That’s just what the data supports. But if your goal isn’t to be on a top d1/d3 team then you don’t need to be on a top AA team so I agree with that. Take out the 80 d1 programs and the top 20 d3 programs. That leaves probably 300+ programs for your kid to find a spot so chances are they will play. But agree, you need to be on the field to even get those programs.
That being said if your kid is choosing a college to play lax instead of getting the best degree at the right school for them, not sure I would agree with that but that’s a whole different discussion…
As a parent of a 2031 would your advice be to have my kid on the field of a B team vs bench of an A team?[/quote]
If I was a parent of a 2031 my advice (which is just an opinion with some real world data to maybe support it) is: first have a real conversation internally with yourself and your kid about what their goals are and how they will project. It’s hard to project 6 years down the road when recruiting actually happens but if your kids goal as well as yours, is to play lacrosse anywhere regardless of the level then go for playing time on a B team. It’s the most enjoyable and he will make great friends and have great memories
But if you think your kid will project out to being a student 6 years down the road AND he wants to play high d1 d3, at this age, I would say go for the less playing time on the AA team. That way he can really work at the game, gain strength and speed and work his way up the pecking order and hopefully gain more playing time. But as a 2031 you have that luxury of time to develop. If this was advice to give to a 2026 or 2027, by this point you are unlikely to gain more playing time and sadly his dreams of playing high level d1 and d3 are very unlikely to happen so I would go for playing time on the B squad. But as a 2031 you have time.
By the way, At this age, invest in speed and footwork drills. Invaluable for overall development and translates to all positions and ages.
Again this is just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions..
