I was the poster who hailed the coming of "prospect days" & am again not a Dad with a lacrosse background. I would like to go on believing parents would like to use this thread as a venue to learn something, and I am glad to share what I have learned and know to be accurate. It bothers me that some posters have been overtly incorrect or misleading on this thread.
If you read on this thread that some other parent has a kid going to JR and to Maverick Showtime next Summer, I can bomb down on that as false. Our our family was told that when his club has direct appointment to offer out, our son would receive one. And direct appointments have not been given out and have not been allocated with certainty. For example, my son's club team expects to get 4 direct allocation spots for one of these showcases, but the range that has been communicated is 2-5 by JR to the club. Now, quite possibly I am not being told the truth but if that is the case it would be a first from my son's coach who has been very forthright with us on all matters. On my son's team are two kids who went to JR last Summer as 2017s rising freshman, and they are both going to the 3d blue chip in Florida next month to re-audition because they were told they are not getting a direct appointment and need to go the 3d trials process. So anyone who takes as given that their kid went last year as a rising freshman 2017 is an automatic to JR this Summer is also incorrect and stating something that is false. Rather than a personal attack on any of the posters to this thread, I would just like to impart that what goes on this thread should be accurate if there are lacrosse parents who are not former lacrosse players - like me - are making smart reliances on it.
Next, I really do believe that prospect days are a great blessing but concede it too has limitations in terms of positive effect. If you go to two or to ten of these things, you are a part of an exclusive club that can pay $200 a pop. Any kid can go to a prospect camp; all you need to do is spend time on the internet to get informed and also ask your club coach. Most often club coaches will inform their teams of the prospect camps without prejudice to the best player on down to the last kid on the roster. Any kid can go, and it is a great way as I earlier wrote to get good information about where you stand. It is also a great way for assistant coaches at these schools to supplement otherwise low salaried positions. $200 x 200 = a material amount for the 2-4 staff coaches involved in putting it on. The inference that you are in an exclusive group because you have been to several of them is false. There is one reason why your son would be excluded from a prospect day: you failed to sign up before the event filled up and registration closed. By the same reasoning your U-9 kid if you have one can't play for the town recreation league for the same reason.
In terms of getting deals from all the top programs settled out and "making an announcement soon", well that is just something that belongs at a cocktail party in a circle of parents who have a good bit to compensate for and not on this thread. On our club a couple kids are truly great players and are being recruited by everyone out there now. Other kids, like our son, are being recruited by a few or some who are out there now. But no egos please. The schools who are out there now are not a long list. They are three ACC schools and the Big 10 teams, and literally a couple others which includes JH, Bucknell and Syracuse.
I will not waste anyone's time with hear-says, and can repeat what I know to be accurate. With the sole exception of Bucknell, the Ivies and Patriot league teams are not recruiting 2017s AT ALL. There are prominent other programs like Duke and Notre Dame who are currently not recruiting 21017's AT ALL. If I, or any other parent of a 2017, wanted to get in a car and go look at the Cornell campus next week, last time I checked that is not unlawful. If I, or any other parent of a 2017, wanted to reverse enquire on Princeton the most we could gather at this point is 1. your son is a candidate because he is a good player on a good club/school team, 2. we don't give athletic scholarships so the deal is there are no deals and a reference to the financial aid office, 3. we will start recruiting 2017's next year when the kids have a year of transcript grades, 4. taking time to discuss anything else is a waste of time because if your kid does not meet the indexed academic requirements there will be no conversation with you in one year anyways...so tell your kids to take care of their grades moreso than their lacrosse because if they don't we don't want you.
Last, I will say I am not an LI parent, so I don't bring a bias onto this thread when I state this: unquestionably the best 2017 team which has the largest number of elite D1 recruits is the LI Turtles. None of these kids have committed to a school yet. I am a MD parent and do have some local biases, and can state that the player in this state has not committed yet and add that not one player from the best team in the state (Balt Crabs) has committed. Knowing nothing and just gathering to guess, I believe a great many of these families are in no rush to foreclose on the possibility of their kid going to an Ivy or to Duke, which are great schools, to lock down a deal to go to Bucknell or to UNC, which are very good but not great schools, right now.
Like many other parents who don't carry the Stanwick or Powell family name, I hope to use information on which to rely to help our son through this and would be glad to share what I have learned to be accurate and is written out above.
