Unless the Varsity coach is also running a youth travel team in that town he could care less where kids play. Also,once you get to Varsity you have 4 grades of kids in the mix, sometimes 5. Kids that are going to be D1 are often playing Varsity in 8th grade. Th truth is most kids play both travel and town. Sometimes when your kid is good and he enters lax a little later on he ends up being put on D. The better stick handlers usually , not always gravitate to offense. When a coach gets an athletic kid who hasnt handled a stick yet he usually giddy to put him on D, then the team starts to lean on him being and its hard to break out of that spot.
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Produce better players, keep kids involved in the sport, encourage elite travel play and act as an adviser to each family. The rest will work itself out. How about that for a crazy idea the school travel actually work with the travel teams. All of these tournaments and showcases are scheduled so far in advance that logistically it works to do both and successfully coexist.


This is a concept that I share a similar view with. Our child was "late to the PAL party". He did not show interest in lax until 5th grade. PAL was fundamentally valuable in exposure and learning the basics of the game. But that is where it stopped. He wasn't one of the sons of a coach, and did not have friends of sons of coaches. So his experience was limited even though his apptitude for the game was really high. He just wasn't getting a chance to be on the field. So we got him a coach to fill in the gaps. That was followed by immersion in club ball while the rest stayed "town" out of ?loyalty? (Or was it fear?). Word was that the HS coaches would start "town locals" on varsity.
Fast forward to middle school...PAL dads weren't the coaches anymore. Totally different kids became the starters (my son included) than had been the previous three years of PAL. The few kids who left to play club ball not only became starters but became impact players and leaders in their own part of the field; be it A,M or D. PAL loyalists were outraged. How could their kids not be the starters as per usual?

The point is that leaving the bubble of town PAL and exploring the vast experiences that are coupled with elite travel teams afforded these divergent kids the opportunity to grow; to be exposed to different coaches and develop stronger skill sets and to be more vastly challenged in the higher level of tournaments that they traveled to.

Why then wouldn't the HS coaches take advantage of this "farm league" concept of sending the kids out to play club ball; knowing that they would eventually return to the school fold in HS to bring these experiences of playing at a higher level back the the HS teams? This in turn would yield more experienced players lending their skills to the kids who stayed "town ball only". It would be a win-win situation.