US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Girls 2025-10th Grade Fall 2022/Summer 2023

This assumes that the bottom of the roster's parents have a realistic opinion of where their daughter fits in the mix - that is a big assumption and where this "ideal" solution will fall short.

Fair point. As someone whose daughter is in the middle I agree with this to an extent. But even some of the top kids parents think their kids are the next Charlotte North. Had one [Censored] parent ranting and raving on the sideline in Dallas every game about going away from what works for the team. (Let my daughter handle the ball) There is 19 other kids on the team.

thats exactly how our club handles the goalies where we have a great one and a good one

Best schools are there for a small part of most games. They want to see as much of the top level that they can. The mid to lower d1 will be around the following fall. Play starters!

Also some (not all) of the committed players become less reliable, which creates more opportunities for other players to shine next year.

For the most part, it's best of time is split as evenly as possible unless the coach knows, for a fact, that a particular college coach is watching a specific player on the roster. In those kinds of cases, that player should get increased time for that game

I think you are wrong. In the fall they look for athletes and express general interest. Athletes that are average and have good skills dont get indentified. Next summer they come back and look closer at those targets, In the fall the average athletes and not elite lax players get recruited by mid to lower D1. Play your starters and top kids and make sure coaches put players in where they can be successful in front of coaches. Syracuse is not recruiting all 20+ players on your team. They need to see the best before they leave at halftime to watch other players on other clubs.

Everything you're writing makes sense. The one thing you have to remember though is that the mid-low level D1 schools are also there to watch their targets. The top 20 schools are not the only ones going to tournaments. The bottom line is that attending showcases and ID camps is significantly more important than tournaments.

I agree with points from both of the last post . My daughter is probably Top 25-50 college caliber. She starts on a Top 10 team while other kids in her position rarely play, and I mean rarely.
Not sure that's entirely fair.

Top 80 teams come to tournaments as well as top 10 teams. I'm not sure a player should play the entire game because Maryland or UNC is at the game to watch your star when Radford or BU is there also watching a lower player on your team. Now, how do you fix this? It's easy in my eyes. Clubs have to stop being greedy and not take 22 players on the team. Take 18. Therefore the bottom 4 on your team will be on another team getting significant minutes.

Not saying I'm right. Just my opinion because I see the other side about having them get major minutes in the Fall, but then why pay all that money for summer if you aren't going to play.

You're right on many points - but I disagree on one thing - the mid-low schools are there, but the majority are on the 2024 sideline right now - except the young, stary-eyed dreamer assistant coaches.

I completely agree that camps are the way to go. We've hit a bunch, and it made it really easy to see which coaches were a good fit and which to scratch off the list, regardless of how interesting the school may be. There was one school my daughter really liked for the academics and the major she's interested in; she came off the field and said, "there's no way I can spend 3 hours a day, 6 days a week with that coach. I'll be miserable. I can't go here."

Yes, my daughter (2024) had similar experiences where she just didn't like a particular coach or the way the current players interacted with ID camp attendees. With close to 1,000 D1 2024 commitments nationwide to date, I have to believe that, for the most part, they are close to being done with 2024s.

If I can pass on some unsolicited advice (having gone through the process as a parent for the past years and as a coach for several years) I think the best thing for all 2025 parents to do is to come up with a list of schools for your daughter to target by this Summer. Hit those ID camps and showcases those coaches will be at all Winter, Spring and Summer. While doing that, pay close attention to the commitments at those schools. You can easily fond those on laxnumbers.com.

"Equal" playing time for the showcases is a complete joke and a disservice to the girls that are actually recruitable. Every club coach would definitely prefer to win games and to do so they would put the best players on the field to achieve that goal. If your daughter is not breaking the starting lineup of your club team, its a pretty clear indication that top 25, or even D1 is not a realistic fit for her to play lacrosse. Everyone says "oh, winning doesn't matter in these years." Not true. You win, you theoretically should move up into the rankings, play against better competition in higher brackets in tournaments where certainly the higher level college coaches flock to. If you don't believe this, next tournament go watch CT. Grizzlies vs. M&D and check out the sideline lined with coaches, then go to Elevate vs. Phantastics...ghost town. Not saying either of those teams (and just randomly picked those two, can insert whatever team...) don't have a few good recruitable girls, but overall its a different level of talent.

This is ridiculous. Some D3 and and ranked d2 teams can beat low end d1 teams and there’s a lot of them. To say a kid who isn’t breaking into the starting lineup can’t play d1 just shows that you have no idea what you’re talking about. My daughter starts on a top 10 team and the person who plays the least at her position (#6 on the depth chart and plays half the game) will certainly be recruited to a top 50-75 team. As well as #1 who plays 60% of the game will be in the Top 5. No doubt about it.

“A disservice to the players…”. LMAO. Everyone of my daughters games this year was attended by 20-35 college coaches. UNC was at everyone of them. You know who else was at everyone of them. BU. The 100th ranked team in the country. Bottom d1 teams need to get players as well.

Guarantee this is the parent who was ranting up and down the sidelines about going away from what makes us win in Dallas.


And your point about M&D vs Grizzlies makes my point for me. You think the sixth best midfielder on M&D isn’t getting recruited to a top 50 school? She is. And guess what. She needs to play to be seen. Yes the 6th best player on the Belles isn’t getting recruited d1. But if you are a top 50 program kids need to be seen. It’s not just about your daughter.

The way the ranking system is set up, you don’t have to win any game to be ranked high in the rankings. A team can go 5-20. Play all top 20 teams, have a gd of -2 and still be to 10.

My team can play Spallina lose 50 straight games by 1 and still be ranked #2. Doesn’t go by wins and loses. Goes by strength of schedule and goal differential AVG not tot.

An example would be Skywalkers. They are 7-5-1 and ranked 5th.

for the good teams the b starters will do better than the a backups

happens every year yet still parents want their kids on the a bench

yeah but my kid is different yeah sure she is look at the history

This right here. "We want to win!" doesn't matter, you only have to be competitive.

As for "starting" vs everyone else, that doesn't really matter either. My kid is goalie and preferred the second half, so that's what she plays. She likes to watch the first half to get a read on the offense and identify the shooters. The other goalie tends to play better first half because she carries a certain vibe into the game. She loses energy standing on the sideline first half, which causes her to come into the game flat.

I really don’t know why is better. Your kid plays on an A team and gets significant minutes. Is an offensive player and scores 4-8 goals a tournament. Your kid is a star on a B or C team playing b or c teams scoring 20 goals a tournament. I really don’t know what is better. I think the kid on either team still has to show up to a camp and play I. Front of that coach.

from experience I would ask to play the first half once in a while

the top coaches scatter in the second half to watch the second tier teams

happened on my daughters team where the second goalie placed way lower even though she was the strongest of the 2

The rankings are a complete joke for 1. Colleges dont care and winning should matter. GD should not. Winning or losing games in a showcase is an issue for some coaches afraid to drop. I do agree all need to be seen but not all seen by top 30 teams will get recruited there with equal time. No team has 20 equal level players and colleges look for the best athletes that produce first.

Bottom 50 D1 coaches, D2 coaches, D3 coaches go to tournaments too.

Yeah but according to that guy it’s a disservice to his daughter to not let her play the whole game because she is more important than a girl going to a team like Colgate.
🙄

It is always better to play the 2nd half, for the reasons the OP said. You can figure out the shooters and your defense has time to get organized. Playing your best is the most important thing for recruiting. The coaches wander back and forth.

She doesn't want to play the first half. She wants to play the half she feels she's the most productive.

All coaches move around to see the kids they are interested in seeing play, regardless of what half it is.

Maybe the second half goalie on your daughter's team wasn't as strong as you think. Maybe she wasn't "marketed" as well as the other goalie. Maybe she chose to go way lower than the other goalie.

If you think a college coach cares whether your kid is a starter on their club team, you're sadly mistaken. If a coach wants to see your kid play, they are going to show up when your kid is playing. If they can't make it fit their schedule, they'll ask the coach to re-arrange the lineup. But, if you think that top 20 schools only want the starters you're going to have to wake up.

yup the best coaches always save their studs for the second half

I would think “disservice” poster’s daughter isn’t Charlotte North but I bet North could get recruited playing half a game. Or Belle Smith, or Cordingley, or the Tyrells or ah you get the point. They don’t have to play the whole game. The original poster who said that was way way off.

The coaches know what half the goalies they are recruiting are playing. Goalies reach out to the coaches that they are interested in and let them know what half they are playing. So the thought that a top team isn’t watching top recruits in the second half and watching second tier teams is almost as ridiculous as the post about not playing the starters the whole game is a disservice post. I pray parents that don’t have a clue about recruiting don’t come here on this site for guidance

This^^^ 100%. I hope people don't come on here looking for sound advice. Unfortunately you get a lot of this on an anonymous message board.

It is very obvious that many who post on this thread know nothing about the sport or the recruiting process. Many of these individuals will get a big wake up call when September 1 rolls around.

College coaches can identify the players they like in a minute or two...

Every kid on a top club team is hoping a high major college calls. They all believe BC/NW/UNC/MD will call if the player really likes the school and has reached out. Kids want to be seen scoring a goal by those schools and think 1 play gets them recruited. The bottom 50 d1, d2 and d3 coaches come back the following fall when kids havent been offered by their dream schools and now willing to listen to them so they have a place to play. This summer the top schools will be looking for the top kids. The Not top tier d1 one will have to decide which players will consider them or pass on the top kids and start the interest with a middle level kid. All the top colleges want the same kids!

This. At a recent camp, Jenny Levy told girls that when she goes to tournaments she "can tell who can play in 5 or 10 minutes". they rest of the team I am watching for intangibles, like supporting teams, hustle plays, good attitude.

Reality is for the top schools, how you play in tourneys is less important. For them, its all about how you play at their camps. When they go to tourneys, they are pretty much just looking for girls to invite to camps.

For instance, I know every offer NW made last year was to girls who went to their camps over the past year.

Not true, my daughter never went to a Northwestern camp and the coaches came to our house to recruit her. She didn’t wind up going there, but why spread rumors that are absolutely not true? I know of other girls that this has happened to as well. You could say the same for the college my daughter committed to as well. She never went to a camp, but was contacted Sept 1.

Please do not post such nonsense, your post is simply not accurate.

Every NW 24 commit went to either their summer or winter camp. That's 100% true.

Maybe, however the program with the best results for 23 and 24 recruits -- Grizzlies -- has "equal" playing time policy. Not completely equal, but every one plays significant minutes every game.

Varies by school. Some schools place much more emphasis on camps and prospect days than others. Generally top 20 programs play a much higher value on camps than middle tier schools. Camps tend to me much more important for Goalies and defenders (or middies recruited as defenders) than offensive players.

Best way to prep is to have your club director reach out to schools and get feedback.

As a general rule, if you know you have some interest, you should go "narrow" and focus on single school prospect days, but if you don't have confirmed interest, you should go "wider" and focus on multi-school showcases or all-star games.

Nonsense.

I know a girl that went to zero camps, didnt play all summer either. Recruited from last fall by the top teams.
Top teams will try for best players even if they didnt attend a camp but have a great eval of her.

I believe this. My daughter went to a ton of things as a B team player and was barely recruited. Several of her A team friends did hardly anything extra and were heavily recruited. If you're good, they know who you are.

I know a girl who never picked up a stick and got recruited to a top team.