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

Its fool what some people believe. They have been foul-hooked but oddly, seem to like it. Let your kid play, put him/her in the best position to succeed and enjoy the ride. Its called parenting.

So, it’s the colleges that are immoral for rewarding the holdbacks with spots on their teams!? Facts, many are holdbacks on the top teams!

All you righteous people who are calling the parents immoral should second guess going to any of the colleges that have holdbacks! Prove your morality and don’t let your kids attend such pathetic, immoral schools as MD, Duke, Virginia, etc…

I bet you would have your kid attend any one of the “immoral” schools!

It's all really simple and rational and hardly immoral:

1) The NCAA allows more than a 4 year age range for athletes to support kids who followed different paths to and during college
2) College coaches have to field the best teams they can to keep their jobs
3) Teams with older kids are on average going to be stronger than teams with younger kids
4) Older HS sophomores/juniors will stand out during recruitment over younger HS sophomores/juniors
5) Its beneficial to be held back before HS since HS may limit you to 4 years of eligibility for sports

Unless you change 1), everything remains the same. You certainly can (and should) have youth tournaments switch to on-age but that really won't stop the hold backs.

You nailed it. If you can afford it, the end justifies the means if gets you ahead in life not lacrosse which doesn't matter

Nah. If it means the difference between my kid and yours over a life changing ivy degree I'm doing anything I can. Sorry the way the world works

Holding back? Seems rational but it’s actually pathetic. You believe you’re using the university, but the sad truth is that they’re using you and your son. I’ll let you in on a little secret, there is no shortcut in the game of life and an elite school doesn’t make the man. It’s clear that you’re no man and it’s abundantly clear that you’re not raising a man. You are a fool raising a fool. You should get a vasectomy immediately and I’ll gladly contribute to the cost of the procedure.

Tell all the dudes/ college athletes on Wall Street that! Who are also hiring their “own”, who got in to top schools with a little extra year or two in school. Other lucrative jobs as well! They hire from their schools and have great connections. Go to some of those schools and a kid could be set for life, due to his connections. If staying back will help a kid get into one of those top schools, more power to them. I know it’s elitist as most can not afford to do this!

However, if a kid who would never have a chance at one of those schools and gets there through lacrosse and has to stay back to do it? More power to him. Even better if it’s a kid who would never have been able to afford one of those schools! Those schools reward the holdbacks! Nobody at the great job after college cares how many years you went to school!

Wow, you should get some therapy.
Lets start with some basics.
Were you not loved as a child?
Did you have ambitions to play sports at a high level? Were you awesome in middle school?
Is your kid on a top 10 team?
Is your kid any good?
Did he actually lose out on something due to a reclass?
Is he on Varsity at a good school? Are all the kids he plays against older? Have you written to the school district asking if he/she/it can only play against kids he/she/its age?
Are you teaching him that in life the playing field is always level and fair?
Inquiring minds want to know you feeble little troll……
I actually feel better about reclassing my kid now know it is has you so wound up. Really hope my son takes your sons scholarship to UVA. FOOL!

Whether you agree with the ethics of it or not, holding back/PGing is rewarded by the college coaches and can often help a player get into a better academic situation. If that bothers some people, so be it. As the guy above said, no employers care if you graduate college at age 23 or even 24. If it’s not for you, then don’t do it. But as long as it remains within the rules, it won’t go away no matter how much you complain about it.

It’s no doubt it’s rewarded by the top D1 Lacrosse schools! Just check out their commits.

Personally, I don’t think it should be allowed before the HS years at the youth LAX level. Kids should have equal opportunity in the developing years. After that, in HS years I think kids start to equal out as far as growth goes and by then the skills developed will show. Then it would be obvious who the top players are as far as skills goes. At least they would have been on equal playing fields getting there if LAX went to age based in the youth years!

The starting QB for the national champion UGA Bulldogs is 26. Give me a break. No one cares. Get over it.

Actually many people do care about cheating as evidenced by the number of threads on this board year after year. You don’t care because you gave up on being ethical a long time ago.

Fool. You are comparing HS/College kids to youth players?

Georgia QB couldn’t hack it at 21, wasted 5 years at his future career and is a cheater.

To all the holdback supporters fathers. You should watch the documentary. Operation Varsity Blues you will love it.
Everything you believe in.

There are threads going back years, its never changing, keep crying, its the only thing you and your son are good at.

Check his NIL deal, made more than you will make in your lifetime as a college senior. NIL deals are awesome! Changing the landscape, you thought holdbacks were bad before? You haven't seen anything yet.

why do you people care?

You can't compare college football and lacrosse. College football is a multi billion dollar industry and college lacrosse is mostly insignificant and generates zero revenue. Completely different from tv exposure, game attendance, sponsorship, etc. If your kid is good enough to play in college it won't matter how old anyone else is. If your kid loses a spot to an older kid chances are he was going to be standing on the sideline anyway so what's the difference?

Listen this conversation is so tiresome. Holding a kid back in youth is lame. End of discussion. Lame. Not illegal. Not against the rules. The word is weak. The word is lame. No valid excuse doing this. This group isn’t in youth anymore. Now it’s about HS. Soon college. It’s good for the future youth kids that the rule is changing. So weak parents won’t be playing their kids down to make them look like studs.

I think that should just end the argument/ completely agree

Yes, a kid shouldn't get to play a kid's game because a parent thinks that their 8 year old should be allowed to play against 6 year olds for the next ten years. College is college. Youth and high school are not. Otherwise, we should have 20/21 year old high school players. There is no difference?

** I hope you’re a relative or better yet his agent. Otherwise you’re a pathetic fool making statements to another about earnings. Good for him that he’s making some money off NIL as it won’t last that long for him and hope he makes it to the pros or is successful in life.

So after the fall season how do the travel teams rank? Anyone take a step forward? A few steps back?

Just check US Club lax.

You may be the densest poster ever on here. To actually believe I am his relative and that his millions can’t be invested and last a lifetime. Who’s the pathetic fool? You probably have spent 10’s of thousands of dollars for a minuscule lax scholarship for your son. That’s the fool!

Let’s put aside the holdback conversation. It’s not changing.

As a parent who has been through this process recently with my two older boys (‘22 and ‘23), let me give you some advice. Do not think for a second that your son’s travel coach or team is going to look out for your son and get him recruited. Their responsibility ends when they get you to tourneys in front of coaches. Despite what they will tell you, the most they will do is answer calls about your boy. Even then, often they will push the top 5 players on the teams over your son.

This is time for you to take your sons future into your own hands and start selling him. Go on to schools team pages and fill out the Recruiting Questionnaire. Fill them out for every school you can think of. That is the first step.

Make sure you have his highlight film updated with his fall tourneys. Sit with your son and have him start emailing coaches to introduce himself. Include his highlight film, along with any positive press or write ups that he may have had.

As we get into the spring season, start compiling varsity highlights and update the highlight film with them. You want to keep it under 3:00 so just the best. If your son is playing in spring tourneys, let coaches know his schedule, number and field number.

Once the summer season gets rolling. You and your son should send emails to coaches weekly. Include highlights, press, schedules, and what he likes about the program.

This is the time folks. This is what you’ve put in the time for; sacrificed summer vacations for. You need to make his future your priority and do not leave it in the hands of anyone else. This will be stressful and exciting at the same time and I wish all of you the best of luck over the next 9 months! Our boys deserve it!

Club Lax isnt accurate

If you are really interested in his future, put a lot of money into tutors for the SAT, tats where the real scholarship money is.

Probably the best post I've seen on this forum. Useful information laid out in an articulate manner. Thank you!!

What is the best site/hammerhead people use to put together highlight clip ?

I did it on our Mac using iMovie or whatever it’s called. I didn’t know how to use it so I wrestled with it (a lot of cursing). There are probably some better programs out there to do it though. After a couple times it got easier.

Wait a minute. You mean I've been paying 5K for a select club team that claims they'll help get my son recruited and it's a lie. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. Being on a Top Ranked Club" only helps the top few kids on that team
Wake up people the only one getting your son recruited are him and you and it's hard work. Be realistic, make sure it's a school they absolutely love and would go to regardless of lacrosse. Most will not last playing 4 years at any level. I've seen a ton of kids transfer, drop out, burn out and quit.

Make your kid do it, they can do it from their iphone.

So I agree with most of this. You have to do most of the leg work. Do not sit around and wait for a coach to reach out. And be realistic, if your son is not a starter on an A team, don’t just seek out D1 schools. I can say that from experience. However, what I disagree with is my older sons club really stepped in when the conversations were getting serious and 100% helped to close the deal. I get all clubs are different and I won’t promote a club anonymously, but some clubs do make a huge difference.

If your son is a desirable player, schools will find money above the athletic scholarship. A 90 average can get you another 25%. As far as SATs go, most schools are not requiring them. They will only determine the amount of merit money. But if you do submit them, they need to be very high. I’m referring to 1400+ scores. Even then, the merit money won’t be much higher. I know that sounds irrational, but I saw it first hand with my ‘24.

I think the original poster was spot on, though. The time is now, so let’s not leave it to chance.

You are fortunate that your son’s club was helpful, but I think the point of the post is that we shouldn’t leave that to chance. This is an opportunity that will likely have a tremendous impact on our boys’ futures. We should take control of the reigns.
I would also add that when it comes to highlight films, definitely sit down and figure out the best hammerhead to use. If I were a coach, I’m not sure I would want to see something produced by a 15 year old. If you have a Mac, iMovie is a great hammerhead. I think Windows Movie Maker is also useful. If your sons team has them subscribed to a recruitment service (like Connectlax) then they should be able to make a nice film on there. There are also services that will do it for a couple of hundred dollars, but it’s really not necessary. If you search a few of the more well known kids’ highlight films on YouTube, you’ll probably be able to tell which service/app they used. Varsity highlights can be made pretty easily right on HUDL. All teams have a subscription to that.

Good discussion. I spent the Fall walking around and asking the college coaches about how to navigate this space. All very nice and engaging. I didnt walk up and say this is my kid and how do I get you to recruit him but asked, how does the process work.

Math tutor would have a much bigger impact on his future.

Point is all clubs sell the commitments. So get with a club that does. All clubs and their ability to network is different. I would say Legacy, 91 and Express seem to be the most successful.