US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Long Island Express Lacrosse

Don't get sucked into the hype of any of these clubs or get hung up on which kid plays for what club. College coaches could care less what club team your sons play for - It makes absolutely no difference to them so don't drink the cool-aid of any program, including the Express. All the college coaches care about is your kid as an individual. He could play for the 3 stooges club located in tim-buk-to and it wouldn't matter as long as they see him and he's a stud he doesn't have to come from a well known program. The great majority of kids on D1 rosters played for club programs that you've never heard of. Go with the cheapest for some exposure and supplement with individual showcases and college prospect days. Trust me, I've just been through it.

I tend to agree with the post. BUT..Your child is only going to get better if he plays with “better” players and gets “better” coaching. Most high schools do not provide one or the other or both.
The “bigger” clubs tend to get “better” players that help your child get “better”. Obviously there are exceptions, but this seems to be the trend over the past few years since we have become obsessed with getting our children some sort of scholarship for lacrosse.

It's encouraging to read your post, but can you give some advice on the best ways to get your son "seen", and recruited, if he's not a "stud"? Let's say he's a B to B+ player, on a B team, with a reputable travel program.

I've heard the best thing to do is to try to come up with 3 or 4 schools that he might want to go to, and send him to camps at those specific schools, if they have them.

I know there are showcases you can go to, but my son's only in 7th grade, so I'm not very familiar with them yet (is it Jake Reed, etc?). I think they're by invitation, or tryout, and they're probably geared toward the "studs" that you mentioned.

Other than that, I guess you have to be relentless with emailing coaches, sending them video, and hope that they'll come watch him play at one of the summer tournaments?

Any input, or serious advice, would be greatly appreciated (obviously, from you too CageSage!). Thanks.

makes me wonder what planet you people are living on. did you know that a fully funded program has 12.1 scholarships spread across the entire team? so you'e talking maybe 1/4 which doesn't account for much. most people will get more in financial aid packages based on income and need. stop talking about scholarship $$ because it makes you sound dumb. it's all about gettiing into a school that otherwise may be unreachable.

makes me wonder what planet you people are living on. did you know that a fully funded program has 12.1 scholarships spread across the entire team? so you'e talking maybe 1/4 which doesn't account for much. most people will get more in financial aid packages based on income and need. stop talking about scholarship $$ because it makes you sound dumb. it's all about gettiing into a school that otherwise may be unreachable.

The idea of a player being a "stud" makes it obvious to many coaches and parents that the player could be recruited by any top ten team nationally. Given that your son is currently a seventh grader, you have at least two years of preparation time to evaluate where your student-athlete might truly sit in terms of skill.

As a seventh grader (a Class of 2019 graduate), your student is still too young to qualify for individual showcases that we have posted here on BOTC from K&J/Red Storm, but the team might want to consider the Mustang Tournament in November. This would not necessarily be for recruiting your son, but rather to see how the recruitment process works in the older grades. Seeing a recruiting event in action, particularly here on Long Island, will greatly help your individual preparations.

Regarding mailing video, please note that the days of VHS tapes and DVD highlight discs are well and truly over. If you choose to do a highlight reel, distributing a 120-180 second clip as a YouTube (or similar) video is the most efficient way to e-mail coaches with your footage. Remember however that college coaches will rarely spend much time on such footage and will never make a recruiting decision based on the footage alone.

Finally, keep inviting coaches to tournaments with your schedules, travel directions, and details. While they will not respond to you due to NCAA Regulations, it is always possible that one coach will be at an event and stop by the field. Once, that happens, the entire team will get a lift and everyone will get more focused on controlling the rcruiting cycle.

We hope that these ideas help you and good luck as you start down the recruiting road.

(PS - Notice we never discussed which team you were representing, the club for which your son plays, or the cost of the program.)

Cage - Thanks very much for the advice, and informative response! Do you agree that travelling to summer camps at a few colleges he thinks he likes, might be the best way to get interest from coaches?

I second that thank you. How about "recruiting camps" referred to above? Can you(or anyone else) give thoughts on these camps? What camps? How does a kid get into the camps? Need coach recommendations? try-outs? sign-up? Thanks for any thoughts. Son a freshman in high school.

I second that thank you. How about "recruiting camps" referred to above? Can you(or anyone else) give thoughts on these camps? What camps? How does a kid get into the camps? Need coach recommendations? try-outs? sign-up? Thanks for any thoughts. Son a freshman in high school.

Caveat - my opinion:

Best individual showcases listed in order of importance (all invite-only, typically with coach recommendation required before invite):

Summer: Maverick Showcase, Jake Reed Nike Blue Chip, Black Card, Top 205
Fall: Philly Showcase, National 175, Jake Reed Nike Blue Chip

Aside from the individual showcases, it is critical to go to select college prospect days on campus at schools your son is interested in/where they have interest in him. This is where the relationships with coaches are deepened and you son can determine if he likes the school and coaches. Also, the showcases above are focused on D1 potential kids. There is a different list for D2/D3 potential kids. Hope this helps.

BOTC's general feeling on "college camps" echoes what has been discussed on the BOTC College Forum and our sister site's BOTN College Forum. For very young players, approach a camp offered by a college coach as a training opportunity and skills improvement alone. In seventh grade, you are not being recruited or scouted at any level as yet. Given that, approach the camp as a value-for-money proposition where your son (or daughter) can realize the most growth in their game in a positive environment.

When heading into the High School years, our view slightly changes. Use the college camp circuit as an opportunity to further showcase your student-athlete's talent after the attending college coaches have specifically seen your son or daughter at a tournament or showcase event. Be sure that the coach has already placed your High School aged son or daughter on the recruiting radar before further considering a camp at the specific school. Obviously, all of this activity is contingent upon that particular university being in the Top Ten Academic and Athletic options being considered by the student-athlete and his/her family.

We hope that this information is helpful.

Actually it's 12.6 for boys and 12 for girls

My son is in the middle of it right now and i can say every situation is different and you need to be ready for everything. I know a 2015 and a 2013 that signed with Cornell that only played town team summer ball, both played for good high school programs and both had HS coaches that worked hard for them so they did not need "Elite Travel" that worked for them. I know a few kids that all the calls are going through an Express coach and I know others that all the calls went through the HS coach. Individual camps are the place to be found if you are not on the radar yet and making the all star game will put you on a lot of radar screens but if you are on the board they will come and see you whether it is with your elite summer team of your HS summer team and they may like a teammate better then the kid they came to see play. Play as much as you can in front of as many coaches as you can and play well when they come to see you play but there is no right and wrong it is part luck and part perseverance. In my own son's case he had a list of ten schools that he e-mailed from the beginning of last summer he is now down to three schools and only one was on the original list, the other two found him, so in our case all the e-mailing and sending highlight film was a waist of time, for others it might have been the most important thing so you never know

Caveat - my opinion:

Best individual showcases listed in order of importance (all invite-only, typically with coach recommendation required before invite):

Summer: Maverick Showcase, Jake Reed Nike Blue Chip, Black Card, Top 205
Fall: Philly Showcase, National 175, Jake Reed Nike Blue Chip

Aside from the individual showcases, it is critical to go to select college prospect days on campus at schools your son is interested in/where they have interest in him. This is where the relationships with coaches are deepened and you son can determine if he likes the school and coaches. Also, the showcases above are focused on D1 potential kids. There is a different list for D2/D3 potential kids. Hope this helps.

Where do we find the list for D2/D3 potential kids?

Where do we find the list for D2/D3 potential kids?

The Sting have a proven track record of helping players with recruiting towards D3 high academic standard schools

appreciate your insight but you sound like running for office!! "I did this, but you should try that! " Give me a break. Get a backbone. Don't waste or mislead our time with your opinion if you're not willing to be truthful. Especially about "town players". NO ONE CARES IF YoU PLAY ON TOWN TEAMS. Town teams just don't get the exposure to the TOP coaches from the TOP teams.. But then again, everything is relative. Just saying.
I say PICK YOUR SCHOOLS REALISTICALLY, AKA ACADEMICS. Form your list. From there contact coaches and put on full court press. You're wasting your time if you are approaching schools not in your son's hemisphere academically.

I think you should read the post a little more carefully. The OP prefaces the post with "every situation is different and you need to be ready for everything". How is that lacking backbone? Should he have said "this is what I did so you need to do the same"? Are you looking for a step-by-step recipe? He gave some examples of those different situations. They may or may not have been helpful to you but how were they not truthful?

"Town teams just don't get the exposure to the TOP coaches from the TOP teams." Again, that is not what he said. He said that the players came from a town team but had a strong HS program and coach that worked hard for them, as opposed to an elite club. There are also strong town programs that feed into strong HS programs. Many players (I know of 3) used this path. Again, your mileage may very.

I do agree with you that you need to be realistic about the academics but I also agree with the OP that you need to be aware that there different means to an end and you need to be flexible.

Just saying...

appreciate your insight but you sound like running for office!! "I did this, but you should try that! " Give me a break. Get a backbone. Don't waste or mislead our time with your opinion if you're not willing to be truthful. Especially about "town players". NO ONE CARES IF YoU PLAY ON TOWN TEAMS. Town teams just don't get the exposure to the TOP coaches from the TOP teams.. But then again, everything is relative. Just saying.
I say PICK YOUR SCHOOLS REALISTICALLY, AKA ACADEMICS. Form your list. From there contact coaches and put on full court press. You're wasting your time if you are approaching schools not in your son's hemisphere academically.

I wrote the original post and I would like to add this - my son was seen at Jake Reed, Maverick Showtime and UA tryouts as well as summer tournaments with both his travel team and his HS summer team and every e-mail we sent out included the name - e-mail and phone for both his club and HS coach, he has been contacted by more the 10 D1 schools and "Recruited" by 3 schools that would be considered top 10 programs and every one of the schools contacted his HS coach and not a single one contacted his club coach.

Personally I would never have given up the club experience because it was fun and he got to play with and become friends with kids he never would have met while also playing great lacrosse with exceptional players but it is way to soon to discount HS summer teams and HS coaches.

Again, I would say to try and figure out what works best for your particular situation.

Are the Express 2017 Wolverines an A,B,orC team?

Last summer the 2017 express pecking order was:

A- Turtles
B- Terps Black
C- Terps
D- Wolverines
E- Piranas

May be different this year.

This is the correct order:

A- Turtles
B- Terps Black
C- Terps
D- Piranas
E- Wolverines

They're saying this years 2 2021 are 2 A teams - starting all over because the A team was terrible and the B team even worse. Blew up last years B team and bringning in all new boys.

I dont care what they are saying. the B team was horrid last year and suddenly we are supposed to believe they have two A teams ? Every organization says that crap . MEanwhile the playing time situation on the A team was ridiculous and half the teams left. SOme good players that other clubs pursued hard

Heard an Express 2017 committed

Until his SAT scores come in, then he will have to de-commit