As someone who did a college sport, and not as an avid poster here, I have two problems with club lacrosse:
1. I honestly can't remember a time as a youth or a high schooler where I did something to be noticed. If you are competing the only important thing is to contribute all you can to winning. I was at a tournament last weekend where I doubt I observed a player, parent or club coach who could have cared less about a team winning. Only getting noticed. One club that lost most of their games over the weekend is quick early this week to tweet about being up to four kids committed as of another one yesterday. That's a pretty pathetic way to define being a winner.
2. Didn't look like any kids were having fun. Just looked to me like a job fair on muddy adjacent fields. I am so pissed all there is for kids like my son is playing for looks and hoping to get looks, etc. When that happens it is winning and when that doesn't happen it is depressing and losing to the kids.
Lacrosse is a terrible sport for youths and high schoolers. The 1% playing in college will probably have less fun when they get there, and the 99% who don't play college aren't being given an experience they will look back on with a lot of positives except for having teammates as friends while they did play.
Great post... I agree. Some programs do get it right... FCA is pretty good at keeping perspective. There are some great lacrosse players in the FCA program - dont get me wrong. But for the good to middling players (my kid), he gets a chance to compete, play a great game, and prep himself for his high school team where the kids really do play for each other. But again... I agree with your post.
