Most parent do have blinders on about their own kid. There are usually only a few tier 1 players at any UA or AS tryout. Parents are way to busy complaining about how their kid was done wrong. There are probably 30 deserving girls/boys for the final 10 spots on any all star team. Do you kid some real good and have an honest conversation with them about what parts of the tryout gave them the most trouble. These tryout are great for the kids that are hungry to be a D1 player and willing to work to get better. This part is going to scare many parents, the high level players all practice/work out away from the clubs practices. It's where their true gains are made, clubs can only fine tune players. Hit the wall, hit the weights and play as much pick up as possible. Where there's a will, there's a way! Corny, but true.
I would say more than a few Tier 1 players at the tryouts especially on the boys side... 30 could be a bit too high on the girls side but spitting hairs.... on the boys side yes 30 - 40 for the last 10 spots.... UA should have two teams for Long Island one for Nassau and Suffolk.... both would be competitive....
Think about the numbers folks. Say top 25 division 1 teams have about 35 players. That’s 875 players. Plenty of these kids didn’t play UA.
On the girls side there are approximately 15 or so "Programs" that are always in the mix. These are the programs that have their teams finish the season ranked in the Top 20 every year or just about every year. Then there are a handful of teams that make make the Top 20 from time to time and then there are many teams that never finish in the Top 20. It is safe to say that the reason that best programs are "the best programs" is because they bring in the best players year after year. When you look at the Top Programs and then you look at "Long Island Players" you will see that each year there are somewhere between 20 - 25 players that end up at those Top Programs. There are 10 Teams that always finish in the Top 20: North Carolina, Maryland, Boston College, Northwestern, Syracuse, Virginia, Princeton, Penn, Florida, Stony Brook (they are the only programs to finish in the Top 20 every year 2015 - 2019). Notre Dame, Penn State and JMU were there 4 of 5 years. Duke was in that top group for many years but for some reason has fallen off.
Broken down by year the Top Programs (which is where the majority of the top players go) we are talking approximately 150 - 200 players (excluding Stony Brook because they for the most bart bring in all LI players).
Maybe 20 - 30 Long Island players per year go to the Top Programs. If you look at history, I am willing to bet that a high percentage of the players who went to those schools were also selected to the LI Underclass Teams.
250 + girls go on to play lacrosse at the college level each year from Long Island, 100 or so Go DI.... 20 - 30 go to Top Programs.
