Anyone have a grasp for how often on age freshman make varsity on MIAA teams?
Is it routine? An totally anomaly?
My kid is in middle school and am just wondering.
MM will chime in soon and let you know that all of his 91 players make V freshman year. Other than them, I would say not many out of all the freshman players out there.
On age? More of an anomaly in the MIAA. Especially at the top 5. I know of just a handful. And they were on bottom-half MIAA teams. No knock. But it makes sense, obviously as there more opportunities at those schools.
Want to know your chances? Look at the overall program numbers. Most of the schools like CH, Loyola, BL, have 100+ kids in their lax programs.
25 Fresh/Soph, 25 JV, 40+ Varsity. 10+ underclass wannabes/cuts. You have better chances at smaller or developing schools like StM, StP, JC, MSJ, Severn.
A better, more telling stat- see how many kids are in the freshman class across ALL teams. And then how many seniors the varsity has rostered.
My son is a '22 and was looking at one of the larger, all-male high schools. At the time, he would have been one of 14 incoming ATTACKMEN in his freshman class. There are currently only 11 kids from the ENTIRE class of 22 who made it through to senior year. He settled on one of the schools above, and has been varsity since Soph year. Gotten a lot of game tape against the best in the nation, and committed to Navy. Been a great experience.
This is the kind of real talk that is lacking so often on BOTC. If the school has 11th and 12th graders sufficient in talent to fill the roster, that is how it's getting filled. They are not cutting a 9.5/10 senior from varsity to give a 10/10 freshman a varsity spot. Now, if they have a 4.5/10 senior who is not working out and has gotten soft since his peak in 10th grade 2 years ago..........great opportunity for a freshman superstar. So it does happen.
That was some refreshing real talk, seriously. As a parent, coach, and college educator let me tell you some facts no one on this thread wants to hear:
1) A fair number of MIAA lax kids (and the vast majority of public school players) choose to not participate in NCAA lax - even if they have an opportunity - because they have been working out daily since age 5, and they want to go have fun now.
2) Stop telling kids to pass up opportunities to play D2 and D3 if their #1 goal *IS* to play NCAA lax and you just don't want to tell your friends that your kid went from being the #1 prospect in 6th grade (a ridiculous quote I have heard......recently) to playing lax for Monmouth or App State or whatever.
3) The 6th - 9th graders at MIAA A schools are still full of "players" who are fading and don't know it....natural talent and older brothers but no work ethic, no workouts, moderate effort, and only moderate lax IQ. Not even counting the kids who were NEVER good and bounced around in A/B ball and somehow think they'll make it. So I'm not sure how worried I'd be about "14 attackmen" showing up at LB, AS, or CHC on Day 1. And just because they made Team91 (for example) in 2nd grade and never got cut (the team doesn't cut), still not a reason to over-analyze how many of them there are. MIAA coaches know how to sort them.
