Posted in another forum:

Which is more fun for your kid (or you), Club or High School lacrosse?

Most favored high school citing factors such as:

-Games meaning more to them especially wins and losses. They didn't care as much about W-L's in club
-More team camaraderie with high school. These are kids they (obviously) go to school with and know better. Club sometimes feels like hired mercenaries
-If you are the better player, then you play more whereas with Club, since everyone is (presumably) paying the same, playing time is split more evenly
-Spring lacrosse after a barren Winter season feels more refreshing where summer club can be a slog sometimes
-High school coaches care more than club coaches about the kids?
-Cheaper than club (unless you pay for private school)
-Less traveling
-Playing against a team of holdbacks may be less prevalent in high school (except Prep schools)
-More emotional investment in the town you live in or (the school you are paying for for Prep). True rivalries seem to mean more in high school and thus,there is more emotional investment

Those who favored Club cited factors such as:

-the level of competition is better and teammates are usually better, at least at the higher levels of Club lacrosse
-traveling around the country with your kid is a (sometimes) rewarding experience
-some like the national exposure of some of the high level Club lacrosse
-even playing time as some players may get buried on a high school bench

Recruiting-wise, it was a wash but I feel that High School recruiting is better than Club recruiting. I have heard stories of Club making a million promises but never delivering when it comes to recruiting, unless you are the superstar of the club. I have been told (but could be mistaken) is that colleges value the high school coach opinion much more than the club coach.

There seems to be a temporal nature to it. Youth club was much more rewarding than youth town lacrosse but as the kids get older, high school becomes more important to kids. I would even venture to say that club has much less meaning to 22's, 23's and maybe 24's.

It also seemed that this logic does not apply to the outliers such as the top national high school teams in the country or the bottom lower clubs. In addition, most of this logic may not apply to the superstars (top 0.5% of players in the country).

Just curious to everyone's thoughts. There truly are no right answers as it is only an opinion that can be formed wholly dependent on your own experience.