Telling the guy to ignore CH, BL, McD stm because his son won’t play is the biggest participation trophy lost mindset I’ve ever heard.
Those schools are always top ten in the country - and manage rosters accordingly.
Sheesh. Hit the wall.
Ignore these schools unless they pursue you. They recruit who they really want. Don't reach out to them. Otherwise, you'll be practice fodder.
Could not have been said better. If this were to be put into practice the rosters @ McD, CHC, LB, BL, StP, StM would be significantly smaller. There are legacy considerations. There may be some academic considerations, such as more money from one school or course study. Beyond that go talk to the remaining A conference and even the stronger B conference coaches. They would love to talk to you based on this logic. They scratch their heads at all the cleans uniforms that stand on the sidelines at those schools. There are high quality players at the above mentioned schools on the depth chart from 18-30ish that could make a serious impact at other schools. Those schools only play 16-19 players or so on any given competitive game in the MIAA. Those coaches know that they are keeping many of the remaining players from being great and playing at other schools. Rosters at the schools mentioned range from 35-55. Most being over 40 and some over 50. That is 50-65% of the roster that never plays. This is high school ball for crying out loud, it more fun to play than watch if you are in that top 30 on the depth chart. There is greener grass out there-go find it.
Here's the difficulty folks, in 8th grade, very few folks know for certain whether their son will be good enough to be part of the 16-19 players you reference. Yet, when you sign that enrollment contract at an MIAA school you can't transfer without sitting out an entire year of lacrosse. There is no transfer portal in the MIAA. In 8th grade, every kid (and many parents) believes they will make that 16-19 count for the program they love. Your choices are pick a mid tier or even lower tier program to improve your odds of playing or to reach for the stars and try and make it. There is a third response which has worked in the past (see the Fab Five in college) albeit requires some leadership and organizational skills. Get a bunch of good players on your rec and travel teams who like each other to approach a mid level program and enroll as a package. Four or five quality players in one class can change a program from an also ran into a Final Four one.
The only place I differ is I think that most parents, if being objective know how good their child is comparative to the other 750+ 8th graders who played in HoCo.
If you start and play a lot in elite, then there is no reason to not try to start and play a lot at the top schools.
If you are a bench player on elite you can try to crack the lineup at BL but you’ll likely be on the bench unless there is a post puberty spurt.
If you start and dominate at AAAA then you have a chance to see the field at CH but it’s not at all a sure thing. You’ll most like start for sure at MSJ and this is a good thing.
Below that parents have to be realistic. If all through youth your son wasn’t one of the 30 best poles in HoCo, he likely won’t be one of the 30 best in the miaa.
There are absolutely exceptions to this both ways. Kids who were studs in middle school become duds and average players become all conference. Those are anomalies however.
A lot of the frustration with kids not playing is because they probably should not have gone to the above schools with high hopes in the first place.
