Do your research before signing those contracts. If your kid was “recruited “ to a certain school but wasn’t promised a spot on varsity, little Johnny will most likely be on jv his freshman year and maybe even his sophomore year depending on who was promised spots on varsity. Some of these coaches already have rosters picked well before tryouts begin.
What a joke. Nobody is looking at 99.9% of 14 year olds, without having seeing them play against 18-19 year olds, and making a legitimate promise about their varsity status. If you got a promise you thought was legitimate (and you're not a private school trustee or donor), you got taken. All it takes is one kid from TX who plays your son's position, to enroll over the summer, and poof, bye bye "promised varsity roster spot."
How many of these promises do you think have been made and broken over the years? Compared to the ones that were kept. Coaches answer to the school's trustees and to a lesser extent to donors/boosters. Those guys have sons who are 2028s. They have leverage over the situation. Who's your kid and what leverage do you have to make the school keep that "promise?" My son has played with and against almost every MD Elite and AAA roster over the years (and most of the PA and DC rosters) and there's maybe 8 kids (all holdbacks, by the way) who would be difference makers in 9th grade at a real HS lax program (top 4 in DC or MD league), to the extent that anybody would promise them anything like a 4-year varsity roster spot.
Where the above post is accurate is that yes, varsity rosters are 80% settled by the time tryouts start, but that's because of off-season workouts and promises to 11th and 12th grade parents, not "Oh yeah I made a promise to a dad with a patagonia vest, about his fast kid who is 14yo and 5'7"."
