Sept. 9, 2008
Recruiting is a topic on which families, prospects, coaches
and others expend considerable resources, time and emotion.
Lacrosse Magazine will delve into many of the sub-topics
involved in a series of articles, augmented by personal stories
from young men and women that have recently completed or are in the
midst of the recruiting process.
This article appears in the September issue of LM, a US Lacrosse
publication available exclusively to its members. Join today to
start your monthly subscription.
Shannon Smith: Thoughts From a College
Freshman
by Matt Jennings, Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
Come fall, thousands of teenage lacrosse players will descend on
high school, college and recreational fields for weekend
tournaments that get under way at 8 a.m. and don't end until the
final horn blares at around 4:30. Once scheduled over a few
weekends in November, these tournaments -- for both boys and girls
-- now leak into October, and with jamborees popping up like
mushrooms after a spring rain, it's not uncommon for teams to play
multiple games at myriad venues in a 24-hour period.
Just in the past few years, fall ball for high schoolers has
exploded into a million-dollar cottage industry and recruiting
hothouse, with tournaments taking place in both traditional
lacrosse hotbeds and a bit farther a field (Charlotte, N.C.).
These events bear names like "The Ultimate Performance Fall
Shootout," "The Elite 150 Tournament," and the "National Recruiting
Tournament." One Maryland tournament attracts club and high school
teams from as far away as Denver, while another touts Outback
Steakhouse, Lax World and STX as sponsors.
And then there are the college coaches. Just about every
collegiate coach spends his or her fall weekends traveling the
tournament circuit, and where once the coaches were going to a few
events, they are now stretching their recruiting budgets -- and
their stamina.
"We all chase each other around," Lars Tiffany, head men's coach
at Brown, says of him and his colleagues. "It's our first chance to
see kids in about six months, to see them compete, so it's
something we pay attention to. But you have to take it with a grain
of salt. A lot of these kids haven't had a stick in their hand in
months, and many top athletes aren't out there. They're playing
football and soccer or getting ready for basketball and
hockey."
But is this wishful thinking? A growing chorus of coaches are
becoming concerned that high school football and soccer players
must sacrifice for these fall tournaments. For some, their fall
sports season may be over, but others play on teams that are in the
thick of state playoff races.
Tiffany says that 100 times out of 100, he'd tell a prospect to
"play football, play soccer, if there's a direct conflict. Don't
bother with the tournament." Many scholastic athletes, however,
avoid a conflict by eschewing that second or third sport.
"I do think [fall lacrosse] is making kids question whether they
should play a second sport, either in the fall or winter," says
Dave Campbell, head men's coach at Middlebury College. "A big part
of this is that these events are now geared toward the 11th-grader.
Where once we were going to see a senior for the third or fourth
time for a final evaluation, most coaches are going to evaluate
that junior."
It's tremendous pressure, he adds, for both the coaches and the
kids.
"When I was in high school," says the 30-year-old Campbell, "if I
did play fall lacrosse, it was pick-up with my buddies on a Sunday
afternoon at the elementary school down the street."
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"I have coached kids who didn't do any of
the camps, didn't do any of the fall tournaments, and they went on
and played at the upper echelon of Division I. And I have seen kids
who have stretched themselves too thin."
McDonogh (Md.) boys' coach Andy
Hilgartner
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Campbell was a two-time All-American goalie and was in the cage
when Middlebury captured its first national title in 2000.
Andy Hilgartner, who coaches at McDonogh School in suburban
Baltimore, has mixed feelings about the explosion of fall
tournaments.
"On one hand, it's a good opportunity for the seniors, some of
whom need one last bit of exposure so they can sneak on somebody's
radar. And it's good for the kid who plays at an out-of-the-way
school in a less competitive league," he says.
But Hilgartner worries about multi-sport athletes being stretched
too thin. Roughly 75 percent of Hilgartner's players go on to play
college lacrosse, and most are also two- or three-sport athletes in
high school.
"It's part of our philosophy here," he says of the well-rounded
student-athlete. "And that will never change, nor do I want it
to."
While he will take his returning varsity team to one fall
tournament and understands that several of his players will play in
other tournaments with their summer teams, he urges everyone to
wait until their fall seasons are over before they participate.
Most, he says, agree.
Yet for all the well-intentioned coaches -- both at the scholastic
and intercollegiate levels -- Danie Caro, the head women's coach at
Quinnipiac University, worries that it's not enough. That's why, as
the president of the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches
Association (IWLCA), she helped spearhead a movement to reform
recruiting practices, specifically as they pertain to fall
evaluations.
Last spring, the IWLCA submitted a proposal to the recruiting
subcommittee of the academics/eligibility/compliance cabinet of the
NCAA. In it, the IWLCA expressed alarm at the acceleration of the
recruiting timetable, and recommended that the fall evaluation of
non-senior prospects be limited to the three weekends before
Thanksgiving.
"I'm not sure it's the best solution," Caro says, "but it's a
solution. It's imperative that we start this discussion."
In the proposal, the IWLCA cited a 2007 ethics survey that showed
that 80 percent of the college coaches who responded felt that
prospective student-athletes were making their college decisions
too soon. Caro also cited burnout and the need to protect the fall
sports season as driving factors behind the legislative
proposals.
"I understand some of the cons to the proposal," she adds. "In
areas that are trying to expand the sport, fall tournaments mean
more experience for players and coaches. But we don't want it to
turn into a detriment to the sport."
Caro believes that the NCAA wants to avoid piecemeal legislation
-- sport by sport -- but she hopes it will allow women's lacrosse
to serve as a pilot project for the proposed legislation. This
desire, however, is far from a unanimous feeling among the coaching
profession. The American Lacrosse Conference -- which is comprised
of five Division I women's programs, including four-time defending
NCAA champion Northwestern -- officially opposed the IWLCA
proposal, basing opposition on the following beliefs: it would have
a negative impact on the national growth of women's lacrosse; and
it will drive more student-athletes, not less, toward the November
tournaments, creating even more conflict with those wishing to
participate in fall sports.
Many agree that the recruiting landscape has greatly changed in
the past three to five years, but Hilgartner's next opinion sounds
odd coming from a highly successful coach in one of the most
competitive high school leagues in the country: "We have kids who
are playing entirely too much lacrosse."
He continues: "I have coached kids who didn't do any of the camps,
didn't do any of the fall tournaments, and they went on and played
at the upper echelon of Division I. And I have seen kids who have
stretched themselves too thin" -- at psychological, physical, and
monetary costs, he adds.
Each fall, Hilgartner arranges a meeting for parents of McDonogh
lacrosse players, at which he bluntly lays out the facts: There are
200,000 kids playing high school lacrosse, and there are about 500
Division I spots available each year. From around the room, he will
hear gasps and see eyes open wide in amazement.
The message, he explains, is simple. You can't buy your way onto a
collegiate lacrosse team. And the risks: they range from missed
opportunities to burnout.
"After all," he says. "This is a game. It's supposed to be fun."
