NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

College Athletic Recruiting continues to accelerate in every sport.  Usually the press focuses on high profile football and basketball recruits, but even growing sports like woman’s lacrosse places a premium on identifying and recruiting top talent as early as possible.  Don;t believe me?  Take a look at the recruiting story of the Flousham sisters as reported by NewJersey.com.

Ali Foulsham let a smile creep out of the corner of her mouth as her body sighed with relief. These days, she’s happy to talk about The Process – mainly because it’s over.

She and her twin sister, Evan, finished their junior year at Madison High School less than a month ago but have the next five years planned out. The rising seniors gave verbal commitments to play lacrosse at Penn State on April 8, two games into their junior season at Madison and three months before college coaches are even allowed to make phone calls to prospects.

The Foulshams took the SATs in the beginning of their sophomore year and had visited at least 20 colleges by the end of the year. They emailed more than 35 coaches, abandoning their “laxchick” e-mail addresses for a more mature front.

They felt like they didn’t have a choice.

“We didn’t want to be the last ones,” Ali Foulsham said. “We didn’t want to be stuck without a college.”

The recruiting process for girls lacrosse has accelerated, and the players are committing to schools earlier every year. Lacrosse is following the recruiting trajectory of more mainstream sports like football and basketball as the sport increases in popularity across the country. At the Chester-based Steps Elite lacrosse club’s informational “college recruiting nights,” sophomores are now being invited.

“Some coaches will say, ‘You don’t have a time limit. you can decide when you want to because we want you to make the right decision,’” Evan said. “But some coaches said, ‘We’re cutting our list down now. Tell us if you want to come or not.’”

Their story is becoming more and more common.  Athletes can’t afford to waste any time if they expect to grab a scholarship slot.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 8:39 am and is filed under College Lacrosse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.