By Ryan Turner
With the continued growth of collegiate lacrosse on a national level, college coaches have found themselves in an interesting position of protecting their potential recruiting classes. With recruits coming from increasingly diverse areas of the nation, coaches sometimes feel compelled to safeguard their classes at multiple positions; insuring themselves in one sense, but in many cases, confusing the average lacrosse recruit.
Understanding what it means to be recruited is crucial to know when a coach may be engaging in such activity. Knowing the differences and importance of the recruiting timeline and when and how a coach may contact you is invaluable, as you can determine how serious contact may be in comparison with other recruits.
We also encourage you to be direct, honest and up front with. In order for you to understand where you stack up, or if possibly you are a “backburner” recruit, you must be direct. A coach will appreciate your straightforwardness, and this will allow you to gauge his actual interest in you, or if perhaps you are on the outside looking in. This will help you weed out situations that appear more attractive on paper, and may actually be a situation where you are insurance for his other top three or four midfielder recruits.
With so many quality players coming from up and coming areas of the country outside of traditional hot beds, coaches find themselves in a position to have to seriously consider athletes from all areas. While this may have been uncommon only a few short years ago, it is a reality that college coaches must face. In doing so, coaches find themselves recruiting and considering an unprecedented sheer number of players out there. In order to safeguard their classes, they may well “pursue” an excess number of position players in order to be able to absorb a hit or two if top recruits choose elsewhere. Again, by asking the right direct questions where to I stand on your list? How many players at my position are you recruiting) a recruit can quickly understand where he stacks up, and if that is something he/she is interested in or not.
Mailings, emails, phone calls, visits have permeated the landscape of college recruiting and are here to stay. Lacrosse coaches at the college level are learning quickly that in order to have continued success for their program, they must have all of their bases covered. It is vital that any student/athlete interested in pursuing lacrosse at the college level has a more hands on approach in understanding the process – so they don’t fall into the category of an “over recruit.”
