Can the lacrosse recruiting process be fixed?

Welcome to my TED talk/new initiative.

For the last four years, I’ve been in the process of switching the focus of my writing career from professional lacrosse and D-1 college lacrosse to high school, prep lacrosse, and the college recruiting beat.

It has not been an easy transition.

In that same time frame, I have transmuted my once dead, now somehow very much alive, college coaching career as a high school coach. And that process was somehow, after a short schism, much easier to adapt to.

Except for one thing.

Recruiting.

I always hated recruiting as a college coach. To me, it always felt like…lying. And a big part of that was the school where I ended my coaching career was not the best place…which is probably why that school no longer exists.

Now I have found myself in the position to help my players get recruited by the schools they want to go to. Except, that’s not really my job as their assistant coach. Sure, part of it is advising them, but I’m not the one their parents are paying tens of thousands of dollars to. I make no promises, and I advocate within my ability to do so.

I’m not out to vilify club teams. They serve their purpose in the development cycle of any player - especially in the formative years leading up to high school and into the college selection process. They’ve also become an essential step in the high school and college experience. If you want to play college lacrosse, in 98% of cases, you need to play club.

Honestly, even prep schools have a role to play before college recruiting even begins. They come with an entirely different experience than a public school program. (I know because I did a postgraduate year at Tilton, and it was both the best and worst decision that I ever made at the same time). Prep school can be the right choice if your high school isn’t academically up to snuff and/or your lacrosse program is struggling or ill-equipped to develop your talent. They’re not a Draconian evil to be thwarted - they’re tools. Placed high up on the most expensive shelf, but tools nonetheless.

But.

The focus is on only the elite. Only the top teams. The super top teams. The top 100. The rankings. The prestige of being a D-1 commit…it’s not for every player.

In fact, it’s not for the majority of players. By definition, not everyone can be elite (that’s what the word means). But you can be good enough, great enough, to play lacrosse in college for a D-2 or a D-3 program.

The achievement of committing to a D-1 program is great and all. But the right school? The right program? The best college experience possible? Those considerations are getting lost in the race to September 1st.

And I’m sick of watching it happen to my boys.

So, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to take my experience as a D-2 and D-3 coach, as well as my experience in readying my players for the college grind/life, and all of my connections in the sport and I’m going to start a new initiative.

It’s a program designed to fill in the gaps in both the development and recruiting process. It’s not something to be a part of instead of a club team; it’s to help you through the parts of your development that don’t happen on long sweaty tournament days in the summer, or frigid sweat-clad afternoons in the fall.

It’s support. It’s advice. It’s the other side of development.

I’m a good lacrosse coach. But I’m a great lacrosse analyst.

I know what I’m here to do. It’s to help kids who were like me.

ARE like me.

This isn’t about making wheelbarrows full of money. Or an alternative to my writing and/or coaching careers. It’s about giving back to everyone that has changed my life for the better. And their kids.

The way that you beat a flawed system is to create your own Framework that works inside of it.

So that’s what I built. I am calling it Framework Lacrosse Academy.

It’s tape review. It’s webinars with industry experts. It’s one-on-one consultation.

Most importantly - it’s affordable.

I soft-launched it this weekend on Instagram. Details and full website to come, but here is the deck if you want to check it out.

Thank you for inspiring me to do something.

Thank you for reading.

Thank you for everything.

Let’s get to work.