Happy Lacrosse recruiting season for everyone that observes! For the rest of us, the start of the recruiting season begins our dead period. College lacrosse games are a long way off - perhaps even longer than we are willing to admit to ourselves. Fall scrimmages are probably out, which is fine because they’re more like elaborate teases than actual contests. With players practicing in pods like they’re bottlenose dolphins, we weren’t going to get any stellar revelations anyway.
Now, this isn’t meant to be a treatise on how pessimistic I am about recruiting or the possibility of not having a season. (Although, I am leaning hard into those thought pockets.) No, since this is recruiting season, and since there are several parents subscribed to the newsletter, I thought I’d share a few of my thoughts on the process with a particular anecdote from my own experience as a coach. I consider myself one of the luckiest people on earth when it comes to my experiences even though they seem like a lifetime ago.
A few years ago I was working at an Inside Lacrosse event and a coach that was hired to coach one of the teams had to pull out at the last minute. I immediately volunteered for the vacant position and ran to the morning practice (or rather, I hobbled on crutches because I had torn my hamstring the week before). At the time I had been out of coaching for a few years and still missed screaming at the youths to get back on defense.
Did I try to put in a zone defense look that doubles as a man down? I did. Did I also put in a high low 2-3-1 and a wheel man up? Also, yes. None of that mattered. The team was so stacked with physical defenders and Canadian offensive talent that we smashed through all our opponents and went undefeated. My contributions mainly consisted of screaming “Put it on them!” if there was even a whisper of a fast break. I’m still waiting for some sort of trophy or recognition for this feat to share with my players, but alas, there was no way to commemorate our dominance at the time.
I bring this story up not as some long and drawn out humblebrag, but because a very strange thing happened during the tournament. As I was organizing the players by their natural position I realized that we didn’t have a long stick midfielder. So I asked for volunteers. No one wanted to play LSM. We had six defenders trying to get recruited to play in college and not one of them was willing to even consider a swap. I don’t think I’ve ever been more stunned in my life. All the attackmen were ready to play midfield, all the midfielders were ready to stay in on defense. But not one pole was willing to shift. I tried explaining that playing LSM will present a lot more opportunities to show off their stick skills and athleticism. Didn’t work. I tried to play to their egos and tell them how much fun it would be to lead the break and battle on the wings. Failure. So, I did what I had to do and picked the fastest and strongest kid, and told him he was going to play LSM. His face fell. He said, “Okay, coach.” but his body language said something else. He went to the end of the bench. He pouted. I told him he was on the draw and to get on the wing. The opposing LSM lined up on the far wing so I told him to do the same. He looked at me like I was punishing him, but he did it.
We won the first game by ten goals. My longstick experiment played pretty well, but it was obvious that he was uncomfortable. It was also obvious that his parent was uncomfortable with him playing LSM as I could feel dad-daggers being shot at me throughout the game. I pulled the player aside and asked him what was wrong. He nearly had tears in his eyes when he told me that he thought that playing LSM was a demotion. That LSM is where you stick the weakest defenseman. I told him that’s not how I view the position. I went on to espouse the value of every position and how they all contribute to the success of the defense, which, in turn, contributes to the success of the team.
He remained unconvinced but agreed to keep going.
As each game went on he became more and more comfortable and by the fourth game, he was smashing kids like a ruthless man child giant, screaming man/ball calls, and then picking up the groundball to sprint upfield. He almost looked like he was enjoying himself. His dad was [still] not happy.
As we finished the final game with another well-earned victory and the handshake line was reaching its natural conclusion, one by one, players would come up and thank me for coaching them. I smiled and said, “Thank you”, after all, it was an emergency service and all I had to do was keep the patient alive. Then my newly minted LSM came up with his dad and did the same, but his father did not. He had some choice words about how and where his son was deployed. I sighed and told him that his son gained some key experience in another position and that he played very well. He might have even been the best LSM in the tournament and we were the best team. Coaches will recognize that. My rebuttal was greeted with a nonplussed “I hope so, but I doubt it.” type of response. I wished them both good luck in their college search and packed up the complimentary drawstring bag and my crutches and hobbled to the wind-swept headquarters...where a complaint from the same parent was waiting for me.
The lesson is that you should be open to playing different positions. Your coach in college is not going to care that you are more comfortable playing left-wing defense against smaller attackmen - he’s going to use you however he sees fit.
College is all about the experience. Whether you’re the star of the program or building the program the bottom line is that you are always contributing to a program. If you’re in the recruiting process now, you should listen to every coach that contacts you. If they’re taking the time to reach out to you it’s because they think you can be an asset to their program. Don’t be a closed-minded recruit.
And parents - stop complaining. The coach wants your kid to play at the next level just as much as you do. No one is out to get you. Your money does not entitle you to abusive practices.