Carroll County and Florida – Just Give it a Couple Years!

Westminster, Maryland – Carroll County, Maryland is a smaller, rural county just about 40 minutes from the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Calling it a tad sleepy would be an understatement. I graduated college from a small liberal arts college called Western Maryland College. It is one of the top academic small schools in the mid-Atlantic region and was not known for having strong sports programs when I arrived on campus. Today, 21 years later, the school is nick-named the “Home of Champions” because of the numerous conference titles the school has taken over the past decade and their relationship with the 2000 World Champion Baltimore Ravens who hold their summer training camp at the college (now called McDaniel College). What a transformation! From chumps to champs!

The rolling hills and farmland give way to upscale and blue collar neighborhoods and townhomes as you approach Westminster, the County seat of 25,000 people. The outskirts have become a sort of suburb for the folks who work in Hunt Valley, Owings Mills, and even metro DC.

Lacrosse started here in the late 1980’s and even through the late 1990’s when I was an assistant lacrosse coach at Western Maryland, there was not a tremendous amount of talent. Good or decent, but not great. There were several prospects that could play at the DIII level and some DI players, but there was not a tremendous amount of activity. The boys often opted to play college football vs. college lacrosse if provided the option. They were in the “baby giraffe” stage of lacrosse. Tall, but somewhat awkward in the game. Some great athletes and lots of hard working people helping the giraffe to stand. One program, the Liberty High School girls program, began a dominating run and the passion of the game spread.

Incidentally, my wife Mindy founded a youth lacrosse team in Westminster, Maryland in 1988.

Twenty years later, read what Carroll County Lacrosse has accomplished! The kids of Carroll County are blue collar, hard working, sports oriented people. Mindy and I had the pleasure of living there for many years and in different roles: student-athletes and coaches as well. Now from afar, it sends us great joy to see Carroll County lacrosse becoming perhaps the best county in lacrosse, person for person, in the nation! The following paragraphs are re-printed from a BLOG at US Lacrosse:

A Carroll Tale

posted by Eboni Preston | July 8, 5:10 p.m.

Lacrosse has come a long way in Carroll County (Md.). CheckHers, the No. 1-seeded team in the tournament, and the inaugural US Lacrosse U-15 girls’ national champion won in convincing fashion versus Stars Gold from Virginia. CheckHers is primarily based in Westminster, a town that didn’t even have a recreational lacrosse program until 1998.

I can tell you this because I was on that first team at Gamber and I can verify how much the area has grown since I first started playing. When some coaches formed the first program in our area, our team was inexperienced and young. We would get blown out consistently every Saturday by talented rec programs like Towson or Bel Air, and we would celebrate when we lost by less than 20 goals. Some teams would simply play keep away and pass the ball around us, while other coaches would make their team play left handed to try to limit their scoring.

Needless to say, the only things that teams remembered about Carroll County were that we had cows right beside our game field and that we lived in the middle of nowhere.

Since then, Carroll County has worked hard to produce quality players and establish the game of lacrosse in the area. The CheckHers program actually started out as a local summer league a few years ago. Girls in the area joined the league because Carroll County players would often have to drive as far as 40 minutes to find a pick-up summer league for middle- and high-school girls.

Now the CheckHers program has escalated to a potential powerhouse program and Carroll County has evened the playing field. It is great to see that how lacrosse has grown in that community. It won’t be long until we see many more teams emerge from lower ranks to become a competitive organization and produce numerous high-level lacrosse teams.

Congratulations to both teams for a great championship run and well done to the Check-Hers coaches and players.

Eboni Preston is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University, where she played goalie for the Bonnies. She is currently in graduate school at Endicott College and serves as an assistant coach for the women’s lacrosse team. She is working for the US Lacrosse communications department this summer.

I want to point out in her story this:

“We would get blown out consistently every Saturday by talented rec programs like Towson or Bel Air, and we would celebrate when we lost by less than 20 goals. Some teams would simply play keep away and pass the ball around us, while other coaches would make their team play left handed to try to limit their scoring.”

Isn’t it amazing that the best program in Maryland, and the country, at one time was not competitive. And that time was not long ago. And to think that our 2011 and 2010 teams this year played against Hero’s and Mass Elite and Team Rev and LI Liberty, and all the other big dogs, and was competitive if not better in some instances based on the match-ups.

We sometimes miss the point of the journey. This has all been done before and it will all be done again in the future. It is easy to be a critic of kid’s sports (which is why there are so many issues in youth sports today), but this is a process that starts with hard working, dedicated coaches and kids. It does not happen overnight, but it can happen quickly.

When we were at U-15, I took our LaxManiax U-15 team to watch Check-Hers just warming up before they bludgeoned one of their opponents. They were perfect fundamentally. They were ALL in shape – very little body fat on any of those athletes; You could tell they played a ton and worked their fitness prior to the event. They had good speed and most were on the tall side (they were all 2012’s). What I had the Maniax girls focus on is one thing: their elbos.

They play fundamentally correct lax. I don’t know how many more times I can provide the coaching point “elbos out” to kids in Florida before we actually get it. In stick drills; on the wall; in small games; in real games; in a chalk talk – it’s the number one thing I talk about. And yet I see girls return from practicing with their youth leagues and high schools and they are right back to playing “Barney-ball”, their elbos are glued to their hips. All the glorious drills made by the world’s finest coaches cannot help you become a ‘player’ if you can’t get the simple fundamentals down pat! We invent too many drills that do not address the fundamentals.

At some point, those players who work their passing and receiving techniques correctly will rise up and help Florida become the next Carroll County.

It doesn’t take a huge population base, it just takes strong fundamentals. To get strong fundamentals, you need to have a blue collar work ethic and be willing to stop texting long enough to dedicate the time necessary to actually be ‘great’ at something!

Until then, wins and loses do not matter. It’s all about the journey.

Who wants to go for the ride?

The Results of the U-15 National Championships

Bel Air, Maryland – After speaking with some parents about the U-15’s this year I wanted to put into perspective how awesome it was for our club to perform admirably in the event. First, bowing to West Genny/Baldwinsville (Upstate NY), Phantastix 2012 (Philly) and Cardinal Lax (DC Private Schools) and fighting well is not a problem. In fact, had our girls played well in both halves of the games, they may have beaten the Phantastix and Cardinal.

The wins against Ohio and Hotbed team Massachusetts were sweet indeed. Being down 3-1 at half against Ohio and rallying to a 7-5 win is a beautiful thing for Florida lacrosse and for our U-15 team. Getting into the final round and earning a top-20 ranking at the end of the event was OUR GOAL going in (winning some games and being competitive vs. 2012 teams).

But wins and losses are not what we should be counting. We should be looking at improvement and catching up with the top northern programs. That is what the Maniax system is all about.

But we are getting greedy. I asked one parent who was not happy about losing games to better teams up north at the IWLCA’s whose daughter was discouraged. I asked her “How many games did her team lose at the SAT this year?” Her answer: “Zero.”

So, at the tourney with the top clubs in the south: Hotlanta, Fever, Cardinals, TNLax, yatayatayata, you go undefeated, yet your child is not happy? Your team is not good enough? Well, we did not enter the fifth bracket out of six just to try and ‘win’ the games at the IWLCA’s.

And when you do that (enter the tough brackets) you really CAN’T win them all if you live in Florida. Some people may think they can. They cannot. There are much better teams out there than any team in Florida. Period. You just have to play in the toughest brackets to find them.

And who wants to win more than I do? I have eight (8) championship rings. I like to win. Love it as a matter of fact. But this insanity of comparing us to “Hero’s” is crazy. We will get there in a few years, but in order for us to get there our kids and parents have to work harder than ever before on the skills of the game and the game knowledge and aggression needed to play at that level. THAT is why we GO THERE.

If your child is disheartened, maybe YOU are not helping them to see things correctly. You have by far one of the finest club programs in the country. With effort and repetition, by the time your daughters are rising juniors, they will be close and rising seniors, they should be even with the best in the country. That still does not mean you are going to WIN all the games. But then again, I have yet to see a college care about your team winning – they want to see your kids PLAY. That again comes down to their SKILLS, SPEED, and LAX IQ. All things that they should be evaluating themselves on each day!

I learned more during the Super Bowl Season from the special teams plays we messed up during the season than the ones we scored touchdowns on. And it was our ability to adjust, under skilled teaching and smart players, that made us a World Champion.

Let’s also use this perspective from the U-15 tournament:

LaxManiax U-15 Girls = 2 wins, lots of competitive games (mixed ages)

Georgia Lax Girls = 0 wins. Did not show up, even though they had registered a team. Can’t compete if you are not there.

Texas Girls = 0 wins. Did not win a game. Lost by 10 goals often.

NorCal Blue and Gold Girls (2 teams) = 1 win in 10 games combined.

North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee – Did not enter teams and were not there. They did not win any games either.

Boys U-15 results from teams similar to our own geographically:

Creeks Lacrosse Boys (Florida) = 0 wins, a couple competitive games. Lost by 10 goals a few times. They played three non-traditional programs.

Texas Boys = o wins. Not competitive.

Georgia Boys = 0 wins. Only close in one of their games.

OK – so look at all the teams from the south and from California (like Florida but bigger) and how many WINS did you add up? 1 (ONE). UNO. I wonder how discouraged the collective non-traditional states are because they lost?

The LaxManiax as a team won more games and were more competitive against very strong competition than the other teams from similar areas. But, all the teams who went to the event deserve a pat on the back for going. If they are coached well, those kids will have learned a lot and be the best players in their area and be a step ahead next time they attend a tournament like that.

Or, they will become discouraged because they lost and get worse. And this is the ultimate failure of coaching solely for the sake of winning and not focused on developing winners as players.

There are only two responses to adversity. Players either get bitter or players get better.

For the sake of the kid who is working her butt off on the field, parents had BETTER help them to get BETTER before allowing anyone of them to get BITTER. Perhaps if Florida lacrosse players would stop worrying so much about losing and focus more on playing up to their potential and working their butts off they would raise their level against the top programs in the country.

Florida high school lacrosse needs a lot of work. Even the very best who can’t get past mid-tier MIAA high school opponents.

Performing at the level we did at the U-15 is a great start for those girls who are working at catching up with the Check-Hers! We are not THAT far behind! But to get there, it all starts with the work-manlike attitude required to make the trip NORTH and a level of ferocity that our girls our top players in Florida are working on each day.

The U-15 National Championships

Bel Air, Maryland – July 5th, 2009 – Another historic step for the LaxManiax program starts tomorrow! The kick-off of the 1st-ever US Lacrosse U-15 National Championship event. Just two teams from the entire south region were entered for the event and our club was able to claim one of the two. Only 30 teams nationwide are entered into the event. It’s good to know that we are in such high company for the first time out! If the club wins a few games it creeps into the nation’s top-15. Not bad for a first time out. Of course if they can find themselves competitive with the Phantastix and like clubs as a young group, that is just as well. Eventually they will be showcasing for colleges in that group, so they get used to “the level” this week at the U-15 National Championships.

We always appreciate the “shout out” from Brian Logue, at US Lacrosse Magazine. Check out his preview article HERE! http://laxmagazine.com/high_school/girls/2008-09/news/070409_u15preview

This event is going to be a test for our club and clubs from other non-traditional areas. While there are many teams coming from outside of traditional grounds, most are ‘local’ teams (they are driving).

1) We don’t live here (Bel Air, Maryland). While the Check-Hers (MD), Phantastix (Philly), and Yellow Jackets (NY) all live within 2 hours of the game site and can easily make their plans, our club and others are flying or covering long distances to get there. This may not mean much to the average fan, but consider that the home team wins 60% of NFL football games and even more in other sports and you realize that there is something to being closer to home. Of course, we travel all the time and we do just fine. It really does not bother the LaxManiax, it is more of an identity. We fly places all the time and we expect to be road warriors .

2) For many of our younger girls, this is their first trip against top level competition from outside of our region. It’s the first time some have competed at this level. That is alright! The girls participated at the SAT, the Maniax Day “Olympic Games”, a few ‘playday’ practices in Coach Darley’s summer league, and also a weekend playday against two high school teams. They have been tested and while the skill levels of Florida high school teams is not quite on par with the skills of northern teams like TLC, Phantastix, Check Hers, and others, there is a level of intensity that our kids have had to learn by playing good Florida high school teams and that intensity level is the same this week in Bel Air, Maryland!

So the challenges really are not as great if you look at them from the LaxManiax perspective. The level of lacrosse we play requires a great deal of intensity, skill and lax IQ, and the sooner the participants get ‘into’ the game at this level the sooner they pick this up.

Kaleigh Henry (right) and Chelsea Pinneke (left) participated in the U15 Festival in 2007. They are now members of TFG 2011 and playing the highest level of competition.

Here are somethings that we are looking for at the U15 National Championships:

1) Leadership – There are seven members of the class of 2012. Many of them have been north several times. We are looking for leadership from them, both quiet leadership by example, and vocal confidence, to get the team motivated.

2) There are lots of parents on the trip. We hope the parents are raving fans and supportive of the team and coaches all the way. There is nothing better than parents who motivate the entire team with support. We hope the team feeds off the positive energy of the parents at the event.

3) Intensity – We hope the girls play with tremendous intensity and compete with whoever shows up on the field. Coach Stacey and John are as good as it gets in terms of making adjustments on the field, so if the intensity level is high, the games will be extremely tough.

4) Learning – If you go up to this event expecting to be the #1 team, 29 teams will fail. The most realistic expectation for ALL the teams in this tournament is to come away with a solid evaluation of where they stand and what they need to do to get to the top-level of play. Some may be there already. Most will have areas in their games that they see need some building in. All with have something to work on. That is the greatest victory for players who want to be their best is to have the opportunity to ‘learn’ how to get there.

This is a great step for the LaxManiax and the other 29 teams at this event. US Lacrosse has always put on “Festivals” and this is their first “Championship”. Lets take a look at the differences:

Festivals – In these events, no score is officially kept and the rules are all played using ‘youth’ rules. There is no checking over the shoulder and the ball is awarded to the opposing team if one team gets out to a sizable lead. The level of competition is usually lower and focused on middle school players only. Normally the US Lacrosse Festivals are put on by local US lacrosse chapters and most of the kids who participate are not club players, or they are mixed club and rec. Most weekends the club players are already participating in other tournaments with their club, so the pool of players is diluted. Florida has a mixed history in the Festivals but is usually competitive at the “B” bracket level (there are usually three brackets from A-C).

In 2006’s U-15 National Festival, Orlando’s team went 5-1 (unofficially) with a 1-goal loss to Texas as its lone loss. In 2007, the following year, Orlando’s team did not win a game but was close in some games, again unofficially.  Both events were held at “home” in Orlando, so we did have home field advantage at both of those events. Only kids without high school experience could participate, even if they met the U-15 age requirement.

 

 

The banner says it all! There are some interesting differences between 'Festivals' and 'Championships' at the U-15 level. It's pretty cool to be one of the "32" competing in Bel Air this week!

Championships – The US Lacrosse Championship event is open to clubs, chapters, or anyone wanting to put a team together. Some of the top clubs in the country are attending the event with strong teams. Score will be kept and there is no ‘mercy rule’ for providing the draw control to the other team if they are losing. This is the first event of its kind, so the track record is unknown.

The players can play high school lacrosse so long as they meet the age requirement as specified by the tournament. In this case, players have to be 14-years old as of January 1, 2009. The rules are US Lacrosse Women’s rules, full checking is permitted.

In BOTH events there is no “2-pass” rule, a rule that seems well intentioned but does not teach lacrosse players how to stop the ball first and/or double the ball and play effective defense, a real issue in youth Florida lacrosse. This may be the single greatest disadvantage that our teams have at these events – they are not playing by the same rules as US Lacrosse has written them. All it takes is a few girls to NOT stop the ball and the transition defense fails. When that happens, it’s a long day!

If you are attending the event, know the history and understand the competition. As our club evolves I hear parents talking about “that team isn’t very good!” or “We’re not as good as that team.” Please keep in mind, this is a much different club than it was two years ago. We are playing tougher competition and we are a much better program. Obviously. So we will look great against teams that are good but they don’t look good to us, and we will play teams that are great and have an off game and not look as good.

It’s all relative.

You are not in “rec lax” anymore, Toto!

You are in Bel Air!

Best of luck to all the U-15er’s out there this week. Play intense, play skilled, play smart, Go MANIAX!

How Do I KNOW What Level I Am?

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 – Bethany Beach, Delaware – As the class of 2010 continues to move through their recruiting process, I wanted to take some time to help everyone get a better idea of where they fit in the scheme of college lacrosse. I get asked many times the uncomfortable question “Coach Paul, where do you think I can PLAY college lacrosse?” It’s uncomfortable because it’s not an easy question to answer AND because sometimes the answer is a bit of a ‘dream buster’, however honest or realistic it is. And no one likes pigeon holing someone LESS than I do. I made it to the National Football League without a scholarship and played Division I and Division III football, and I came out of the Diamond State which at the time had only a few major college and NFL players to its lineage (sound familiar, Florida lacrosse?). So when a lot of D1 programs would drive thru Wilmington, Delaware on their way from Baltimore to Philly, many of us were told “You can’t play there!”

Not so fast, old men on the message boards!

There is a system to the madness of recruiting and we run a very good recruiting program for free (it comes with the membership) and this keeps me full-time busy assisting the rising senior class. I guess you could call me the world’s poorest sports agent!

First, let’s answer the question “where do you think I can PLAY college lacrosse?” Let’s break down this question into two parts: THEM  (the colleges) and YOU (the student-athlete). First let’s start with THEM!

THEM: Profile – NCAA programs from new start-up D3 schools to Northwestern (5x NCAA D1 champ). NAIA/Scholarship club programs like SCAD (Savannah College) would be considered like a D2 or D3 program. Let’s take a look at THEIR LEVELS first – because it’s not anything like the mature sports of football, soccer, and basketball. Lax recruiting may as well be the moon relative to those other sports!

LEVEL 1 (The best of the best) – Consists of the top D1 programs (40 of them) who are recruiting the top 200-300 players in each graduation year class. Florida and Jacksonville would be in that mix at this point because most high school prospects want to look at Florida’s programs because they are in, well, Florida. This means both of those programs are going to be very tough to be recruited by. This level also consists of the top-8 D3 programs and the top-4 D2 programs. If you take those 52 programs, you are looking at the most difficult to ‘play’ at in terms of playing time and selectivity.

More than 35 colleges of all levels, including Level 1, saw the LaxManiax show very well against Westchester (NY) Elite. Coaches and club parents handed out pink Maniax rosters to all the watching coaches.

Level 2 (really good lacrosse) – Consists of D1 programs from #41-#75, #5-#30 D2 programs and the #8-#40 D3 programs. These roughly 75 programs are very selective and many offer scholarships (most of the D1 and D2’s do, though some do not). Keep in mind, many of the D3 programs will easily beat the D2 and D1 opponents if they played them on the field. This does not happen often as there are tons of D3 schools for them to play, but well established D3 programs at this level, like McDaniel, will “put it to” schools that are listed as “higher level”. It is still VERY difficult to be recruited by this level of program.

Level 3 (solid college lacrosse) – Consists of the #76-100 D1 programs (more adding each week), the #31-40 D2 programs and the #41-110 D3 programs. These are programs where the competition is very good and most schools play in competitive conferences within their own right. It is important that the student-athlete look at these schools to find the exact ‘feel’ they are looking for. These programs will struggle to move up the charts ahead of the schools in category 1 and 2, but often the quality of life for the student-athlete is very high at these places. FIT is the key.

Level 4 (college lacrosse) – Consists of some schools of each level. You can check the results on the web to see where they would fit in terms of competitive level. Many of these programs are located in the south and are focusing on southern recruiting. There will be tremendous growth over the next few years in these programs. Take Rollins for example. Their first season out they won a few games and cancelled their season early. They then recruit well and played this year a much improved game and rapidly advanced from Level 4 to more of a Level 2 program. And they did it all without scholarships which tells you how many northern kids just want to play college lacrosse in Florida and what a great recruiter Coach Short is! So you can see from the Rollins example, schools in the south that are new can go from level 4 to level 2 or 3 in a year or two.

Level 5 (”This Just In!”) – Schools that announce programs over the next few months that they are starting a program. For 2010’s who really want to get playing time, these schools are a great place. High Point, Georgia State (if they ever name a coach), LaGrange, Agnes Scott, are just a few programs in our region who are looking for players and have not recruited a class yet. They will be relying heavily on their class of 2010 recruits to get them off the ground and competitive over the next few years. So if your dream is to play Division I lacrosse and you have not gotten any D1 interest, the schools to contact are Georgia State and High Point. They will be looking to fill a class and are behind the 8-ball in the recruiting process.

OK – now lets look at some statistics and start figuring out where you fit in to the process. This year there were 1,200 girls from the class of 2010 competing at the IWLCA events in the grad year exclusive brackets and about 400 competing in the Open Division brackets. That means there are about 1,600 girls who were showcasing at the tournaments from the class of 2010. Of that grouping, about 80% would like to play in college. 20% are going to college for other sports or no sports at all. That gives you a list of about 1,280 girls who are looking to be recruited at the IWLCA events in June. We had 40 girls competing as a club and a few other clubs had some Florida contingent to them, so Florida girls made up about 3.5% of all recruits (a pretty decent number considering 75% come from MD, PA, NJ, NY, MA, CT). Let’s breakdown now what the NEEDS of the different levels are so you can determine where you stand numbers wise and how difficult it is to compete for various levels:

Level One: 52 Programs recruiting an average of eight players each: 416 players will commit or sign to play with these programs from the class of 2010. That is about the top 33% of all 2010’s at the IWLCA. Remember, this includes the Skywalkers, Heros, Yellow Jackets, Capital, and MD United kids as well! If you look at it from a pure percentage standpoint, Florida will have about 14 or 15 players looking to go to schools at this level. If you factor in that Florida is not as good of a lax state as Maryland and New York, this number may be closer to 12. So, if you look at your game as one of the top-12 in the State of Florida, you probably will fit this level for the 2010 recruiting year. My prediction is that in 2011 there are closer to 20 for this level as each year the state matures as a lax state and our club’s alumni reputation continues to thrive.

Level Two: 75 programs recruiting an average of eight players each. 600 players will commit or sign to play with these programs from the class of 2010. That is the middle 50% of all 2010’s at the IWLCA. From our club’s two teams and from other Florida prospects, the majority will find programs in this strata to continue their education. If you look at yourself as a good player in the LaxManiax club program and you have game and instincts and speed, you should find a home in this area. But this area is for girls who have lax on their mind just as much as the Level One players. Not much separates the recruits of the two levels. Sometimes it is just a missing element in your game that can be worked out in college. Maybe you have not been dedicated enough to lacrosse because of other extra-curriculars that spread your life far too thin to excel in anything to the top level. Many in our club suffer from “spread me too thin so I can be more ‘well rounded’” syndrome. The over-scheduled kids are the ones who never truly achieve greatness in any one thing because as 16-year olds they are still trying to figure it out in stead of pursuing their passion with, well, passion! But that is another BLOG on another day. Of the roughly 50 kids from Florida at the IW’s from the class of 2010, expect roughly 15-20 commitments and signees from Florida this year. This could fluctuate based on the geography of these schools. Many of the schools are not within a 5-hour drive of kids from Florida, so as proximity would have it, the kids decide on other schools in level 3, 4 or 5.

Level Three: 90 programs recruiting an average of eight players each. 720 players will commit or sign to play with these programs from the class of 2010. If you are doing the math right now, do not scratch your head. You are correct, the 600 level 2 players, 420 level 1 players, and 700 level 3 players add up to 1,700+ total players and the IW’s had a little over 1,200 players who will play in college. There are more spots open for college student-athletes than there are actual players on the club level at this time. It is a BUYERS market. There are some kids who are attending other tournaments and others who are just high school kids. These players will inevitibly find a home somewhere, just maybe not at a Level 1 or 2 program and most likely not a Level 3 program. But all of our club members can play at Level 3 somewhere. They need to be committed to the distance factor as mentioned above. Proximity is a key factor in the decision making process – every bit as much as academic major. Level 3 has been a successful home for the majority of our alumni from 2007 and 2008. As of 2009 a shift to level 2 started to occur and now our 2010 class is shifting to the top end of level 2 for many prospects. This is GREAT for Florida lacrosse.

With more slots available than club players to fill them, LaxManiax players of all ages need to 'stick' with their program to realize the greatest rewards in the process. Over the next seveal years, Florida lacrosse will become a hot bed. As an old cliche' goes "It's not a matter of 'if' it's a matter of 'when'".

Level 4 and Level 5: These programs are looking for more players. Most are looking for 8-12 players on average. For this we will estimate 10 players to keep the math simple. 110+ programs searching for 1,100 prospects to fill their rosters. 2,800 total members of the class of 2010 are “wanted” and only 1,400 of them were competing at the IW’s this year. You can see why ‘limiting’ tournaments at any level is like the college coaches chopping off body parts – they need more players than are available. This was one of the prime rationales for LaxManiax starting out and then expanding to grow more players and more ability levels. Helping as many Florida kids as possible find a college home AND develop into all-stars is what makes the program unique.

Now that we know there is a home for everyone in our club, lets now talk about the variables that create more opportunities and the factors that go into making a decision:

Variables include – Club prestige and reputation. The LaxManiax has been around and attended 6 IWLCA tournaments and over time has placed more than 60 players in colleges nationwide. This year and last year’s senior ‘A’ teams competed against the top programs in the country and found success and a roughly .500 record against hot bed teams. In other words, we are just like them. Therefore, colleges know we have players and they come to see us play. Add in the connections that 100+ years of playing and coaching experience on the NCAA level add up to and you are a part of one of the hottest things going in lax. The reason why Inside Lacrosse and members of the IWLCA are so interested in the ‘rise of Florida’ lacrosse on the national level.

Our 2011 class has some very high level recruits. The effect of their recruitment and the success of our alums playing in college so far will tweak more and more interest in our club’s 2012, 2013 and younger classes. The more they stick together, grow together, and play together as a club, the better they will be as time goes by!

With a dozen Level 1, or Level 2 prospects, the class of 2011 is on its way to becoming more storied than the 2010 and 2009 classes. Many of the 11's have played together since their 8th grade season, helping them to progress and develop together and learn the club's complete curriculum.

Performance at the SAT by the TFG programs was huge. None of the TFG teams fell to another outside club. This shows that the teams are as good as it gets in the South. Playing against some great southern clubs in grad year competition also raises the level of the club and the other clubs as well. The coaches at that event talk to other coaches and the reputation builds.

The Bolt sisters and Melode Adolphe strike a pose at the Southern Alliance Tournament. The Maniax teams played very well and established themselves as one of the south's top club programs for the forth consecutive year.

Vero Beach High School’s trip to Maryland (which ended up pushing them over the limit for games vs. Out of State opponents) this year helps as well. The trip may end up costing them a state title, but they played well at the Maryland based Centennial tournament. No matter what your opinion is of the men of Vero Beach, their players are very good and when one program in Florida performs well, everyone benefits. We should always seek to build up and not denigrate other Florida lacrosse people, like them personally or not, we cut our nose to spite our face when we look down on other programs, whatever the reason.

Other variables include the success of our LaxManiax alums, which has been nothing short of miraculous. Our players last at college and they earn starting spots. Coaches come back for more players when they have a positive experience with one of them.

Mel Hicks '08 (Detroit), Mindy McCord (JU), and Katie Carbiener '08 (Longwood) are three examples of successful LaxManiax alumni who are now performing at the Division 1 level. Their success creates more opportunities for all kids from Florida. Hicks, who anchored the UDM defense as a freshman, was instrumental in recruiting/hosting Park Vista (FL) graduate Megan Cunningham this past Fall.

Now lets go into Factors of Making a Decision: For this I like to break it down using the term S.L.A.P. SLAP stands for “SIZE”, “LOCATION”, “ACADEMICS”, and “PERSONAL FIT”. These are in relative order, although “SIZE” is closely related to “PERSONAL FIT” insomuch as you would not attend a school that did not “FIT” because it was entirely too large or small. So, “SIZE” is relative to the size of the campus, and the interactivity of the student body and team. Some small schools have a big school dynamic and some big schools are essentially “Suitcase colleges” where kids go home every weekend, or the school was a community college in the state educational system and grew way too large so they added a couple of years on. Either way, “SIZE” does matter.

“LOCATION” is a key as well. Student-athletes will not go where they do not want to be. I asked one of my players who a major D1 had inquired about if she would like to stay in the South and she said, “NO WAY! I want OUT of the south!” No point in forcing that point! Find the location that is right for you. This is why so many of our kids slide from Level 2 to Level 3 – more level 3’s in the south making it a closer proximity!

“ACADEMICS” is also a huge factor in the decision making process. This is impacted by the maturity of the prospect and their families understanding of a few simple truths. If the prospect has it set in his/her mind that they are majoring in THIS, than super! Not to burst anyone’s bubble, the average state school prospect changes their major twice before graduating and the average private school prospect changes their major once. So, finding a school that is the right fit academically and has a variety of majors you would like to pursue is key.

So, in my advise, while every mother says that school is all about academics, I would have to disagree. It has as much to do with location as it does academics. How many kids who do not play lacrosse do you know who come home from school and don’t finish? A large number of these cases are because they went to school for a football team, or they went to the wrong location. Look around and visit schools the summer and fall going into your junior year. That is a key to knowing if the location is a fit for you.

Excluding or including schools at the various levels based on SLAP creates a better success rate in college decision making. There are lots of Level 1 players who choose to go Level 2 or 3. The choice is theirs. Occasionally there is a Level 3 player who tries to cram themselves into Level 1. The success rate of kids who do this is not very high. There are some clubs that live on the reputation of getting kids to Level 1 schools when the kids are not level 1 kids. This does a disservice to the kids they are supposed to be guiding in the process and is not the point of the club system.

It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish. If kids get pushed Level 1 and only play one fall, you have not really helped the prospect. You may have ruined their chance of actually having a college career, or in fact limited their career to 1 semester.

Final thoughts: When to Commit?

IWLCA coaches struggle with the ethics of recruitment and dealing with legal minors making adult-level commitments. As a business person, nothing is legal until the guardian has signed with the minor and taking a minor’s word for it is not a position I, or any good business person, would want to be in. Pressuring the minor to follow through with their obligation made as a 16-year old gets even more problematic. While we cannot control the coaches and their ever changing whirlpool of recruitment policies and ethical dilemmas, we can control our behavior as prospects and club programs. Here are a few rules to be aware of:

1) YOU are the PROSPECT, not them. If they want you, they will respect you as a PROSPECT with options and a duty to investigate those options. If you are late in the investigation and have not seen all you need to see, explain this to the college. YOU are the consumer – they are the salespeople.

2) UTILIZE your PARENTS and CLUB COACHES. They are your adult advocates and can help you in dealing with adults who are trying to woo you. Do not allow anyone to pressure you, especially club lacrosse coaches who are wanting you to ‘commit’ to top-level schools so they can show you off. You are not a pawn in the marketing game of a club. The club works FOR you.

3) CALL the COLLEGES. They cannot call you until July 1st of your rising Senior year, but you can call them. Best time to start calling them is the summer of your rising Junior year as you are visiting campuses and attending tournaments and camps. Get to know them then so you feel more comfortable making decisions when you reach July 1st of your rising Senior season. Many colleges at Level 1 look for you to decide around the July 1st date, even though this date was established to allow colleges to call you (first call date for D1’s). Some Level 2’s are now looking at this as a date to have a lot of their recruits “committed” as well.

Kaylee Quint (Left), and Morgan Derner (Right) are 4th year LaxManiax members (they lasted thru the hiddeous pinnie stage of the club) who have used the club's prestige and their personal development and team relationships to become Level-1 Prospects are rising seniors. Their first year in the club (the club's 1st year) was their rising freshman year. Imagine how great the club players who started as 6th graders will be in a couple years!

For LaxManiax members, you have a great website and recruiting system and network that no other club can offer. And you have the benefits of playing with your fellow-prospects from middle school on through, providing you with more familiarity and experience than just playing on an all-star team. Follow your programs and know that the advise you receive comes from people who care about your individual decision and not their personal pride. We have won our Super Bowls and NCAA titles in life and now we want to help you all reach your goals.

Yours in recruiting, Coach Paul