You’re a high school lacrosse player with dreams of playing in college, but it can be easy to make mistakes during the recruiting process.

You’re signed up for the Top 100 Shootout, you play on the elite club team in your area, you have a jam-packed summer schedule. You’re excited – the coaches list is off the charts, and some of the top college programs will be in attendance.

It’s time for you to shine.

The focus level has to not only be on the field but off the field just as much. Here are five recruiting mistakes lacrosse players have to steer clear of to be successful when finding their college of choice.

Five Recruiting Mistakes Lacrosse Players Must Avoid

Choose Your Club Team/Showcase Events Carefully

Choose your club team and showcases wisely. In the past decade, club lacrosse has come to dominate the recruiting landscape, and the tournament and showcase scene has become big business. College coaches plan their entire summers by which tournaments certain club teams will attend or which showcases draw the most talent.

Don’t sign up to attend every showcase. Do your research and make the correct decision, not just based on looks but also the right group of schools you’ll be playing in front of. Your club team has to match your ability and college goals.

Before your family invests in a premium-level club, do your research, contact your high school coach and kids in the area who have gone on to play at the next level. Then ask yourself how committed you are to the game? A premium club team will ask for a lot of time and commitment, and you have to be ready for that.

You can also find a nice home at mid-tier club that might be a little more regional or local – not a non-competitive club, but just like college, a different level. That being said, club lacrosse is not bad! But do your homework and don’t just chase the helmet, which is a common mistake made by lacrosse players experiencing the recruiting process.

Proper Communication with Coaches

Emails are fine! Just make sure you proof read and double check the names of the coaches and colleges you’re sending the letter to. Many times, Coach Ward is mistaken for Coach So & So from “Southern Florida University,” and that’s a prime example of a big mistake that could cost you a follow-up text, phone call, or email.

Make sure you have your list defined and have a great balance of academics and athletics in mind when sending interest letters to coaches. Don’t just rely on your high school or club coach to make phone calls and emails on your behalf to college coaches; direct contact is the best way to get on the radar. Remember, coaches are people who have families, personal lives, and other professional responsibilities. Be mindful of their time.

Grades

The numero uno, the big cheese, the head honcho of mistakes a lacrosse player can make in recruiting: not worrying about SCHOOL!

Guess what? It really doesn’t matter how hard you shoot, what club you’re on, or how sick your last “celly” was if you don’t go to class. The majority of schools that offer lacrosse at the collegiate level will ask you one question on the phone: how are your grades? Can you send us a copy of your transcript? If you have poor grades and are not committed to academics, a lot of doors will close on you right away. The majority of scholarship money that’s awarded for lacrosse is in the form of merit scholarships, so you will be putting yourself at a disadvantage by not focusing on academics.

Keep Getting Better

Don’t just rest on your laurels. You made First Team All-Star, and you’re committed as a sophomore to a Big Ten school, but that doesn’t mean you don’t continue to compete in the summer going into your senior year or stop putting the extra work in. Even if you haven’t made a commitment to a school, don’t get frustrated.

One of the biggest mistakes a lacrosse player can make in recruiting is to stop getting better. You might be a late bloomer, and there are plenty of quality programs that can offer you a home. You have to be committed to the process of becoming great, not just getting to one level and maintaining.

College coaches will continue to evaluate you; one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to stop working hard to get better after a college commitment.

Not Committing to Your High School Team

The landscape has changed, and the culture of high school lacrosse is different from when I graduated in 2003. But the fact still remains, there is absolutely nothing better than working hard with your high school team and chasing a championship.

It’s a huge mistake to focus more on your recruiting cycle rather than living in the moment with your current high school lacrosse team. This doesn’t just mean in the spring when the season is active but also during the summer, fall, and winter for extra workouts with your team.

You know what college coaches love to hear on the phone? “Hey Coach, we have winter workouts and my high school team is really coming together.” The commitment level to your school team is still very important and is not overlooked in the process.

This article was originally published July 12, 2021.

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You just got a job as the new head coach of a promising program, and you’re very excited to get started and begin developing your system and culture. You sit down to create your first practice plan for your new lacrosse team, and you write out your favorites drills for teaching and player development, along with exercises that will aid in building squad chemistry.

But how do you fit in everything that lacrosse entails – transition, rides and clears, 6v6, man up and man down, faceoff work, goalie play, shooting, stick work, ground balls, odd evens, evens, conditioning, and more – all in one practice plan? The simple answer is, you can’t.

However, there are ways to make your lacrosse practices as efficient and effective as possible. Here are a few tips to ensure your team’s practices help your players become better at lacrosse across the board.

How to Make a Lacrosse Practice Plan

Always Be Intent with Your Purpose

It’s crucial that you create a plan that will develop your players into your specific system. Player development and team chemistry should be the top-two pre-cursors to the practice plan. Each drill should have a purpose.

For example, don’t just do 3v2s to do them. Be intent about the teaching points of the drill before, during, and after. Timing each drill and keeping them limited to six-to-10-minute blocks will help you with intensity and focus.

Overall, if you come into each drill with purpose and communicate to your team what you want to get out of each rep, you should have success.

Structure Around Your Weaknesses

If your team had a tough time riding and clearing on Saturday, start emphasizing the ride and clear in practice on Monday. If ground ball work was not solid, start off the day with a new ground ball drill and make it competitive. If you’re in preseason conditioning, then stick work and lacrosse IQ have to be on the top of the list for the practice plan agenda.

That doesn’t mean you should never cover what you’re good at. Lacrosse requires a complete game for success, and your strengths can be the reason you win games. But monitor your weaknesses and adjust your plans accordingly.

The message has to be to get better at the skills you may be deficient with; high-rep drills will help your team gain the muscle memory and IQ to make that quick decision on game day.

Make Practice Fun and Competitive

It doesn’t have to be big. It could be just a couple of drills that require the losers to do pushups or burpees, but this will create a little bit of an edge to your team during the week.

We like to plan one full plan per week based around competition drills. This always keep the team fired up and flying around, whether it’s on “Toughness Tuesday” or “Feel-Good Friday,” the team always responds.

It’s also important to ensure practice is fun. Lacrosse should be fun. That doesn’t mean it’s easy or doesn’t push you, but the overall experience should be enjoyable. You players to be excited not practice, not dread it.

If your players can compete among each other, hold one another accountable during the week, and have fun while doing it, then they’ll have trust in their teammates come game day.

Reinforce Game Speed

When you’re creating your lacrosse practice plan, if a drill seems boring to you, then it’s probably boring to your players. Practice should simulate games as much as possible. That means practice needs to be done at game speed, and that must be reinforced and planned for.

If you’re able to hit all these points of emphasis in every practice plan you formulate, then it’ll help you continue to develop your lacrosse team through the year.

And don’t forget to keep the faith, have fun, and check sticks!

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You took the opportunity to get into coaching lacrosse! You are excited, you are enthusiastic, you are ready for the challenge. But where should new lacrosse coaches start?

The goals you set are high, and the expectations to be great each day like your old coach used to say keeps creeping into the back of your mind.  What offense are we going to run? What is the clear going to look like? Do we 10-man ride?  Do we play, dare I say it…zone defense? My answer to these questions is to pause, take a deep breath, and evaluate the level you are coaching, the skill set, and the competitiveness of the league.  Here are five tips to help the first-time lacrosse coach get on track!

5 Crucial Tips for New Lacrosse Coaches

Learn the Game’s History

Understand the game and where it comes from. It’s an Indigenous game that was given to us by the Creator. It is a medicine game that has been played across the Haudenosaunee for centuries, if not longer. 

The game means more than just the score. Do your homework first. It is truly a blessing to coach lacrosse.

Stickwork Is Essential

Before you start to implement your fancy man-up play or motion offense, start with the essentials: passing, catching, shooting, and GBs. Work drills that maximize touches and keep the players moving. Three-man GBs,four-man two ball, 4v3 and/or 5v4 keep away are just some, to name a few.

Defensive Posture

Take time to teach defense! 

Stick out, approaches, smart checks, when and where to throw them, and proper rotations. You can teach defense in every drill you do. Emphasize midfielders also playing defense and getting up and down the field. Work on your defenders’ abilities to handle GBs in pressure and get the ball up the field. Also, teach them to shoot! It will make them more confident, they will have better sticks, and you’ll be a happier lacrosse coach.

Goalies & Faceoffs

At the youth level, every player should try goalie or faceoff for a practice. I didn’t start playing goalie full time until I was 14 but had opportunities at practice growing up. You never know who the best faceoff or goalie is going to be until everyone gives it a go at some point. Once you have established these positions, take 15 to 20 minutes each lacrosse practice to coach them one-on-one. Trust me, it will make a difference.

Small-Sided Drills

Implement as many small-sided drills as you can into your practice. Make a point to not just emphasize 6v6. 3v2, 4v3, 5v4, 6v5, 3v3, 4v4, and 5v5 drills are all staples in our college practices, because they create decision making, which in turn develops your players’ IQs to just play the game. Players also maximize touches and scoring chances during these drills. Scrimmage often if you are able to. You can do some of your best teaching in a scramble scrimmage.

I hope these five tips help you get on your way to building your team’s lacrosse IQ and decision-making capabilities. Have fun coaching the game of lacrosse and enjoy your time spent on the field. Check sticks!

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What a whirlwind start for us here at Florida Southern. Covid protocols, delays, pauses, Covid-19 positive cases, and not to mention injuries have made this season interesting to say the least. 

FLORIDA SOUTHERN – INSIDE GAME WEEK

The SSC began playing a 10-game season the weekend of March 20, six weeks after the normal first weekend of February starting mark. Our Florida Southern Mocs had to battle through a late 10-day Covid pause in order to get the season started. We began the season with five games in 10 days because of two postponements from our season-opening delay.

It has been a gauntlet to start. The team played Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday to start the campaign. A hyper speed season has us five games in with four losses. The team continues to get better each day, and will continue to fight through this 2021 season.

Team Zooms replace traditional scouting reports and film meetings to end the day, our weight room sessions are on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. time slots in the room due to protocols. The Florida Southern training room is as busy as ever with maintenance work, injury rehab, and stretching. Most of our players have appointments daily with our trainer. 

By the way, big shout out to the athletic trainers right now working through this difficult season. Hats off.

Even though the season isn’t going the way we originally envisioned, study hall is still six hours a week along with wall ball workouts throughout the day.  In our team at Florida Southern, “shoot a bucket” is still a common phrase, we have players showing up early and leaving late from practice, and the jerseys are being washed and hung weekly. Team road trips are back, and so are team roll call, post-game food and smiles, and eye black is being put back on. Man…what a time.

I hope that all of the men and women who get an opportunity to play, coach, and ref this season take a step back and realize what a blessing it is to compete.  What an awesome opportunity and responsibility we all have this season to continue to get better and push our game forward.  Looking forward to the whistle blowing again this week!

Want More DII Action?

For more DII news and updates, check out our weekly DII game reports.

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What is the perception of DII in the lacrosse world? The division that always seems to be playing the second fiddle to DI or DIII has had its history of misperception through the lacrosse landscape. 

So, what is it? Players that couldn’t make it at a higher level? Bad grades? Troubled athletes? Full rides? Maybe you’ve heard DII teams don’t get any gear, or that DII schools have no facilities.

This is entirely false, and the perception has begun to shift in recent years. The perception now seems to be one of optimism, growth, competition, and opportunity. 

THE LIFE

The player experience in DII is not far from some of your more traditional DI or DIII counterparts. Many Division II athletes receive some athletic scholarships to attend and play ball at the next level. Most ultra-competitive programs in the division schedule a workload much similar to Division I. The fall includes lifting three times a week with full-time strength coaches, film sessions, leadership training, practice five days a week, and end-of-fall scrimmages against outside competition. In season it can be one or two games a week, along with lifting, film, and study hall, on top of managing a full course load at a competitive college or university.

So, if you’re wondering if DII ball is much more laid back or the commitment level isn’t as much as the other divisions, you are missing the mark.

GEAR

Players at the Division II level receive player packages, helmets, sticks, gloves, armguards, cleats, etc. Some schools have equipment managers, some programs are outfitted by notable brands such as Warrior, STX, Adidas, Nike, and Epoch. This can vary from team to team, but for the most part you will be taken care of with what you need to be competitive as a Division II lacrosse player. Facilities are very comparable across the board, some better than others, some with more resources than others, and in some cases facilities better than their Division I or III counterparts.

GAMES/SCHEDULE

Travel is an essential piece to the player’s experience. Many programs get on planes and fly to some regular-season contests. All teams generally travel by first-class coach bus companies, and with a 17-game regular season schedule, you will have an opportunity to compete week in and week out. Mostly every college that sponsors the sport has a web streaming service to provide play-by-play and commentary for home games.  Parents in New York can watch that February midweek game in Alabama in high quality if they choose to. Food and tailgates – ahh who could forget the tailgates – we have those, too, for our players in Division II. We also have supportive and committed families that care about the experience of our athletes.

 As Division II continues to grow, and the respect level for the division from the lacrosse world also grows, you see impact athletes from the Division II level playing professional lacrosse regularly and transferring and making impacts in other divisions. The bottom line is you see the division now more than ever. The player’s experience will continue to improve, the competition will continue to rise, and Division II will continue to expand and grow the game yearly. Make sure you are researching the division and taking a look at what DII can offer.

More DII

If you want a great chance at finding a DII home, check out this link: Showcases | Halo Lacrosse

Read up on our previous DII posts from Coach Ward here, and learn the latest results and what’s coming in Division II lacrosse here.

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Marty Ward is the head men’s lacrosse coach at Florida Southern College and has been involved with Division II lax for nearly two decades. He has witnessed the growth of Division II lacrosse firsthand since his playing days and now into his coaching career.

We’re fortunate and proud to be welcoming new contributors to our platform! You can expect to see Marty’s expertise on Lax All Stars on a bi-weekly basis moving forward.

Division II Lacrosse Growth Through the Years

When I graduated from Corcoran High School in Syracuse, New York, in 2003, many of my fellow teammates and competitors were committing to schools in the Northeast or as far south as Maryland. Private and public (SUNYs) Division III’s ate up the bulk of talent from Upstate NY that year, and of course, DI colleges and universities had there pick of the litter. Duke, UNC, Loyola, Syracuse, Maryland, and others highlighted the signing day ceremonies across the NYS thruway. Division II was not in the conversations among friends. People didn’t really even think of Division II, even with a rising power like Lemoyne in our own backyard. 

I remember getting a letter from C.W. Post and being excited as they were a notable name in the lacrosse world, but outside of Long Island schools like C.W. Post, Adelphi, and NYIT, the visibility of Division II in a high school player’s eyes was limited. One school, Limestone College, a small school in Gaffney, South Carolina, had my interest in the process; Limestone assistant coach Judd Lattimore was a product of Auburn, New York, and a former All-American attackman at UNC. He first reached out, and head coach T.W. Johnson made sure to get me committed to The Rock in the spring of my senior season. Coming off of a national championship in 2002, I had to take the opportunity to play in the warm South Carolina sun, a big difference between playing in the spring season in Upstate NY. A deciding factor was the geography of the school. I had never imagined traveling to South Carolina for college.

The Division II lacrosse landscape has changed significantly since that spring of 2003. At the time, the southern-most school in the NCAA was Limestone, and the western-most was Wheeling Jesuit. Now, you can look all the way to Florida and as far west as Utah for an opportunity to play Division II at the next level. Do you want to play for a nationally ranked DII program? You can do that in places like Colorado, New York, Massachusetts, Missouri, Indiana, Florida, and across the Carolinas. You can literally find a home to play Division II play in any area of the country now. The competitiveness across the division continues to rise with the growth of the game in nontraditional hot bed areas. These spots are full of talented student-athletes looking to play lacrosse at the next level. A lot of players get overlooked, and DII programs benefit from the late bloomers who rise into their game in the senior year of high school. JUCO has also been very kind to the division over the years, with many of the best junior college players taking their talent Division II.

The major difference is the visibility of Division II lacrosse for prospects. The tournament has expanded to 12 teams from two teams with a north and south representative in the late 90s and early 2000s, which has added exposure. The other change in 2003 was the opportunity for the national championship to be played on the same field as the DI and DIII title games. In prior years it was held off the main field. This fostered another level of growth for the division and its recruiting landscape.

As the player talent in Division II continues to rise, so does the coaching talent within the division. Programs are full of quality coaches who not only care about the product on the field but the players’ overall experience and success, too. Now, with competitive recruiting, institutional support, committed coaches, and an expanded tournament field, Division II isn’t just an afterthought for recruits; it is now a serious option to consider when making your college list.

Want to learn more about Division II lacrosse?

-Attend a Florida Southern prospect day and be coached by Coach Ward.

-Follow Coach Ward and his program at Florida Southern.

-Listen to Coach Ward talk about Division II lacrosse and the options people have on the Going Offsides podcast.

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