For our oldest son, this is the beginning of an experience he longed to have, as it is the first time he's made a club team. We don't know how much he'll play, or how good his team will be, but being on a team, meeting kids from different towns, traveling on the weekends to tournaments, eating snacks under the tents between games, and just playing lacrosse and having fun is something we think he'll enjoy.
Our middle son has played club lacrosse the past three summers. He's enjoyed it immensely and made many friends, but he's also proven to himself -- and to my wife and I -- that he's a good enough player to realistically aspire to play the sport in college. So for him, this weekend has a different meaning. He's playing for a higher-level club which is taking him to college showcases and higher-end tournaments, and this weekend is the first step, really, in getting on the radar of college coaches and entering the recruiting scene.
But getting on the recruiting scene doesn't just start and end with going to the "right'' high school or getting on the "right'' club. In speaking to friends with older children who have gone through the whole process before, we've learned there are things you can and should do to help put your kids into the process.
The first thing is to make sure your kids understand that getting an opportunity to play sports in college starts with working hard in the classroom. Schools have a limited number of athletic scholarships, and -- football and basketball aside -- many schools choose to break their athletic scholarships up into partial scholarships, in order to be able to give at least some scholarship money to more recruits. So a recruit with excellent grades can supplement a partial athletic scholarship by getting academic money.
That's how it worked for the daughter of a former co-worker of mine, who got a quarter of an athletic scholarship and a half of an academic scholarship to play softball at a Division 1 university. The academic scholarship, my co-worker said, was better than the athletic scholarship, because that was for all four years, assuming she maintained a certain academic standard. An athletic scholarship is renewable year-to-year and can be taken away for any number of reasons -- like an injury, or a coaching change, or something.
And of course, your son or daughter may be interested in playing at a Division 3 school, which can't offer athletic scholarships. They can offer academic scholarships, however.
The next step in the recruiting process, according to our veteran friends, is to figure out what kind of school your child is most likely to be interested in and putting a list of potential schools together. Then you visit the websites of those schools and if they have some kind of prospective student athlete questionnaire (most do) your child should fill that out. You can also email the coach to see if there's any kind of camp or Prospect Day your child could attend at the school.
I emailed a few coaches about our son and one got back to me, asking for a high school transcript and a highlight video. The transcript was easy enough, but since our son had only played JV lacrosse, I didn't have any film of him. So I asked the varsity coach if I could borrow the team's video camera to record the last JV game. He agreed. And this weekend, I'm borrowing the camera again to shoot more video, of him playing with his club team. My son will figure out how to cut the video up and make his own highlight tape.
So there are things you can do to help your child get on track to play a college sport. As with everything, though, be aware that there is an entire recruiting industry and there are people looking to make a living by helping you navigate the process. Talk to your high school and/or club coach to get help in figuring out what steps you need to take and what traps you should avoid.
And of course, your son or daughter may be interested in playing at a Division 3 school, which can't offer athletic scholarships. They can offer academic scholarships, however.
The next step in the recruiting process, according to our veteran friends, is to figure out what kind of school your child is most likely to be interested in and putting a list of potential schools together. Then you visit the websites of those schools and if they have some kind of prospective student athlete questionnaire (most do) your child should fill that out. You can also email the coach to see if there's any kind of camp or Prospect Day your child could attend at the school.
I emailed a few coaches about our son and one got back to me, asking for a high school transcript and a highlight video. The transcript was easy enough, but since our son had only played JV lacrosse, I didn't have any film of him. So I asked the varsity coach if I could borrow the team's video camera to record the last JV game. He agreed. And this weekend, I'm borrowing the camera again to shoot more video, of him playing with his club team. My son will figure out how to cut the video up and make his own highlight tape.
So there are things you can do to help your child get on track to play a college sport. As with everything, though, be aware that there is an entire recruiting industry and there are people looking to make a living by helping you navigate the process. Talk to your high school and/or club coach to get help in figuring out what steps you need to take and what traps you should avoid.
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