RECRUITING B
rad Dotson was always one of the tall kids. A growth spurt before his freshman year at Langley (Va.) High pushed him to 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds. Dotson grew up playing basketball and moved on the lacrosse field with the fluidity of someone half his size. He was so skilled a defenseman that his youth coaches put him on extra-man offense.
As a freshman in 2010, Dotson made
Langley’s varsity team. “He would’ve been such a dominant JV player,” Saxons head coach Earl Brewer said. “But he would not have progressed.” Still, Langley returned a host of veteran long poles, and Dotson rarely got off the bench. That summer, Dotson got his first taste of the recruiting circuit when he attended the Top 205 Rising Sophomores camp and other showcase events. College coaches sat in folding chairs on the sideline and jotted down notes. A big, skilled long stick with a Seabiscuit-like stride will attract attention. Dotson played well. Ink hit paper. By the fall, several ACC schools expressed interest in Dotson. He may not have played a meaningful minute in a high school lacrosse game, taken the SAT or gotten a driver’s license. But a rangy 6-foot-6 defenseman (he continued to grow) with soft hands won’t likely regress. He dreamed of playing in warm weather for ACC teams that are always on TV. They were interested in him. And he was interested in them too. * * *
Recruiting is the lifeblood for most college lacrosse programs. Coaches spend much of their time, especially in the summer and fall, identifying and then convincing the players they want on their teams. Prospects and their parents also invest in the process — splicing highlight films, filling out questionnaires, faxing transcripts, calling and emailing coaches and paying a premium for camps and events that provide exposure. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Coaches want to recruit kids who will be a good fit and help the program win games. Players
want to find a good match academically and athletically.
But high schoolers are not typical consumers. To protect them from a deluge of phone calls or coaches staking out their front lawns, the NCAA has established guidelines. Nearly 60 pages of its compliance manual ensure that recruiting doesn’t resemble Black Friday. College coaches can’t mail “printed recruiting materials” to prospects or parents until Sept.1 of an athlete’s junior year. They can email or fax recruiting letters, questionnaires and media guides, but other forms of electronic communication (text messages) are prohibited. They can’t call a recruit before July 1 after his junior year or opening day of senior year, whichever is earlier. Lacrosse historically has followed this timeline. On Sept. 1, the best rising juniors received letters from programs and would start a dialogue with coaches, attending “junior days” and taking unofficial visits to schools. Still, senior summer mattered. When coaches called July 1, recruits would narrow their choices, take as many as five overnight “official visits” and sign a National Letter of Intent in early November. Rob Bordley, head coach of perennial national power Landon School outside D.C., pointed to his 2005 senior class. Ten players, including blue chippers like Princeton’s Mark Kovler and Georgetown’s Jake Samperton, committed to play at Division I schools. “I vividly remember them making their decision in August going into their senior year,” Bordley said. NCAA guidelines run the gamut from protective to inane and bureaucratic (like the rule that prohibits a team’s media
guide from having more than one page of color inside the cover). Over the past few years, the Sept. 1 and July 1 dates have become mostly formalities. As in Dotson’s case, college coaches can circumvent the no-contact dates by expressing interest to a club or high school coach. NCAA rules do not prevent a coach from talking to a recruit on the phone or hosting him on campus if the student initiated contact. “It’s all third-party communication,”
said Virginia assistant coach Marc Van Arsdale. “You call and write coaches to get the word out, not directly, for so-and-so to call. Usually, they’re responding.” More than 50 current high school sophomores had verbally committed to colleges by the end of February, according to Inside Lacrosse. Virginia has finished recruiting its 2014 class.
Bordley noticed the shift last summer when coaches were asking not about juniors but rising sophomores. Jack Falk and Sam Lynch, reserve midfielders as freshmen in 2011, already have committed to Virginia and Johns Hopkins, respectively. Another sophomore who played JV for the Bears in 2011 committed to Georgetown. Brett Manney, a top defensive midfielder for Delaware from 2005 to 2008 who signed in the spring of his senior year, coaches for the NXT Lacrosse Club in Philadelphia. At the Philly Showcase, Manney said college coaches took up an entire football sideline and trickled into the end zone during the sophomore all-star game. They dispersed when the juniors took the field. “About a quarter of the college coaches left,” Manney said.
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