Early recruiting. Go. That’s about all it took to break the ice when Lacrosse Magazine hosted a roundtable on the subject April 4. Ninety minutes later, the conference call ended with a mixture of exasperation and hope. It happened six days after Isabelle Smith of Westhampton Beach, N.Y., became the third eighth-grader in three months to commit to an NCAA Division I lacrosse program. Smith, who committed to Boston College, joined Caitlyn Wurzburger (Syracuse) of Delray Beach, Fla, and Brennan O’Neill (Penn State) of Bay Shore, N.Y., as the first Class of 2020 recruits off the board. Exasperation. Days later, a joint proposal by the college women’s and men’s lacrosse coaches associations to ban all contact with prospects before Sept. 1 of their junior year of high school was on the table at NCAA meetings in Indianapolis. Hope.
Q:
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE EARLY RECRUITING TREND?
38 LACROSSE MAGAZINE » May 2016
Ted Spencer: I coached at the collegiate level for 16 years. When I retired from that, after getting cancer, I moved to California and coached at the U15 level for two years. Then I coached high school for three years. I’ve seen it from all levels for the last decade. Early recruiting has created panic. Kids start freaking out that they have to join elite teams or else they’re not going to get recruited, which is really bad for the sport.
Dom Starsia: At my behest we had a meeting two falls ago in Baltimore with the head coaches of the Big Ten and ACC schools trying to get our hands around this issue. [A Big Ten coach] says to me at the end of the meeting, “I have very
different pressures than you, Dom. We’re trying to build something here and I need to recruit kids earlier. This is my best shot at these guys.” This is a guy that’s trying to build his program and, quite frankly, save his job. I’m in no position to say you shouldn’t do that just because it’s not good for the game.
The college coaches have felt stymied because the NCAA has been unwilling to address this issue. And ultimately, from a legislative standpoint, that’s who we’re answerable to. What we need is some help from the NCAA. And there’s the slightest bit of hope that might be coming.
Kerstin Kimel: Our coaching bodies are in agreement that the culture of our sport right now is not a good one because of early recruiting.
Straight A Publication of US Lacrosse
STARSIA
SPENCER
KIMEL
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