Q:
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN A KID IS MENTALLY AND EMOTIONALLY READY TO MAKE A DECISION?
Kerstin Kimel: We have kids banging down our door all the time, and we say no. A lot. I don’t care if you think this is the place you’ve always wanted to go. You need to see four or five other schools. Sometimes when I get new assistants to my program, they’re like, “What are you doing? She wants to come.” And I say, “She doesn’t know what she wants.” From a coaching standpoint, you have to take a little bit of your own advice. You have to be tough. You have to be mentally tough to resist the urge to jump on bandwagons, to hit the panic button, to take the easy way out.
Joe Spallina: I don’t think the problem is necessarily early recruiting, but the problem is over-early recruiting. We already have one or two can’t- miss kids? I’m OK with that. But after that, I’m looking for kids with more questions than answers — that are going to have a nasty chip on their shoulder when they get to Stony Brook, that want to show everybody that they missed on an unbelievable kid who’s driven. I need to know what’s inside of the kid. What makes her tick? I’ve had kids in my office that want to commit at a very early age, and I look at the kid, the way they talk to their parents, the way they walk, then it’s like, that ain’t for me.
42 LACROSSE MAGAZINE » May 2016
“That year helped me get my confidence and settle in,” Smith said. “Being able to learn that my freshman year played a huge role in the next years and the development of my game and being able to compete with the rest of the guys every day on the field.” Offutt worried initially how it would look if a Virginia commit ended up
on JV. He faced off as a freshman and anchored the second midfield line at Landon as a sophomore.
“It was definitely difficult at times,” Offutt said. “There’s high expectations every time you get on the field. Lacrosse is so mental, you can really overthink everything.” Reilly started on JV, but he moved up to varsity after a game or two and was starting varsity soon after his promotion, but noted, “I was starting, but still getting the water.”
Said Conestoga coach Brody Bush: “Jack was a little bigger, a little
faster, had a little better stickwork. Kids older than him were bigger, stronger, faster, but for his age range he was more mature than players his age. We noticed it early on.” Reilly hasn’t grown an inch since freshman year, but he has added 50 pounds. Lyons, too, has hit the weight room hard. They now look the part of stereotypical ACC defensemen. Smith played football. “He certainly didn’t have to,” Nostrant said. “But I think it made him so much tougher, so much of a better leader.” With their schools selected, the four found they had time to spend on improving their games with regular advice from their college and high school coaches. “You can get more focused in the summer and work on more of the things you need to,” Offutt said. “You can be more of a team player. You don’t have to put a team on your back and score goals to get a coach’s attention. You can stay with the right mindset.” Offutt has found a bigger role the last two seasons at Gonzaga. playing first midfield, taking faceoffs and joining the man-up unit.
“It was definitely difficult at times. There’s high expectations every time you get on the field. Lacrosse is so mental, you can really overthink
everything.” — Sam Offutt
“The more I watch him, the more I see he’s a student of the game,” said Gonzaga coach Casey O’Neill. “He uses his brain out there. In the scout room and classroom, he’s wise beyond his years.” To listen to their high school coaches, the first four have lived up to their potential. They have been good fits in their high school programs and project to do well on and off the field in college. “There are things you should look for that will benefit you personally,”
Lyons said. “With the experience I’ve had, you need to make sure the school is right for you. You need to make sure if lacrosse wasn’t there, it’s a school you’d go to.” Four years after they raised eyebrows as the first freshmen to commit, the four have no regrets about their early commitments. “I see both sides to it,” Smith said. “It’s kind of crazy how it’s evolved over the last couple years since we were in eighth grade. But I think it’s definitely beneficial.”
A Publication of US Lacrosse
SPALLINA
KIMEL
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