That is one factor with me pushing my lax goalie son to go the JUCO route. Especially since he wants to study automotive tech and that really limits his school choices already.
Played D3 for 4 years and transferred D1 my final season (got an extra year from the ol Covid). Forget the parties and lifestyle that so many of us have enjoyed at the non D1 level, lacrosse is your job and the competition amongst your teammates is immense. So many 18 year old kids have no idea what they are getting into and commit D1 when they are nowhere ready to make that commitment and go from the HS star, to a team where everyone from #1 to #50 on the roster can play. The biggest choice to make, is knowing what you want from college and how you would like to spend your time. If you lack maturity like myself and need to get your shit together, their is no better place to sink or swim than with your teammates by commiting to something bigger than yourself. That's enough talk outta me though, do whatever the hell is best for you!
Great video as always. I’m so happy your posting a lot now. I think you’re on of the most underrated lacrosse content creators out there. Keep up the great work!
i started at a community college and they had a club team. it was great. you basically go from playing against a bunch of other local schools, to playing with those same guys you met on the other team. so much fun, practice a couple nights a week later at night and play games on saturday. no impact on your academics and you automatically have friends on campus
Hey Chris another level that is VERY underrated is JUCO. I don't know how these other JUCO programs are but we were involved with the game for 15 - 20 hours a week in the bulk of the season. It was a weird mix because some schools were just a passage to NCAA programs and others were just playing for fun. It's a great way to play 4 years of lacrosse especially if you're from MARYLAND or NEW YORK! 1st point: like Chris said, you will end up PAYING LESS for tuition for about 2 years. 2nd point: you get great experience with balancing academics and athletics. You also get to try it out to see if it's something you really want to do.
as a junior in hs this is great information and im extremely glad ive seen this. i will definitely be sharing this information with my teammates. thanks bro
Encountered the same thing when I was looking at D3 schools. Even low level skill programs still take it extremely seriously. Will never forget the Birmingham Southern coach saying " we treat this like a D1 program, 5 hours a day, minimal off season. " And I thought " why would I pay $55,000 a year to go to a school that doesn't even have my major 😀
I play NAIA and its pretty dope, scholarships are readily available for lax and for school(the scholarships are the only reason I came, I was going to JC or CC beforehand). Skill wise it's pretty much D2, since we play D2 teams in the offseason and usually win or lose by 1-2 goals. IDK about other naia schools but mine practices 5 x a week, weights 3 x a week, and film 2-4 x a week depending on position(s)
I had the same experience playing NAIA lacrosse. Definitely a good balance between focusing on lacrosse during the spring semester and really focusing on academics in the fall semester. Also, being smaller schools with a lot of athletes on campus was a really cool atmosphere. I highly recommend NAIA to a lot of young players.
I went to a D2 school for my freshman year. I was torn between that school and UT Austin, and I picked the D2 for financial reasons. This turned out to be a huge mistake because of a few reasons: 1. I rushed into the decision to commit, and let my parents decide more than myself. As a result, I didn’t look into the school as much as I should have. The school ended up not having the major I wanted and I was kind of stuck. 2. The scholarship I was supposed to get was supposed to help me out immensely - however, the school just pulled the amount from another scholarship I got and renamed that amount “women’s lacrosse scholarship”. I was beyond pissed. 3. I did not fully understand the commitment one must make to a DII. I would argue that the top 40-50 or so DII schools are very very involved and are just as rigorous as lower D1 programs. I knew wanted more time to focus on my academics and was promised more balance than I actually got. In addition, fitness is BEYOND important and I underestimated that fact. I have since transferred to a school that has both my major and a D1 WCLA program and am much happier, though covid has messed things up substantially. A piece of advice I would give is that you can use any level of college lacrosse that you take on (D1, 2, and 3, NAIA, JUCO, MCLA/WCLA) to help you get a job when you graduate! If you are the president of your club lacrosse team or you’re an average player on a NCAA D1 team, employers will still be interested in you and your leadership and teamwork abilities, which, supplemented with going to a more affordable school, can also help you out upon graduation. Just get involved! :D
The debt comments are so real! I played DIII for the same reasons as Chris my freshman and sophomore year. After my sophomore year I decided to pursue a doctoral program after undergrad, which meant an immense amount of debt on top of what I have already spent for my undergraduate degree. I transferred to an NAIA school, which I would actually encourage high school players to look at. They are completely separate from the NCAA and although smaller in current number of teams, they are growing every year. Additionally, many schools will allow you to stack your academic and athletic scholarship money making a college education very affordable for those that wish to continue playing and use their passion for the game to help pay for their school.
Great video and loved how you opened about the finances of college. I wish all parents would watch this. Maybe it would keep them from losing their minds during their kids' games, lol.
I stumbled onto this video in my feed which was interesting by itself. Very eye opening perspective. I played at Syracuse from 89-92 and things have clearly changed in our sport. I think you give some good insight. Good video.
Highly recommend trying JUCO if you are really unsure about what you want to do. You can save a ton of money your first two years at school getting a solid education while also getting a great lacrosse experience competitively. I ended up doing 2 years of JUCO, graduated with an Associates degree (looks good when applying to universities) and I ended up having one of the greatest lacrosse experiences of my life. Eventually transferred and played division 2 but also knew guys in my class that transferred to division 3 and division 1 as well.
Family tried to pressure me to go to a university straight after high school, I didn’t want that financial burden. Went with a JC and a ton of people ended up right there with me after they decided a big university wasn’t for them. Only difference between us was that I didn’t have any student loans to pay off.
Really enjoyed the spread that you have here man. I started out playing 2 years at a D3 college in Wisconsin, ended up not being the fit for me. I transferred to the University of Arizona, and made the club team here (see you March 7th), but it was the best transition I could have made. So much less stress, our program in D3 was trying to run a D1 style schedule with only 12 players... and it made my experience dampen a bit. The club experience has been so much more enjoyable, low stress, but still very competitive! This is an awesome resource to people to watch when considering colleges.
It brought back great memories listening to you discussing playing lacrosse in college presently. I played at the University of Maryland, College Park, 1966 - 1970. Back then, the programs weren’t nearly as demanding. I was able to play as a starter and obtain a degree in aerospace engineering. I’m sure I couldn’t do that now.
That's awesome! Unfortunately it's incredibly difficult to major in STEM and pursue athletics these days...I was trying to major in astrophysics and squeezing in 3am observation sessions between 6 am lifts and practices that ended at midnight!
Great video and the advice on the finances and finding the right fit can’t be overstated. I watched my son go through the recruiting process with a number of D2 and D3 schools (including with Haverford) before he ultimately decided that he wanted to focus more on academics and chose to play club at a big name D1 lacrosse school that had the major he wanted. He graduates in May after having had a great experience playing on the club team and thoroughly enjoying his college years.
One lesser known option is definitely NAIA. They are around the D3 level but allow for scholarships and profiting off your likeness (coming soon to NCAA?).
Chris, love the perspective you're able to share with the lacrosse community! It's so hard for a 17/18 year old to make such a big decision. You do a great job sharing some big points. Would love to hear your thoughts on joining us and sharing your story with our community?
I am a goalie playing on the more elite side of lacrosse and I haven't been playing well for the 2 years. Playing against these really good teams got stressful and tournament lacrosse became too expensive. It left a bad taste in my mouth from my previous experience with the sport. I'm deciding to reset and try to have more fun with the sport. Your videos have helped me out a lot with finding love back for the sport. Thank you.
Sorry you've had a rough patch! If you can't tell, many of us have been in the same spot...always important to remember why we fell in love with the sport in the first place!
So Haverford is a fairly small program, and all I did there was reach out to the coach early after being accepted (I think I might have met with him while I was applying to get a sense of what he was like), but it essentially just consisted of showing up. After a few practices I knew there was a TON I needed to learn as a player who had never played travel/outside of Maine, but I also thought I was well situated to play eventually and ended up working my way up the depth chart and getting some minutes freshman year. Depending on the program, most coaches will let you show up for fall sessions when the team isn't traveling/spending resources on you, and then "cuts" will happen in the spring. Obviously this can be different at the D1 level, but my overall advice is to just reach out to the coach early and often to show your interest. Coaches understand that not every player can fit into their recruiting process, so you're almost always going to find a way to show your stuff.
one of the main reasons why I really appreciated this video is because towards the end as you talked about simply being the best athlete possible and making sure you always enough left in the tank on the field. As a guy heading in JUCO this year, one thing I focused on heavy besides stick work this past summer in preparation for this year, but I put a heavy emphasis on my conditioning, running a ton in the beginning, molding myself and getting physically in shape meanwhile gyms remained closed. Coaches love to see you bee the first few guys every time to finish the sprints at the end of practices and always nice to hear your name called frequently.
What’s the best way to illustrate the competitive difference between D1 and D2? The women’s team at my alma-mater have taken me in as a “big brother” to them and I ask them all the time, and I really don’t understand it. In the last few years, we have graduated several D1-calibre players. And especially with me wanting to make a career out of sports analytics I need to understand this better.
I think you definitely see less stratification of talent in lacrosse, where the most elite players at any level could play at every level. A lot of it comes down to recruiting and scholarship offers quite frankly
Everything you said would apply to men's and women's. We're going through similar discussions with my daughter right now. Wants to play, hoping for thoughts on NAIA or Div III for potential at academic scholarships - wondering... from a club standpoint.... and they have divisions in club as well, do you know if club programs at highest divisions can help you with financing / academic scholarships too? Just don't know if they are resourced and focus on that or if they are just looking for people to show up on campus and join?
Plenty to respond to here. To your first question, academic scholarships are actually more plentiful and more easily accessible than athletic scholarships, and nearly every school will have a dedicated office to help guide you through that process. Just make sure you inquire about scholarships as they don't always offer them up front. NAIA allows you to pair academic and athletic scholarships, so that can be a great option (I'm working on a writeup now to put this all in one place). As far as divisions with clubs go, I believe it's more of an organizational thing than anything else, and the financial status of club teams is totally on a club by club basis. My club is technically D1, but "scholarships" are only worked out as payment plans on a player-by-player business. It's always worth reaching out to coaches/clubs to see what their individual organizational structures are like because they can vary wildly.
I got a d3 deal back then didn’t think anything about at the time when I shoulda picked a school I actually wanted to goo too I didn’t really have money for college I shouldn’t have gotta the Academic grants I got for goin to that school my gpa was low wish I did it right I’m 25 wishing I known this
@@icatchsmallfish2150 I feel like my high school team was better tbh. The only difference was we were sponsored by New Balance, who own Warrior, so I had sick gear that I didn't have to pay a dime for.
Man recruiting trips girls location decent academics talent same as haveeford but chose college for so many wrong reason luckily got an “ academic” scholarships Wish I saw this video before I went
The Debt comments could not be emphasized enough! Seriously kids look into finances
Agree. Even Division 1 teams don't have many scholarships.
Yessir facts!! As a Jamaican it's rough though because we end at the high school level 🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️
That is one factor with me pushing my lax goalie son to go the JUCO route. Especially since he wants to study automotive tech and that really limits his school choices already.
Played D3 for 4 years and transferred D1 my final season (got an extra year from the ol Covid). Forget the parties and lifestyle that so many of us have enjoyed at the non D1 level, lacrosse is your job and the competition amongst your teammates is immense. So many 18 year old kids have no idea what they are getting into and commit D1 when they are nowhere ready to make that commitment and go from the HS star, to a team where everyone from #1 to #50 on the roster can play. The biggest choice to make, is knowing what you want from college and how you would like to spend your time. If you lack maturity like myself and need to get your shit together, their is no better place to sink or swim than with your teammates by commiting to something bigger than yourself. That's enough talk outta me though, do whatever the hell is best for you!
Great video as always. I’m so happy your posting a lot now. I think you’re on of the most underrated lacrosse content creators out there. Keep up the great work!
Great video. Thanks for the information. I will be playing D3 lacrosse. And the finance aspect is no joke.
Good luck dude
i started at a community college and they had a club team. it was great. you basically go from playing against a bunch of other local schools, to playing with those same guys you met on the other team. so much fun, practice a couple nights a week later at night and play games on saturday. no impact on your academics and you automatically have friends on campus
You are the most relatable lacrosse youtuber out here. Thank you so much for being here.
Hey Chris another level that is VERY underrated is JUCO. I don't know how these other JUCO programs are but we were involved with the game for 15 - 20 hours a week in the bulk of the season. It was a weird mix because some schools were just a passage to NCAA programs and others were just playing for fun. It's a great way to play 4 years of lacrosse especially if you're from MARYLAND or NEW YORK! 1st point: like Chris said, you will end up PAYING LESS for tuition for about 2 years. 2nd point: you get great experience with balancing academics and athletics. You also get to try it out to see if it's something you really want to do.
Love this! Thanks for the insight!
as a junior in hs this is great information and im extremely glad ive seen this. i will definitely be sharing this information with my teammates. thanks bro
Encountered the same thing when I was looking at D3 schools. Even low level skill programs still take it extremely seriously. Will never forget the Birmingham Southern coach saying " we treat this like a D1 program, 5 hours a day, minimal off season. " And I thought " why would I pay $55,000 a year to go to a school that doesn't even have my major 😀
I play NAIA and its pretty dope, scholarships are readily available for lax and for school(the scholarships are the only reason I came, I was going to JC or CC beforehand). Skill wise it's pretty much D2, since we play D2 teams in the offseason and usually win or lose by 1-2 goals. IDK about other naia schools but mine practices 5 x a week, weights 3 x a week, and film 2-4 x a week depending on position(s)
Love the insight! Thanks!
I had the same experience playing NAIA lacrosse. Definitely a good balance between focusing on lacrosse during the spring semester and really focusing on academics in the fall semester. Also, being smaller schools with a lot of athletes on campus was a really cool atmosphere. I highly recommend NAIA to a lot of young players.
I went to a D2 school for my freshman year. I was torn between that school and UT Austin, and I picked the D2 for financial reasons. This turned out to be a huge mistake because of a few reasons:
1. I rushed into the decision to commit, and let my parents decide more than myself. As a result, I didn’t look into the school as much as I should have. The school ended up not having the major I wanted and I was kind of stuck.
2. The scholarship I was supposed to get was supposed to help me out immensely - however, the school just pulled the amount from another scholarship I got and renamed that amount “women’s lacrosse scholarship”. I was beyond pissed.
3. I did not fully understand the commitment one must make to a DII. I would argue that the top 40-50 or so DII schools are very very involved and are just as rigorous as lower D1 programs. I knew wanted more time to focus on my academics and was promised more balance than I actually got. In addition, fitness is BEYOND important and I underestimated that fact.
I have since transferred to a school that has both my major and a D1 WCLA program and am much happier, though covid has messed things up substantially.
A piece of advice I would give is that you can use any level of college lacrosse that you take on (D1, 2, and 3, NAIA, JUCO, MCLA/WCLA) to help you get a job when you graduate! If you are the president of your club lacrosse team or you’re an average player on a NCAA D1 team, employers will still be interested in you and your leadership and teamwork abilities, which, supplemented with going to a more affordable school, can also help you out upon graduation. Just get involved! :D
Great insight and glad you're finding your rhythm...best of luck!
The debt comments are so real! I played DIII for the same reasons as Chris my freshman and sophomore year. After my sophomore year I decided to pursue a doctoral program after undergrad, which meant an immense amount of debt on top of what I have already spent for my undergraduate degree. I transferred to an NAIA school, which I would actually encourage high school players to look at. They are completely separate from the NCAA and although smaller in current number of teams, they are growing every year. Additionally, many schools will allow you to stack your academic and athletic scholarship money making a college education very affordable for those that wish to continue playing and use their passion for the game to help pay for their school.
Great insight! Thank you!
Great video and loved how you opened about the finances of college. I wish all parents would watch this. Maybe it would keep them from losing their minds during their kids' games, lol.
I play at the University of Illinois, I look forward to hopefully playing and meeting on the field this year. Best of luck with your season!
thats so dope
I stumbled onto this video in my feed which was interesting by itself. Very eye opening perspective. I played at Syracuse from 89-92 and things have clearly changed in our sport. I think you give some good insight. Good video.
My dad played two sports in the 80's and says the same...definitely wish we could return to a little more balance!
This helped a lot thank you so much for all the information and all the others internationally over the years ❤️
Highly recommend trying JUCO if you are really unsure about what you want to do. You can save a ton of money your first two years at school getting a solid education while also getting a great lacrosse experience competitively. I ended up doing 2 years of JUCO, graduated with an Associates degree (looks good when applying to universities) and I ended up having one of the greatest lacrosse experiences of my life.
Eventually transferred and played division 2 but also knew guys in my class that transferred to division 3 and division 1 as well.
Love this!
Spot on for the division one aspect. Definitely all things that came up for me.
Family tried to pressure me to go to a university straight after high school, I didn’t want that financial burden. Went with a JC and a ton of people ended up right there with me after they decided a big university wasn’t for them. Only difference between us was that I didn’t have any student loans to pay off.
Great video! I’m going to be a freshman playing D3 lacrosse this coming year and I’m really excited.
Really enjoyed the spread that you have here man. I started out playing 2 years at a D3 college in Wisconsin, ended up not being the fit for me. I transferred to the University of Arizona, and made the club team here (see you March 7th), but it was the best transition I could have made. So much less stress, our program in D3 was trying to run a D1 style schedule with only 12 players... and it made my experience dampen a bit. The club experience has been so much more enjoyable, low stress, but still very competitive! This is an awesome resource to people to watch when considering colleges.
Make sure you say hey! Love the insight!
It brought back great memories listening to you discussing playing lacrosse in college presently. I played at the University of Maryland, College Park, 1966 - 1970. Back then, the programs weren’t nearly as demanding. I was able to play as a starter and obtain a degree in aerospace engineering. I’m sure I couldn’t do that now.
That's awesome! Unfortunately it's incredibly difficult to major in STEM and pursue athletics these days...I was trying to major in astrophysics and squeezing in 3am observation sessions between 6 am lifts and practices that ended at midnight!
Love the channel bro keep up the good work
Great video and the advice on the finances and finding the right fit can’t be overstated. I watched my son go through the recruiting process with a number of D2 and D3 schools (including with Haverford) before he ultimately decided that he wanted to focus more on academics and chose to play club at a big name D1 lacrosse school that had the major he wanted. He graduates in May after having had a great experience playing on the club team and thoroughly enjoying his college years.
So glad to hear he enjoyed his experience!!
One lesser known option is definitely NAIA. They are around the D3 level but allow for scholarships and profiting off your likeness (coming soon to NCAA?).
Chris, love the perspective you're able to share with the lacrosse community! It's so hard for a 17/18 year old to make such a big decision. You do a great job sharing some big points. Would love to hear your thoughts on joining us and sharing your story with our community?
Great video!
MCLA BABY
allll dayyyy
I walked on to an NAIA team after transferring to a Michigan satellite school, it's been a great experience
Super helpful. Really appreciate it
I am a goalie playing on the more elite side of lacrosse and I haven't been playing well for the 2 years. Playing against these really good teams got stressful and tournament lacrosse became too expensive. It left a bad taste in my mouth from my previous experience with the sport. I'm deciding to reset and try to have more fun with the sport. Your videos have helped me out a lot with finding love back for the sport. Thank you.
Sorry you've had a rough patch! If you can't tell, many of us have been in the same spot...always important to remember why we fell in love with the sport in the first place!
Truer words have never been spoken
Maybe I wish I saw this before I committed for hockey and lacrosse
This is a great topic. Can you talk more about your experience as a walk on? How did you get a tryout, were you always a lock to make the team, etc?
So Haverford is a fairly small program, and all I did there was reach out to the coach early after being accepted (I think I might have met with him while I was applying to get a sense of what he was like), but it essentially just consisted of showing up. After a few practices I knew there was a TON I needed to learn as a player who had never played travel/outside of Maine, but I also thought I was well situated to play eventually and ended up working my way up the depth chart and getting some minutes freshman year.
Depending on the program, most coaches will let you show up for fall sessions when the team isn't traveling/spending resources on you, and then "cuts" will happen in the spring. Obviously this can be different at the D1 level, but my overall advice is to just reach out to the coach early and often to show your interest. Coaches understand that not every player can fit into their recruiting process, so you're almost always going to find a way to show your stuff.
@@mainelymesh Thanks!
one of the main reasons why I really appreciated this video is because towards the end as you talked about simply being the best athlete possible and making sure you always enough left in the tank on the field. As a guy heading in JUCO this year, one thing I focused on heavy besides stick work this past summer in preparation for this year, but I put a heavy emphasis on my conditioning, running a ton in the beginning, molding myself and getting physically in shape meanwhile gyms remained closed. Coaches love to see you bee the first few guys every time to finish the sprints at the end of practices and always nice to hear your name called frequently.
The club life is the only life
Gonna walk on to a D1 school, just got to get in to the school, transfer, get noticed, and then play D1. I’m a senior btw in college.
Jk
What’s the best way to illustrate the competitive difference between D1 and D2? The women’s team at my alma-mater have taken me in as a “big brother” to them and I ask them all the time, and I really don’t understand it. In the last few years, we have graduated several D1-calibre players. And especially with me wanting to make a career out of sports analytics I need to understand this better.
I think you definitely see less stratification of talent in lacrosse, where the most elite players at any level could play at every level. A lot of it comes down to recruiting and scholarship offers quite frankly
Another myth about college lacrosse is that having a mustache will get you on the field more. This is patently false. Helps with the ladies, though.
I know this is n=1 but I have a mustache this year and it looks like I'll start, but I'm also single. So....
Everything you said would apply to men's and women's. We're going through similar discussions with my daughter right now. Wants to play, hoping for thoughts on NAIA or Div III for potential at academic scholarships - wondering... from a club standpoint.... and they have divisions in club as well, do you know if club programs at highest divisions can help you with financing / academic scholarships too? Just don't know if they are resourced and focus on that or if they are just looking for people to show up on campus and join?
Plenty to respond to here. To your first question, academic scholarships are actually more plentiful and more easily accessible than athletic scholarships, and nearly every school will have a dedicated office to help guide you through that process. Just make sure you inquire about scholarships as they don't always offer them up front. NAIA allows you to pair academic and athletic scholarships, so that can be a great option (I'm working on a writeup now to put this all in one place).
As far as divisions with clubs go, I believe it's more of an organizational thing than anything else, and the financial status of club teams is totally on a club by club basis. My club is technically D1, but "scholarships" are only worked out as payment plans on a player-by-player business. It's always worth reaching out to coaches/clubs to see what their individual organizational structures are like because they can vary wildly.
i worked for the best D 1 team ever for 13 years in 2012 the had the best year ever and there was no talking about debs
I got a d3 deal back then didn’t think anything about at the time when I shoulda picked a school I actually wanted to goo too I didn’t really have money for college I shouldn’t have gotta the Academic grants I got for goin to that school my gpa was low wish I did it right I’m 25 wishing I known this
If you want to be an artist working as a bartender to pay the bills, you don't need to, nor should you go to college.
Has anyone ever asked a question about college lacrosse?
My D3 program was laughable. I went for academics, so it was okay that it was sucha joke.
Was it more like a hs team than college
@@icatchsmallfish2150 I feel like my high school team was better tbh. The only difference was we were sponsored by New Balance, who own Warrior, so I had sick gear that I didn't have to pay a dime for.
Club is amazing I’m going to GCU mcla D1 if anyone has a chance go on club
I play mcla in the top 15 and my team has gone to nationals, it is an amazing experience.
Do you have any idea when ncaa lacrosse games start
It looks like D1 schools are slated to play their regular schedule for now, meaning games would start the first week of February.
Man recruiting trips girls location decent academics talent same as haveeford but chose college for so many wrong reason luckily got an “ academic” scholarships
Wish I saw this video before I went