Lacrosse Recruiting Calendar Shift

Fall has become a huge season for lacrosse recruiting. Not too long ago, College Coaches only used the late Spring and Summer seasons to recruit athletes for their programs. Now, the Fall has become equally as popular for getting recruited. September and October weekends are filled with College Prospect Days, giving studletes that day in the life experience and giving colleges an opportunity to show off the autumn beauty of their schools. November weekends are consumed with large-scale team recruiting tournaments and individual showcases, bringing together some of the best young lacrosse players from around the country.

Running a successful club organization means you have to change with the times. If the recruiting landscape changes, you have to move with those changes. As our club shifted from a strictly summer season program to an all year-round one, our Fall schedule has become more thought out, in-depth, and productive.

Below are some ways we help our studletes get better and get recruited in the Fall Recruiting Season:

1. Welcome – it’s important that the FLG Directors, Coaches, and seasoned FLG studletes welcome newcomers to the program. Making new families and players feel welcome to our program enhances team chemistry, gives FLG Director’s an opportunity to develop relationships with the new families, and gives FLG an opportunity to better manage expectations throughout the recruiting process.
2. Connect – After our teams have been selected and the rosters are complete, our FLG Directors get the cell phone numbers of every High School studlete in our program. Connecting with the studlete is vital because we want them taking control of their recruiting process, not their parents. We want there to be constant communication. As well as, hole player’s accountable throughout the year. Staying in touch via phone is one of the best ways to do all these things.
3. Assign – After connecting with all athletes in the program, we assign ‘To Do’s’ that help our athletes engineer a more effective recruiting process. For example, making sure every player in the program has a complete online recruiting profile. Getting each player in our program a lacrosse recruits profile is only useful if our studletes actually use the lacrosse recruits profile. To get our player’s on board, we set a date their profiles have to be filled out. Along the way, we text or have phone calls with our studletes to discuss the best ways to get a complete profile.
4. Train – we make sure to get in team practices leading up to the November’s Recruiting Tournaments. While players may be traveling on weekends to prospect days or playing Fall Sports with their schools, it’s important to have organized team practices to reinforce team concepts. Additionally, we offer individual training for our High School studletes to develop throughout the Fall.
5. Network – Once our studlete’s have completely filled out their lacrosse recruits profiles, we then start matching-up each player with a specific set of schools and conferences. The leg-work done throughout the match-making process makes our lives much easier as we approach our final step in the Fall recruing process, emailing coaches.
6. Emailing Coaches – After all the players have been matched up, we then email all the colleges that fit a specific set of player’s in our program. The Email includes:
   1. The tournaments our athletes will attend in the fall
   2. Links to their recruiting profiles
   3. Graduation years
   4. Contact information for coaches to reach if the like a player they see

Please feel free to share how you improve during the fall!