There is absolutely a huge gap among boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams at many schools. While boys’ teams have dedicated coaching staff with significant lacrosse experience, girls’ teams are often coached by math or Latin teacher who may or may not have ever played lacrosse. Boys teams usually have year round program with fall work outs and practices and winter box league which are not nearly as common for girls’ programs. The plus for OP is that girls’ teams are not dominated by a new crop of PGs and upperclassmen recruited to play lacrosse every year, while girls’ teams also recruit the numbers are smaller and the recruited girls tend to be younger so there is far more opportunity to develop and rise through the program. Still, it is a key to pick a school where coach has relationship with local club teams where the girls can play in the off season. I would definitely take a close look at Loomis, their girls’ team is excellent and it could possibly be match academically too.
You should check out Mercersburg and reach out to the girls varsity lax coach. She is outstanding, and members of their team play in tournaments, go to camps, and play club in the local area in PA. Several members of their team are or will play in college. And Mercersburg has a strong learning center, with support for kids with ADHD and learning differences. My kid has dyslexia and is a strong 3-sport varsity athlete. She has done very well there.
Agree with much of the information shared above. Hope this helps.
For the OP’s question and other’s questions… Can’t speak to basketball, but can speak @ lax. Here is some advice and some tips. For the OP - feel free to DM me for more information.
- Be sure to have your evaluations up to date and if your kiddo currently has an accommodation plan, have it handy - discuss Supports and Accommodations with the schools you will be researching.
- We know kids at our school and other schools (often mentioned here on CC) who manage their learning differences, ADHD, anxiety, dysgraphia, etc really well in an academically challenging environment. Your kiddo will not be alone in this. I think some schools have more formal supports in place and other schools you have to work with the learning specialist to personalize a program of supports & accommodations for your kiddo.
- There are several strong lax teams at schools. We do know a lax gal at Culver and she is thriving there. If your DD is a serious lax gal, you should do your research early @ club/travel lax teams. Some school coaches do not want to get involved in this discussion and others are more helpful with information. Our experience was that all but one coach did not want to get involved in giving us information about club teams up in the NE. We did get a couple of names of clubs, but most coaches would not/could not give us specific information @ which travel/club teams their players were on. I get the feeling that there are many rules/regulations on what they can share.
- Almost all the top boarding schools have strong girls lax programs. The NE boarding schools we know with strong lax include Hotchkiss, Middlesex, St Marks School, Deerfield, Taft, SPS, Berkshire, Pomfret etc. Sorry if I did not mention your school. There are many. Beware of the NY schools if your kiddo already plays on a Varsity team because there was something related to the NY Transfer rule that may impact your kid.
- You can actually check out lax team records/results and videos online to understand the level of play. As someone mentioned above, many of these school teams have informal captains practices and conditioning in months leading up to season.
- Many BS lax gals participate in travel/club teams during the year. This can be tough coming from the Midwest (have personal experience) because many of the girls at BS’s have been on their club team for YEARS! It is also a challenge arriving as a Freshman and trying to get into a travel/club. Your kiddo most likely will have to try out duringThis is tough because there are many lax gals playing at boarding schools who are within driving distance or have friends who can get them to weekend practices for travel. Travel/club lax is $$$ and it’s also a challenge to get to practices, showcases, camps on weekends when you may have Saturday classes or attend a school that demands a sport every season.
But @Golfgr8, would you agree that some of those aren’t appropriate for a kid who needs academic support? That’s why I think that taking a step back to the Lawrence Academy, Cushing, level may be better. Also, easier to play for a club team if your school doesn’t have a major 3 sport/activity commitment requirement for 9/10 graders.
OP, that is something else to check out. Most of the BS have a commitment rule for the early grades, 9/10, which means they HAVE to do two sports plus an afternoon commitment, or even 3 sports.
If your daughter is going to go off campus 3x per week for lacrosse practice and then travel every weekend that is going to be a no go at several of the schools. Once you narrow your list you can ask here but you need to have very frank conversations with the AOs and maybe the lacrosse coaches at the school. We were told “oh, we’ve had kids on your daughters team make it work here before” so we thought it would be ok. It was not ok and freshman year was a hard hard struggle and involved me getting into it with the athletic director and the deans. I basically had to fight for her right to do it and I was annoyed since I’d been told it would be fine. Their version of fine was that she would make ONE outside practice per week and that was NOT her club coaches version of fine!!!
I know several kids who have learning disabilities at SMS that do very well. Their girls LAX team is very strong. Feel free to PM me with specific questions.
Agree with @buuzn03 - I can confirm (from experience) their girls lax team is very ? strong!
My friend @one1ofeach makes some good points. For example, we can’t even realistically attend practices once a week for club! Yep and the club coach is not happy and it has consequences. Here is the reality: It’s hard being far from home Freshman year (in particular) and trying to manage BS responsibilities as well as club team commitments. I also can attest to what @buuzn03 says that there are kids with mild and manageable learning challenges and/or ADD/ADHD at rigorous schools geared for more typical learners.
One piece of advice we got from a well know boarding school lax coach was this (quote): “Do not stress out your girl coming to BS from 1500 miles away with starting a new school, gearing up for challenging academics, and adjusting to Freshman year in NE with also pressuring her to join a lax travel time. Let her settle into school Freshman year”.
We took that advice. It was a trade off. For us, making the commitment of boarding school was a priority - not sports. If we wanted to play on a high level lax club team 3x per week and do showcases/prospect camps/tournaments all year, we could have had kiddo stay home. Also, Freshman year adjustment and academics (instead of sports) was our priority. We have tried to balance boarding school life and travel lax, but academics and school events take priority. Also, some club teams are just too far away from some schools. School comes first for us.
FWIW I think SMS, MX, Gov’s (for example) are close enough into the Boston area to find good club teams that are within driving distance for practices. I think there is a Parent on here with a gal playing for one of those schools and they can add their 2-cents.
Feel free to DM me for more info.
I think the ‘don’t stress out your girl with playing club freshman year’ is very likely going to limit your college choices. Sophomore year is when all the showcases/prospect days happen and it is not realistic to be able to jump on a team at that point and get meaningful playing time and be noticed. IME, most kids stay on their pre-BS team for the summer season if coach allows, though a lot live close enough to make it to some weekend practices and fall tournaments as well. If you can’t do that and will have to switch teams it will be uphill battle to get onto one in 10th grade unless your BS coach can make some calls for you. And even then you will have to figure out the logistics of getting her to the practices/tournaments etc.
Like most things it depends on your kid. I can say, however, from experience that starting 9th grade BS, doing well in school (#1 family and kid priority), doing three varsity sports all year, doing a club team and making social connections is CRAZY. We lived it. My kid decided that lacrosse wasn’t going to be a college activity so club was the thing that dropped. ( I do believe that if lacrosse in your “IN” then being on a club team can help recruiting a lot). But I also believe that if you are a top tier athlete you can also attend top tournaments and get on the radar of coaches that way as well.
Also, while most of the girls on the varsity team have their eyes on Div I, not all play club.
@417WHB That issue of having a coach who is sub-par for the girls vs. boys team sounds specific to your experience. Any parent looking for a particular sport has to kick the tires for that sport and get insight( check the record, see who has been recruited, are there any amazing players from recent years and if they are in the area, ask their club team about the school). Also, lol, Latin coaches could be a great lacrosse coach. My kid has a teacher for an AP subject who was an Olympian. No connection at all between the sport and the subject but the expectation level is high. The teacher is a coach of a random sport my kid doesn’t play. I would love to have that guy coaching my kid in any sport!
LA is often recognized in NE for really serving the needs of students who have learning issues. I would check with them first. Personally, I would choose the academic fit over any athletic fit. Also, your kid might add a sport or two. That will add to even more complexity. Happened to us.
For our family, our kids both played two varsity sports and then chose a school thirds team in the spring instead of a 3rd varsity sport. This opened up time to play the club sports outside of school. Thirds coach knew in advance that kids would miss most of thirds sport activity and this was dealt with the the AD instead of by me.
I know kids who tried to do three varsity sports (honestly, if you’re a good enough athlete to do two you can probably make a third varsity team at a lot of these schools) AND club. That did not work and is, IMO, a terrible idea.
It really depends on the school and the sport. I can’t think of one kid at our school that has done 3 varsity sports in 9th grade. Possibly a couple of the runners between cross country, indoor track and track and field. But not on team sports, most of them have no freshmen playing on varsity at all.
When we visited Brewster, our tour guide was a junior that was committed to a Div 1 school since sophomore year. Her mother just so happened to be there that weekend, so I was able to talk to her as well (My kid is opposite sex and a different sport, so we didn’t get into the specifics about girls LAX). She mentioned that her daughter often flew to various tournaments on weekends and how helpful Brewster was with making sure she got all assignments, dealing with travel arrangements, being flexible with allowing her to go. We were impressed with their team approach and how they know everything going on with each kid so no one slips through the cracks. It was evident that this was not just talk when they walked us through the process and talking to this mom I felt like I came away with specific examples of how individualized they are. Their academic support is also very individualized.
Brewster is on the small side and has a very laid back feel to it. The Head of School came from a “pressure cooker school”(were multiple kids ended up taking a leave each year due to academic pressure) and really stressed how the neurodiversity and balance of Brewster was were he felt more comfortable. They will accept (and prefer) a recent neuropsych report in lieu of an SSAT.
I agree that Brewster might be a good fit and Berkshire mentioned early in the thread as a strong LAX school also has a very robust academic support system. Another thing to bear in mind is how your child will commute to club practices. My daughter was a nationally ranked rock climber who needed to train on specific equipment and while some schools were open to the idea of working that into her schedule, ultimately there was no way to get her to the climbing gym which was 25 minutes away.