Hotchkiss Coach to Contribute to Blog

Chris Burchfield, Head Boys' Varsity Lacrosse Coach at Hotchkiss School will contribute to the PrepLaxRecruits blog in the coming months. Coach Burchfield joined the Hotchkiss faculty in 1991, having previously taught and coached at both Eaglebrook School and Salisbury School. He has experience coaching soccer, hockey, and lacrosse. Chris has led the Hotchkiss team to several Founders League and Western New England Division I titles. He passed the ceremonial 100-win mark in the 2004 season, received the Coach of the Year Award from U.S. Lacrosse for the Western New England chapter in 1995, and the Sportsmanship Award in June 2003 from the Connecticut Lacrosse Officials Association. We look forward to hearing from Coach Burchfield!

Kieran McDonald shares advice

"I ended up [at Westminster] through a recommendation by a friend who went to prep school. I think that is the most common way of getting your name out there - find someone who is already there and have them tell the coach to check you out or go visit the place and have them check out your tape and maybe see a game you are playing in."

- Kieran McDonald, Westminster '09 and UNC '13

A Prep School Recruiting Showcase?

What an idea! What would people think about a one-day showcase for rising 9th and 10th graders in a central location? It would be free for the players and it would accompany a boarding school fair. Quite an opportunity for both players and coaches. Let us know your thoughts!

Glens Falls Top Rising Freshmen and Sophomores

The quest begins to start to collect the names of promising young prep school prospective lacrosse players. Glens Falls Lacrosse reports the following four players:

Tyler Mello (Class of 2013 - Midfield)
Carl Sopczyk (Class of 2012 - Attack)
Jared Strong (Class of 2012 - Defense)
Matt Parsons (Class of 2012 -Midfield)

Can anybody share their thoughts on these players? Have anybody to add to the list? We'll keep track!

"I started playing for the Top Gun Littlenecks the summer following my sophomore year at Tyngsboro High School. From there, Justin Walker who was coaching the Littlenecks talked to me about going to The Rivers School where he coached. I had never thought about private school until he approached me. I eventually repeated my Junior year at Rivers. One piece of advice that I would give to young players on how to get recruited for prep school is to do as much as you can over the summer. It's important to always play your hardest even in summer leagues because there is always someone watching. In the lacrosse community word travels fast and even someone mentioning your name to a coach could put you on their radar."

- Steve Manning, Rivers School '09, Trinity College '13

Top 10 Steps to Recruiting Prep School Lacrosse Players

Coaching lacrosse at a prep school is a full-time, year-round job if you are genuinely committed to building or sustaining a successful program. While there are many steps you can take to improve your program, most coaches struggle to successfully recruit prospective student-athletes and more often rely on “passive” recruiting, i.e., rolling out the red carpet for talented players already applying to the school. While some of the best teams can rely on this technique after many years of championship seasons, most of us need to me a bit more proactive. Below are 10 great tips for increasing your exposure to top prospects. I hope you’ll add more!

• Take advantage of online recruiting services that are primarily catered towards college recruiting. This is a good technique for finding potentially interested Post-Graduate students (if your school accepts PGs) but you’ll find that younger players are posting their profiles as the timing of college recruiting process gets earlier and earlier.
• Create relationships with pipeline programs. Introduce yourself and your program to youth/town programs, middle school programs, junior boarding schools, and club/traveling high school programs. Parents and players often turn to the directors of these programs for high school suggestions and advice.
• Keep an active recruiting database and send out a regular e-newsletter. Set up a simple spreadsheet to keep track of your prospects, their contact information, and related notes. Begin sending out a regular e-newsletter (I use ConstantContact) to everybody on this list with team news, links to highlight videos/photos, post-season accolades, and links to your school’s online application. While you are at it, include your alumni and parents in the newsletter.
• Host a tournament on campus. The more prospective student-athletes that you can bring to your impressive campus the better! Talk to your AD or facilities manager about hosting a summer or fall tournament for local youth, club or high school programs. Ask all attending players to provide their contact info for a raffle or to receive a video of the tournament/game.
• Ask your alumni and parents to spread the word. At least once a year, send out a letter or email to all former players and current/past parents asking them to refer you to potentially interested players and their families. Your alumni are your greatest advocates and they all have neighbors, colleagues, cousins, nephews, etc. that would trust their advice on prep schools.
• Create an online presence for your program. Young players spend a lot of time surfing the web for lacrosse info. There are a lot of ways that you can promote your program online. Make sure your school’s website has accurate information (scores, stats, highlights, coach bios, rosters, contact info) and that you report all of your scores to LaxPower. Additionally, you should consider taking advantage of social networking media like Facebook (set up a team website), Twitter (create a team news stream), and Flick’r (post your team photos).
• Get on the road and see some kids play. This is a no-brainer but it’s one of the hardest things to accomplish because most of us are very busy and our free time is limited. Nonetheless, try to get out to a handful of tournaments, jamborees, camps, showcases, etc. and introduce yourself to talented players and their parents. Be sure to bring some information about your program and a stack of business cards. Take notes on the players you see so you’ll be able to talk to them intelligently when they contact you or you follow up.
• Talk to bigger/better schools. Although you might be actively recruiting players, some schools nearby (that you don’t compete with) might have an ample supply of interested lacrosse players that they have to turn away each year. Let the other school’s coach or admissions director know that you are always willing to talk to players on their waitlist or rejection list.
• Get the word out about your program. The more people hear about your program, the more likely they’ll include your school in their list of schools. Do everything you can to get local news coverage of your team, send out press releases about your program’s community service, contribute to online lacrosse forums/dialogues, nominate your players for post-season honors, etc.
• Get your players involved. If you are a good coach and your program is successful, your players will want to help you recruit. Ask your players to refer their friends and family to the program. Ask them to recruit athletic students from within the school that haven’t decided on a spring sport. Ask them to help out with youth clinics and referee jamborees. Ask them to make follow-up calls to prospective students after campus visits.