Walking Onto the Lacrosse Team

Capt MJ above with some of the soundest advice.

One of the greatest players to ever play college lacrosse was never a D1 recruit. He played for Smithtown High School West in New York. Not a single offer from any D1 schools came his way. He was completely overlooked.

Today that person wears an NCAA championship ring. Holds the number 4 spot for most points in D1 men’s lacrosse history. He won the Tewaaraton Trophy in 2013. Voted NCAA D1 lacrosse player of the year in both 2011 and 2013. Member of Team USA in 2014 and 2018 and voted All World in 2014 and 2018.


Above is the link to the story of Rob Pannell. Not every non recruited D1 lacrosse player shares the same story. I will say that there are plenty of non recruited d1 athletes who go on to enjoy their time playing a sport they obviously love at the D1 level. There are likely more who don’t make the cut but 40 years later they won’t be living with the regret of not having tried.

If you don’t make the cut and love the game then club lacrosse is a great alternative.

You will always miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.
Read the article you posted. Pannel was a Div 1 recruit, just not at the places he wanted, until he physically matured later than a lot of his peers. He was very young for his year in school. This occurred during a time when early recruiting in lacrosse was rampant. It isn’t anymore, as the ncaa recruiting rules for lacrosse changed.

There’s a 1000 examples like this of late bloomers.

Someone throws out a suggestion they played a sport in high school, and might want to walk on, and everyone talks like it’s a realistic possibility without knowing anything about the individual. The reality is, unless they are already being actively recruited by D1 programs, their chances of walking onto the men’s navy lax team are zilch. The kids who commit to that program have been playing high level travel ball for a decade. For all but a few kids in Maryland, LI, and the CT boarding schools, high school ball is a big step back from high level club lacrosse, where almost everyone you play with and against is D1 material.

At a certain SA ‘s D1 lax program I am familiar with, the people who want to walk on get a brief time to “try out” which doesn’t involve them ever taking the field with the actual team members. People who want to walk on do not get to participate with the actual recruits during sports period during BCT. The men’s D1 SA lax teams all have cuts, where recruited kids are forced off the team. Unless Rob Pannell himself shows up to walk on, the chances of a walk on making the team are pretty poor.

True preferred walk ons are in a different class altogether. They have already been determined to have the requisite skill set, but likely came too late when the class was already full, so they don’t get athletic support in admissions. Preferred walk ons are not people who are told they can try to walk onto the team if they get in, which is the standard response from the athletic department for non- recruited kids, if they get a response at all.

This post is specific to the men’s teams. I can’t speak intelligently about women’s lacrosse.
 
Making the club lax team isn’t even a given at USNA. They’re really good and have several college (maybe not D1) caliber players in addition to players who were recruited to the varsity team and quit for one reason or another.
 
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