LOONS & CHILL...This summer the U15 Chill coaches need a break so they will be back in 09. Bryce and Jason have been running the U15 Chill team for 7 years straight. The U17 Lax loons will be taking players by coaches recommendation and not holding tryouts this summer due to the change in MSHSL rules not allowing tryouts during the spring season. Players are being accepted on a first come first served basis on the 30 player roster. Each trip to a recruit tournament will range in cost from $650-$750 and there will also be a $400 Player Participation Fee that covers the cost of the uniform, practice facility use, coaches stipends, balls and MN Lax Loons Camp at St John's .
MN Chill & Loon Select Travel Team was started by Mark Hellenack and Art Ayers back in 1995, Minnesota has been sending select teams at various age levels to national tournaments since then. Former MN High School players that have played for the Chill and or Loons include: Charlie Senn (Breck/CW Post), Ryan Hurley (Holy Angels/Cornell), Dan Forsyth (Armstrong/CW Post), Matt Herring (Edina/Michigan), Alex Weisenberg (Jefferson/Queens), Alex Eckstein (Apple Valley/UMD), John Dunbar (Eagan/Wheeling Jesuit), Mike Evans (BSM/Quinnipac/UMD), Mike Freeman (Eastview/SJU), Dan Gnazzo (Eden Prairie/Air Force), Brian Strauss (Mahtomedi/SJU), Joe Costello (STA/UMBC/St. Thomas), Jason King (Mahtomedi/UST), Brandon Gilseth & Kyle Ficken (Osseo/Lees McRea), Chris Maubach (Mahtomedi/UMD/Vermont), Tony Libera (Holy Angels/Maryland/UofM), Derek Michelski (Holy Angels/Butler/Providence, UST), Ryan Pasiuk (Apple Valley/UMD), Kyle Klossner (Hopkins/CSU/UMD), Kyle Rex Sanders (Eastview/John's Hopkins)
Coaches have included Art Ayers (Mankato), Ed McFadden (Edina), Kirk Foote (Roseville), Hank Marotske (MoundsView/Blake), Rob Horn (Benilde/Blake), Mark Hellenack (Kean, Hopkins/SJU), Mark Darwin(Wash College), Dan McHugh (Lakeville/STA), Chris Nelson (AHA), Kevin Walz (St Mary's/Oberlin), Matt Dunbar (Air Force, Eagan), Colin Achenbach (AV, Pace/CW Post/Barrage/Swarm), Marc Jacobson(Moundsview, NDDN/MoundsView), Jim Reilly (Hamilton/UST, UST/Blake), Chris Maubach (Mahtomedi, UMD/Vermont), Dan Forsyth (Armstrong, Stonybrook/CW Post), Mike Livingston (West Isslip, Notre Dame/U of M, Mtka/Mpls SW/Holy Family), and Brandon Husak (Roseville, White Bear Lake).
How Can A Travel Team Help You Get Recruited...
You are your team’s leading scorer, or its best defender, you are a solid goalie, or a ground ball machine. You have some great basic skills, but you just don’t seem to be noticed when it comes to all-star teams or even your own coach. Don’t despair, this summer the tryouts for the Loons and other Under 17 Summer Travel Teams for Minnesota’s best Freshman, Sophomore and Junior players.
Every summer the Lax Loons Select summer Travel team pulls together a team of 24-30 outstanding Minnesota’s underclassmen and travels to 3-4 college recruit showcases that provide exposure for the players. Until Minnesota starts having college coaches travel out to see our players, we have to bring our players to the coaches at these recruite showcases and help market them. This isn’t about scholarships, per se, but a more realistic approach to provide exposure using the best resources’ available.
Minnesota is a “non-traditional” lacrosse market, but we have our fair share of great players attend NCAA Div I, II and III programs. Here is a list of the NCAA sanctioned colleges and universities where Minnesota players have and are committed to play lacrosse:
Division I - Air Force, Cornell, Dartmouth, Denver, Fairfield, John Hopkins, Lehigh, Manhattan, Marist, Navy, Quinnipiac, St John's, Stony Brook, Drexel UMBC and Vermont.
Division II – C.W. Post, Catawba, Dowling, Lees McRae, NYIT, Notre Dame De Numor, Pace, Queens, Wheeling Jesuit, and St Andrews.
Division III - Adrian, Carthage, Colby, Colorado College, Fairleigh Dickinson, Fontbonne, Goucher, Guilford, Haverford, Kean, Kenyon, Mt Ida, Oberlin, Roanoke, RIT, RPI, Salisbury, Steven's Institute, St Joes, Tri-State (Trine), Virginia Wesleyan, Vassar, Washington & Lee, Whittier, Wittenberg and Wooster
Goal of a Travel Team...
1. Games, Instruction & Evaluation: By providing ample playing time, instruction, evaluation and exposure to college coaches travel teams hope to jump start each player’s recruiting process. In a typical hour long game at a tournament each goalie, attackmen and defensemen will should play 25 minutes each. The middies should will evenly split the three shifts. This playing time should be monitored and controlled by the coaching staff assuring that everyone plays equally.
2. DVD Game Footage: Equally valuable is game footage. Teams should hav eparents video tape competitive games to assist players market themselves. Some tournaments even supply footage that can uploaded to your online recruit website or sent as a dvd to a coach.
3. Recruit Discussion: The coaching staff must be knowledgable about the recruiting process and discuss how to select a college, how to put together a lacrosse resume, dealing with admissions, grants, sholarships and financial aid, plus other tips on marketing their athletic and academic skills. It is important to hear from someone that has gone through the process.
4. Online Recruiting Service: We do not want you to underestimate any edge that will assist you in getting into the college of your choice. We highly recommend that every player from Minnesota that is serious about the recruiting process join an online recruiting service. After looking at all the online services available Lax Loons is recommends www.lacrosserecruits.com. They provide a player’s prospective on the whole process and offer a personalized web page for each player with easy to use coach’s database, email function, video upload, plus great advice/tips on marketing yourself and offer the best value for the money.
5. Exposure to College Coaches: Most showcase tournaments will have a minimum of 20 college coaches from NCAA division I, II and III levels, plus some club coaches from MCLA college programs. The best showcases will have a greater number of coaches and fewer number of teams. Remember the objective is to be seen! One of the best ways to do that is to contact/email the coaches' prior to the showcase and send them your resume or online recruit service address. You want to let them know you are interested in their program/school and would like to have them see you play.
The better showcases supply a list of the coaches and their contact info prior to event. I know the Loons email out a list of all our players to evey NCAA coach/program. Our mission is to substantially change the college recruiting process for Minnesota players. Having been a college club coach at St John’s for the past five years, I can assure you that there isn’t more than a handful of colleges that can recruit nationally due to their budgetary constraints. So coaches logically tend to recruit where the largest concentration of players exist, this is why we take teams to showcases in the northeast corridor (from Virginia to New England).
6. Opportunity to make the Lax Loons Under 17 Select Summer Travel Team: The MN Lax Loons team, formally the MN Chill, has been sending teams to national tournaments and showcases for over 12 years. We select tournaments that offer our players the best opportunity to be seen, bond together, have fun and take side trips to colleges and other points of interested along the way. We also encourage parents and families to come along and enjoy the side trips, plus help with the administration/management of the team and video tape the games when they can.
GETTING A SCHOLARSHIP - THE NUMBERS GAME..
There will be more than 2,000 high school lacrosse programs next year. That will represent more than 45,000 players. Division I schools can give up to 12.6 scholarships per team while Division II is limited to 10 scholarships per team. Assuming that colleges are spreading their scholarships out over a four year period, then Division I schools would have just over 3 scholarships available per year while Division II institutions would be limited to 2.5 per year. There are 54 Division I and 31 Division II schools playing intercollegiate lacrosse. There are at least 20 schools in the Division I ranks that either do not grant any athletic scholarships, or are limited by school or league policy to less than 5 scholarships per team. See the number dwindle? That is what you are up against.
If I am an exceptional player, what can I expect in the way of a scholarship? Look at any college’s sideline and you will see a team made up of 35-45 players. Are the majority of these players’ walk-ons? No, in fact the vast majority is getting some aid (this holds true for programs that are fully funded – the MAAC limits the number of scholarships made available as does the Patriot League – the Ivy League states that they do not give “athletic scholarships” but rather make awards based on need – however, if they “need” a player bad enough, they will find the aid). What coaches typically do is break their scholarships into fractional pieces. Instead of 12 full rides, a coach may have 2-3 full rides, 8 half scholarships, 16 quarter scholarships, 13 1/8 scholarships. The combinations may vary, but they will do their best to stretch their grant dollars are far as they possibly can to be competitive.
THE GEOGRAPHIC FACTS
There are 41 states and provinces represented in the statistical analysis conducted by LaxPower (see www.laxpower.com, and click on recruits under “Lacrosse Listings”, 2004-2005 College Recruits, and cross tab with State (HS) by Division). As you can see, the numbers do not lie. The states that make up the northeast corridor have a total of 1,538 of the 1,937 recruits, representing 79.4% of the total. More importantly, the northeast corridor has 86.7% of the Division I recruits, 72.8% of the Division II recruits, and 87.0% of the Division III recruits.
The states outside of the northeast corridor currently have only 7.7% of the Division I recruits, 18.3% of the Division II recruits, and 8.2% of the Division III recruits.
