Prospect Days

When it comes to scheduling extra lacrosse events, deciding which events are worthwhile can be difficult. One type of event that we often get questions about are prospect days.

Colleges host prospect days as an opportunity to get players onto their campus, recruit, showcase the school, and make some extra money for their coaches and program. These can be great events for players, or they may not be worth your while. Not all prospect days are made equal and not every staff and school utilize them the same way. Going to a prospect day may make a ton of sense for one player, and not as much for another. We will try to shed some light on things to consider when you are deciding if a prospect day is worth attending.

Things to consider:

Are you interested in attending that school and playing lacrosse there? This is a great place to start. There are so many opportunities for players to go play lacrosse. A unique aspect of a prospect day is you get to see the campus of a school and interact with the staff and often some of the current players at the school. If nothing else, this can be a great opportunity to get a feel for a campus and a program.

Would going to that prospect day be a cool lacrosse experience for you? Sometimes we must remember that everything does not need to be about recruiting. Some players just might be a huge fan of a program and it would be an amazing experience to go play at that school. Maybe you feel like you would learn a ton from that group because the staff has a great reputation. This can be plenty reason to go to a prospect day.

Do you have a realistic chance of playing at that school? This one may require some consulting with coaches and people you trust. One thing to note, is that some prospect days “invite” a large range of players. This does not always imply a personal invite. In certain instances, it may, but some schools want to host large prospect days and mass-market the events. If you are going only because you were invited, you may want to try to get a feel from a coach if they think you should spend your time and money attending the event. This can be where your coaches chime in.

Do you want another playing opportunity? Maybe you do not play club lacrosse or your team is playing in many events and you want to compete against a different group. Prospect days can serve as a solid play chance for guys looking for some extra reps against new competition. 

Other thoughts: Prospect days are not inherently good or bad. They could be the right fit for you. I know some colleges intentionally keep their prospect days smaller and really try to get the guys they want there. They like the chance to get to coach and interact with players they may consider recruiting. This can show them how coachable you are and if they enjoy interacting with you. Other schools utilize prospect days as larger events to get big groups of players on campus. 

If you are interested in a school and you believe that school has some interest in you, then it can certainly be a good idea to attend the prospect day. However, it is not necessary and you should not feel bad if you have a conflict and need to miss the day. In a scenario where you are genuinely interested in a school but cannot make it, consider writing a well-worded email explaining that you are very interested in the school but have a conflict. Coaches recruit plenty of players that never attend their prospect days, so you should not feel pressured into attending.  

Here is a broad recommendation on how you could consider implementing some prospect days depending what year you are. This is general and there certainly may be exceptions, but we hope this gives a bit of guidance:

2025s (Rising Juniors): 2-4 prospect days pending your schedule this summer.

2026s (Rising Sophomores): 1, no more than 2 this summer. Use it as a kick off to your process and getting to know school & coaches and ease the burden of travel come fall / winter.

We hope you found this email helpful. We do our best to provide answers to the questions we often hear from our parents and athletes and share that with our community. If there are other topics you are interested in us covering, please let us know. 

- Coach Dunn

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