![Fairport's Shane Cronkwright, right, looses control of the ball as he's hit by Pittsford's John Galbraith during a May 2014 game at Fairport High.]()
Fairport’s Shane Cronkwright, right, looses control of the ball as he’s hit by Pittsford’s John Galbraith during a May 2014 game at Fairport High.
![Pittsford Mendon’s John Galbraith Jr.]()
Pittsford Mendon’s John Galbraith Jr.
While it is one thing for a teenager to say they want to play NCAA Division I college lacrosse some day, and another to make that happen, Pittsford Mendon’s John Galbraith Jr. had clues he was on track.
Membership with a club team helped. So did his family’s Pittsford address, since the Rochester region is nationally considered part of a “hotbed” for high school players among college lacrosse coaches. Pittsford is one of the area’s top teams, with two Section V Championships and three appearances in the finals since 2010. Galbraith, a midfielder, was talented to enough to make the Pittsford varsity two years ago, as a freshman.
Galbraith also helped himself in the recruiting process when he played his way on to an all-star team for his age group at the Maverik Showtime Lacrosse showcase. Organizers say the event, which features games and college-prep seminars, attracts the top talent in the nation.
The hard work paid off. Last fall, Galbraith accepted an offer of a scholarship from Colgate University — as a sophomore. Galbraith, 16, will play his third varsity season with the Pittsford Panthers in the spring, his junior year. He can make his arrangement or verbal agreement with Colgate coaches formal and binding as a high school senior.
More than five dozen players invited to Richmond
November is the height of college application season, as high school seniors around the area work to meet deadlines for early decision applications and juniors begin the process of touring colleges and preparing for a year of discussions and decisions. The NCAA’s early signing period for most sports, with the exception of football, soccer and men’s water polo, begins Nov. 11. But for some of Rochester’s top high school lacrosse players, like Galbraith, the decision on where to go to college is made well before senior year.
“I worked hard to achieve my dream,” said Galbraith. “My dad’s support and everyone around me helped get me there. It’s a little different than any other sport, because in lacrosse, recruiting is so early.”
Ball rolls early
There are girls and boys even younger than 16 who choose the college where they will study and play lacrosse. Some are less than halfway through high school.
“There are college coaches who say they are done for the Class of 2017,” said Linda Michele, St. John Fisher College women’s lacrosse coach and Lady Roc club lacrosse team director. “I don’t know if it will ever go backward.
“There’s always one coach who likes it (working ahead in recruiting).”
![Linda Michelle]()
Linda Michelle
If it seems odd to commit so young, there are coaches, parents and players who agree. While there is some discomfort about how recruiting in college lacrosse works, including early commitments, it is unclear whether the process can, will or even should change, as the sport gains in popularity and spreads across the nation.
“It’s really gone big-time,” said Fairport coach Mike Torrelli. “Eight or nine years ago, the early commitment thing was a few colleges, the big schools, but it wasn’t everyone.”
Part of the game in lacrosse — or any other college sport — is to collect good players. More talent on a team increases its chances of winning, and that helps the job security of a coach and reputation of the school. Players used to be able to wait to accept scholarships in the past, perhaps make their decisions about colleges as seniors during NCAA-approved official recruiting visits paid for by the schools.
But families now get active earlier in recruiting. The trend is for college coaches to look for younger players, so families begin to visit schools and look at lacrosse programs during summers while their daughters and sons are in eighth-, ninth- and 10th grade. It is against NCAA rules for programs to fund these “unofficial visits,” so the families pay the bill.
“Now, when they take the official visits they are already verbally committed,” said Michele. “They’ve been waiting to get there for three years.”
Pittsford varsity boys coach Andrew Whipple said when he was a player in the 1990s, he mulled scholarship offers from big-time programs in 1994, until the month of December after his high school graduation. The recruiting game has changed.
Webster Thomas graduate Emily Resnick, a two-time All-American, gave a verbal commitment to Syracuse University in March of her sophomore year.
“I kind of knew in lacrosse you are committing early, but you are so young,” said Resnick, who is now a freshman at SU. “You really don’t know, it’s pretty stressful.
“My parents gave their input, but they made it totally clear that it was going to be what I wanted. I don’t regret the decision for me, but I can see how someone can have second thoughts later. ”
“Like an arms race”
While lacrosse falls way short of raking in millions of dollars for schools and the NCAA like football, it still is a business in which coaches need to win in order to keep their jobs. Bringing in the best players available helps a coach’s cause.
Competition for players has led to the recruitment of younger high school-aged players and more of them, where a coach offers a scholarship to someone to be a part of a team being put together two or three years ahead of time.
“It’s a two-way kind of risk,” said Torrelli. “College coaches are sticking their necks out too. One of the things that can happen is a kid is recruited (and verbally committed) and stops working. Now the kid doesn’t see the field (and takes up a spot on the roster).”
College coaches take their pens, pencils and forms to club tournaments and camps where teams are divided by age groups to find players, including underclassmen.
![In this file photo, Pittsford's John Galbraith protects the ball from Orchard Park's Joseph Losardo.]()
In this file photo, Pittsford’s John Galbraith protects the ball from Orchard Park’s Joseph Losardo.
“It’s like an arms race,” said John Galbraith Sr. “Coaches say it’s too early, but no one has done anything about it.”
“It is controversial,” said Victor graduate and Maryland freshman Sam Byassee. “I’m proud of the decision that I made, but it’s still pretty crazy.
“There are guys who are getting offers who haven’t been on a varsity field. I, at least, played one varsity season. It still was crazy. At that point, college was still three years away. If one school does it, the others will, too.”
This is not wrong, according to Nicholas Hawryschuk of Victor. His daughter Emily gave a verbal commitment to Syracuse during the fall of her sophomore year at Churchville-Chili, where she was an All-Greater Rochester team selection.
“If girls are looking to obtain scholarships from the top programs, you have to move faster,” said Nicholas Hawryschuk. “If it’s smaller programs, the process is still there, it’s not as early for the most part.”
Hawryschuk said one guide for his family was that his daughters’ goal was clear. Emily Hawryschuk wanted to play at Syracuse, even after her parents insisted she move deeper into the recruiting process by looking at other schools.
“It’s been a very early process for a long time,” said Guy Van Arsdale, Jacksonville University men’s lacrosse coach and former Rochester Rattlers professional team coach. “A lot of it is parent-generated. They do like to get it done and out of the way.”
Byassee said the stress of choosing a school was gone in October of his sophomore year at Victor.
“It made high school easier, knowing where you are going,” said Byassee. “I knew what to focus on, what I needed for classes at Maryland and athletically.”
Jim Andre, who coached Victor to the Class B boys state title last spring, said he also has seen an early commitment lock a high school student on to better or improved paths in the classroom.
“There are some positives and there are some challenges,” said Andre. “Sometimes as a teenager, it’s hard to see in you what others see. When they hear from someone else, the message sinks in. It’s really opening some doors they might not step into.”
Worth of investment
The Galbraiths stepped into the recruiting process with education as the largest domino, not lacrosse. The process was more about “what the school could do” for Galbraith Jr. after graduation.
“John has to keep his grades up (to get admitted into Colgate and receive the scholarship),” said Galbraith Sr. “I don’t even have to get on him, he takes it very seriously.
“It’s not a cakewalk. He has a big commitment.”
Galbraith Jr. would like to work on Wall Street someday.
“If you do want to play lacrosse (in college), get it done in the classroom,” said Torrelli. “The amount of money available from the classroom-piece is 100 fold more than what’s available from the lacrosse-piece.
“If you look at men’s Division I lacrosse, these are some of the best institutions in the world.”
That would help explain the amount of competition for scholarships. Van Arsdale said his 2015 team had players from 16 states and three Canadian provinces.
And it is not a bottomless well of funds that are available. NCAA rules dictate that a Division I men’s team has 12.6 scholarships, women’s 12, to distribute to players each year. The average roster size for a men’s team in 2014 was 45 players, 29 on the women’s side.
Andre and others have heard of families spending at least $1,000 per trip on weekends to tournaments and camps, which are promoted as opportunities for players to showcase their talent.
“You would hope with the travel and other costs that the investment pays off,” said Hawryschuk. “From the beginning of June through the end of July, you are taking days off from work to go. There may be some who do, but it’s very difficult to justify doing this on a recreational basis.”
Partial scholarships are better than none, and there is no question in Byassee’s mind that his early decision helped keep his future clear.
Byassee has torn a ligament in his right knee twice since his sophomore year at Victor. The Maryland coaching staff told Byassee the partial scholarship offered was still there each time.
“I wanted to go to a big school and I like the campus,” said Byassee. “Just the way that they recruited me helped me make the decision. When (Maryland coach John) Tillman recruited me, I could tell he really cared.
“There is a lot of trust there. I’m sure with other schools it wouldn’t have worked out. I appreciate that a lot. I got lucky. If I didn’t commit early and got hurt, who knows, because I haven’t played. I definitely can’t wait to play again.”
JAMESJ@DemocratandChronicle.com
