A common misconception prevalent in the lacrosse community, especially among new players and parents, is the notion that there are an abundant amount of lacrosse scholarships available. The reality is very few scholarships are awarded to players. Thus this article intends to disect "Reality by the Numbers of College Lacrosse Recruting" and conclude that guardians shall not install the falsehoods of "abundant lacrosse scholarships" in their players as a means to galvanize participation in the game.
The men's high school game consists of over 160,000 players. The mandated maximum number of scholarships per college program over four years is 12.6 at Division I, 10.6 at Division II and 0 at Division III. Average lacrosse scholarships awarded per year, per school equates to 2.65 - 3.15 scholarship at DII & DI levels. With 63 programs in Division I and 50 programs in Division II, the entire pool of available scholarships figures to about 330 scholarships per year. Computing the percentage of available scholarships by the pool of high school players: The chances of a male lacrosse player attaining a full scholarship is a mere 0.002%.
As evidence above, a full scholarship is extraordinaryly rare. The amount awared to a full scholarship recipient may vary depending on player performance and is not guaranteed for all four years. Each full year of scholarship awarded detracts from the amount of scholarship available to other players- partial included. In a men's Division I program, 12.6 scholarships are alotted to a a squad of 45 - 50 players over 4 years.
In the more common cases in the collegiate programs, scholarship money is spilt among the entire squad at varying percentages called "partial scholarhships". What most college coaches do nowadays is break up 12.6 rides into 25- 30 partial rides offering much smaller scholarships in the form of money, tuition, books etc. Coaches like to take care of as many talented players as they can.
What the Coaches Say...
Matt Kerwick, Jacksonville University When I was at Georgetown we had a couple guys that were getting close to full rides. We had a handful of guys that were getting 70 percent and a lot of guys that were getting 30 to 40 percent. Most programs do it the same way – you’re going to reward the guys who are doing the right thing socially, academically, on the field and as a teammate. As they move to their sophomore and junior year you’re going to reward those guys. They might start with a 20 percent scholarship and by the time they’re leaving their senior year they are getting over half a scholarship.”
Dave Pietramala, Johns Hopkins"The advice I would pass on is to not believe what you hear. There is a common misconception that everyone gets a scholarship and if they get a scholarship, it’s a full scholarship. The reality of it is that very few players get full scholarships. The rest are broken up. As coaches we find ourselves trying to take care of as many of these talented players as we can. Most young men are getting a portion of a scholarship and there are quite a few that are paying their own way or on some kind of need-based financial aid."
Bill Tierney, University of Denver“We’re an equivalency sport, which makes us different from football and basketball where everyone gets a full ride. What most college coaches do is break it up to some full rides, some in amounts of money, some in tuition, room and board or books. You can break them up any way you want, but in general if there is a 45-man team there might be 25 or so that are on some sort of scholarship money.”
