The Wonder Years: Why High School Lacrosse is the Best Lacrosse

This article appears in the March edition of USA Lacrosse Magazine, which is in homes now. Join our momentum.

I recently asked a Division I coach to comment about a club program that has produced a litany of All-American men’s lacrosse players in recent years. He politely declined, opting instead to focus on what those players achieved in high school and extolling the often-overlooked virtues of the experience.

“I’m a high school guy,” he said unabashedly.

While club lacrosse undoubtedly carries important weight in recruiting, the vast majority of the nearly 220,000 high school student-athletes playing lacrosse have no intention of playing in college. This is the apex.

And that’s why I love this edition [the March high school preview edition]. As NCAA deregulation allows schools to pay players and the transfer portal turns college sports into free agency, there’s a kind of purity about interscholastic lacrosse.

Researching this year’s rosters, yes, we like to know who has committed to which college, why and how. We’re eager to project what their talents might look like at the next level.

But at the same time, it’s refreshing to come across someone like Mia Darr, a two-time USA Lacrosse high school All-American and the reigning Wisconsin Player of the Year who remains unattached to a college.

Google “Mia Darr commitment” and you’ll find on her IWLCA Recruits profile only that she’s “committed to community service” and that she won the ESPN Sports Humanitarian Award for founding a nonprofit dedicated to teaching underserved kids how to ski. She’s a captain and state champion in three sports — lacrosse, tennis and skiing — and surely deserves recognition regardless of what comes next.

High school lacrosse isn’t just a means to an end. For most of us, it’s the endgame itself.

Although the sport is only sanctioned in 24 states, high school lacrosse is played in almost every state in the country by both varsity and club programs.

There’s something special about the experience that cannot be replicated at any other level. The pride you feel wearing your jersey to class on game day, playing under the lights, seeing your friends in the stands holding signs they made in homeroom, daydreaming during first period as the dewfall evaporates and the sweet, sharp, leafy smell of freshly cut grass wafts into the open windows.

To those of you preparing to suit up for your freshman, JV and varsity teams, I say, soak it in. These really are the best years of your life.