In regards to spring team placements, our board and coaches, as part of the selection process, take into consideration a number of factors including: their experience in TYL, their commitment to prior teams, their skills assessment scores, age, grade, athleticism, maturity, interest/passion, hustle, coachability, lacrosse knowledge, and of course child safety. Ideally, no child should be "out of place" on the roster they've been assigned to. The goal is to place them onto “skill appropriate” teams to ensure they are coached at their ability level. All travel team placements MUST fall within the new US Lacrosse & CONNY age guidelines.
One of the most asked questions is “Is it okay to miss an evaluation session or two because of prior sports commitments or family functions?” Our simple answer is “for the best placement on a team, we strongly encourage you to attend all, or as many, evaluation sessions as possible.”
As a program, our goal is to place each player on the team they would benefit most from; and we reserve the right to move players from one roster to another during the season as appropriate. We continue to emphasize that what team a child is placed on in youth lacrosse has little relevance to where he or she ends up at the high school level or college. Developing stick skills, conditioning and hard work are more important than being on an “A” team. Over the years we have seen many “B” team players make major contributions to their high school and college teams and some very talented “A” level players in 6th or 7th grade never grow beyond that level. CONNY is full of successful NCAA champion players who failed to make their youth programs “A” teams. It’s also important to note that simply being on an “A” team but seeing little field time is nowhere near as important as being a leader on a “B” team and gaining the confidence that can only be had by playing with the appropriate skilled children. There will be some players who will go from an “A” team one year to a “B” team the next as they move up to a new age division. This is normal. There are also children every year who are new to TYL who will make an A or B team over a player with some experience in TYL.
