We were fortunate to catch up with Justin Walker, the head coach at the Rivers School (MA) and Director of the Top Gun Fighting Clams, one of New Englands premier club lacrosse organizations.
With decades of experience both as a high school coach and with the Clams, Justin has an outstanding knowledge base of the recruiting process and how it has changed over the past few years.
Below is part two of our Q & A with Justin, who discusses how the recruiting process has changed over the years, what players should be working on during the offseason, and the future for the Clams. If you missed part one, you can find it here.
Check out the video for some highlights of the Clams in action this past summer.
On how the recruiting process has changed:
The biggest change is how early it is now — it is frighteningly early. I had to meet with an eighth grader this year. Believe it or not, if a player is not yet in high school, Division 1 coaches can contact them. So since he was in eighth grade, the NCAA recruiting rules didnt cover this player yet. So they would not be able to go to him directly in high school but they can in eighth grade. For me as a club guy, we still have over a dozen 2014 players who arent committed yet, but Im also having meetings with 2017s about the recruiting process. 2016s are already well into the process we have two committed and I suspect we will have one or two more soon. You used to be able to focus on a class. When I started doing it, junior year was the big year. Then, it was junior year but we need to pay attention to some sophomores. Then it became juniors and sophomores, with some attention to freshman. Now, it is straight up freshman, sophomores and juniors. You cant even really say you spend more energy on one over the other it is almost evenly spread, for better or worse.
You can sit here and bemoan the process and a lot of people do that, especially guys who have been doing it for a while who think it is a mess but if you spend a lot of time complaining about it, you are not reacting to it. Regardless of whether we like it or not, its here. It is not going to change back, at least not for quite a while.
On how club teams have changed:
Here is the other fascinating thing regarding the evolution of club: our responsibility extends well beyond when we have the players in our own uniforms. There are events like Maverik Showtime, Blue Chip or Good to Great at Amherst we send players to those because of their strength as events. And while there, we see it as our responsibility to watch our kids, even though they are not with us. We have to know which ones need to be recommended to specific camps that will target their needs. Almost half of this job is not when you have them and not what they do with you, it is what they do when they are not with you. In the Spring, we run around and watch games almost every day to evaluate players when they are with their high school teams. If we are going to be able to stack up our class accurately, we need to see that. Some of the players could be role guys with us, but in different settings they are spectacular because those settings are more conducive to their comfort level and/or style of play. Sometimes, it is the opposite they can look great with us and not as good at national showcases or with their high school team. So it is a far more encompassing responsibility than it used to be. It used to be well, when hes with us, he looks good. Now, you have to be able to say this is how he always looks. It is all our responsibility.
On what he has found to be the most helpful for players to work on:
This may sound like coach speak, but the answer is fundamentals. You need a right and a left. You cant come in and be all one hand or the other. We put a lot of emphasis on skill in our program. Some of our competitors may be more interested in size and strength, because they know in order to get a player into a top D1 program, it is disproportionately important to be big. I try not to consider size too much, especially at an early age. I consider a players ability to control what he can control. You cant control your height. But you have to control what you can control. You have to play hard – always. I have been told by many coaches they put more stock in what they see the last game of a tournament than the first game. They like to watch the last quarter of the last game to see what the guys are doing. We had one player who got an offer from a Fall tournament in a game that was added late. It was an extra game on a cold, miserable Fall day. But we played this extra game, and this player he was an LSM was flying around while most others were just going through the motions. So you never know when you are going to be watched.
So for us, work ethic and skill are the most important. The thing I probably should be saying but am not are size and strength. That certainly comes into it in high school. But at a younger age I am not so sure our seventh graders need to be lifting weights too much. For me, a middle school player’s size is just kind of what God gave them. It will come into play later, but you can always get on a wall and make your skills better. So we really value skill and work ethic.
On the future for the Clams:
We are in a great spot. I feel really, really good about where we are. I think we have the right people leading the program, and we have really, really good players on board. We just added one of the areas box lacrosse legends, Randy Fraser, to direct our box lacrosse initiative. Our coaches are great, and I am very excited about the new ones were bringing aboard this fall. The majority of coaches and players in the program are our kind of people. That is really important. I love the character of the kids and the character of the parents. Over the course of the last year, I love the way our teams have carried themselves. It is a great time to be in this organization. I am pumped to be the head of it. We were a lot better this Summer than we were last Summer. We went from a slightly lower than 60% winning percentage program-wide two summers ago to 67% this past summer. We keep all of the stats along with wins and losses. The number of All-Stars at these events when players were with us almost doubled, reaching an all-time high of 35 separate players named as All-Stars a total of 51 different times. Our total of 31 players in the 2014 class committed to play collegiate lacrosse will almost certainly surpass our all-time high of 44 set with the class of 2012. It is a great time to be a Clam.
A big thanks to Justin for his time!
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 and Director of the Top Gun Fighting Clams, one of New Englands premier club lacrosse organizations. With decades of experience both as a high school coach...Read More){kind=link}