💭 FCL Weekly Thought: 05/30/25

And just like that, the college season is a wrap.

Congrats to all national champions this year. What an incredible honor. Many of these athletes and coaches dreams about these moments. It’s fun to watch.

To all the runner ups — more often than not, seasons end with a disappointment. This does not make the season a failure. Losing stings, but it’s not meaningless. It’s all part of the journey.

I know our staff loved getting to watch all of the incredible talent across both the men’s and women’s game this spring. Today’s newsletter includes:

• A weekly thought recapping NCAA championship weekend

• An answer to a parent question around “early interest”

• Some recruits that have caught our attention

• A CJ Kirst film breakdown

Let’s get into it. Happy Friday ☕️,
Matt & Deemer

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FCL Recruiting Resources

Want to better understand the process of recruiting in college lacrosse?

We’ve built a simple $50 recruiting course to help you better understand some of the ins and outs of college lacrosse recruiting.

This week we also gave a recruiting webinar to a Maryland based club team. If you have a team our group you’d like us to speak to, email [email protected] for more information.

THIS WEEKS CONTENT AT A GLANCE

• 🎧 Podcast - Ep. 17 of FCL’s In-Season Podcast (Final Four Recap)

• 🔥 Webinar Recording - Prepping Your Scout Team, Kacy Kapinos (Delaware)

• ✍️ Coaches Corner - Defending the Mirror

• ✏️ Blog - Revisiting 10 Predictions for the 2025 NCAA Season

• 🏃‍♂️ On The Run Newsletter - NCAA Lacrosse Weekly Recap

💭 WEEKLY THOUGHT 
🏆 NCAA Championship Weekend Recap

Championship weekend returned to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts for both the men and women this past weekend for the first time since 2017, and it did not disappoint.

Friday - Women’s D1 Final 4
On Friday, we witnessed UNC women turn a 4-2 deficit to Florida into a dominant 20-4 win. UNC dominated possession and Chloe Humphrey scored 7 goals en route to breaking the UNC all-time single season goals record. For the night cap, Northwestern pulled off an incredible comeback against Boston College, going on a 6-0 run in the 4th quarter behind Madison Taylor’s 4 goals and 4 assists.

Saturday - Men’s D1 Final 4
Saturday, Cornell avenged their lone loss on the season vs Penn State, beating the Nittany Lions 11-9 behind huge performances from Michael Long and Hugh Kelleher. Later on, Maryland used a hot start to jump out 8-2 over Syracuse at half, and ultimately won yet another semifinal in the John Tillman era, winning 14-8.

Sunday - Women’s D1 Championship
Sunday’s National Championship on the women’s side saw UNC complete their undefeated season, beating Northwestern 12-8. Similar to their semifinal win, UNC dominated on the draw and Humphrey continued to dominate, winning tournament MOP.

Monday - Men’s D1 Championship
Monday saw Cornell play Maryland, two teams that don’t play each other in the regular season but have post season history, a recurring fall ball matchup, and two head coaches who both graduated from Cornell. CJ Kirst was the story line as he’s been all year, going 6G & 1A and tying the all-time single season goals record. Ryan Goldstein finished with 4 goals and the Cornell defense shined, leading Cornell to a 13-10 win and giving the storied program their first National Championship since 1977.

The games biggest stars showed why they deserve the attention and recognition they receive, with Kirst and Humphrey leading their respective teams to National Championships. This spring we had the pleasure of welcoming both players on our podcast, and one consistent theme that you will hear the two talk about is their love and passion for the game. They are constantly training, watching film, seeking advice from their coaches and doing anything else that they can to get better each day.

Onto the offseason 🫡

Best,
Coach Class and Coach Dunn

🎧 RECENT FCL PODCASTS

Pretty cool to see both Tewaaraton Winners were FCL podcast guests. These are can’t miss episodes!

🤔 PARENT PERSPECTIVE Q&A

Question

Answer
Early interest is real, but it’s more of a “you’re on our radar” flag than anything else.

What is early interest?
Let’s define early interest as the following: a college coach has expressed interest in a player prior being able to directly contact or offer them. This could be through back-channels such as the college coach expressing they like certain players to a high school coach, club coach, event operator or other mentor. Sometimes the coach then relays this information to the player and parents so they may know some schools are “interested” in them.

What does this really mean?
Whenever a coach expresses this interest to our staff we are always cautious with how we deliver it to players and families, because it does not always correlate with outreach on September 1st and beyond. Just because a school is interested, typically means they will just want to watch some more and do some more digging. Coaches are very diligent with who and how they recruit.

Managing expectations throughout the recruiting process is critical. Early interest is good intel, but not much else. It can help to validate that you are targeting the right cohort of schools, but it does not guarantee anything. College boards change so frequently based on changing needs and who is available.

How should you handle this?
This cuts both ways. Just because you have received word that a school is “interested” early on does not mean they will move on that player. Conversely, just because you are not on an early board does not mean you will not end up on a school’s radar or receive an offer later on.

✅ Final Advice
Try to gather as much intel as possible. Take it all with a grain of salt. Control what you can control and let the outcome take care of itself. Information is good as an indicator, not a guarantee.

🔥 RECRUITING COVERAGE

In this week’s recruiting section, we are highlighting 3 2027 athletes who just finished or are winding down strong spring seasons. All 3 are set to attend the BIC Rising Junior event.

Michael Steer | 2027 | Midfield | Calvert Hall HS | FCA
Steer is a dynamic midfielder with speed. Steer showed off his playmaking ability as a sophomore at the Hall. He has major “party starting” potential as a dodger and a strong shot on the run. To get a sense of his speed, his 2.12s Flying 20 last year would have ranked in the top 5 vs the 2026s.

Check out his IMLCA profile here and a goal from last summer here.

Griffin Hamner | 2027 | Defense | Highland Park | Maddog National & Texas Nationals

Griff had a great season with the Highland Park Scots this year as a key member of their state championship defense, which held opponents under 5 goals per game. He’s got great size and presence on the field. We’re excited to see him continue to compete against his peers this summer.

Check out his IMLCA profile here.

Jack Borg | 2027 | Attack/Midfield | Deerfield | Madlax

A versatile slasher type, Jack had a solid sophomore campaign for Deerfield and is primed for a strong summer ahead. He can score in a multitude of ways, with both hands and has a slick skillset.

Check out his IMLCA profile here.

🎥 BREAKDOWN OF THE WEEK
HOW CJ KIRST SCORED 6 GOALS IN THE TITLE GAME

CJ Kirst took over the national championship game with elite change of speed and finishing ability. Deemer Class breaks down the film below.

 ⭐ BIC COMMITTED WOMEN’S 2025
APPLY NOW

Apply now for our 2025 Women’s Committed event in Wilmington, DE on Dec 6-7! Boys stay tuned.

🏋 FCL FALL TRAINING 2025
CHECK OUT OUR DATES AND LOCATIONS

Registration for our Fall Training 2025 is now live! Check out the graphic for more details and hit the link to learn more.