💭 FCL Weekly Thought: 07/04/25

🇺🇸 Happy 4th! 4 ways to be proactive in recruiting. Best in Class standouts ⭐️.

Matt Dunn & Deemer Class
July 04, 2025

Hey everyone, happy 4th! 🇺🇸

Hope you're getting a chance to slow down a bit and enjoy the 4th with family or friends. June was a sprint for many of us.

Today’s note is a quick one on recruiting and a reminder that it’s a two-way street. While the recruiting process is full of uncertainty, there are some things you can do to proactively take some control. We’ve listed 4 of them in our thought below.

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

Season 4 Weekend GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants

Hopefully your weekend to-do list looks something like this… you’ve earned it.

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THIS WEEKS CONTENT AT A GLANCE

⭐️ BIC Standouts: Best in Class Men’s 2027
⭐️ BIC Standouts: Best in Class Women’s 2029
⭐️ BIC Standouts: Best in Class Women’s 2028

Premium Deep Dive (Teaser)
Sean Kirwan’s Double Crease

Sean Kirwan as the UVA offensive coordinator. Coach Kirwan is now the head coach at Dartmouth.

Sean Kirwan is one of the most innovative offensive minds in lacrosse coaching. Whether it be the up-tempo, high-octane offenses he pioneered at Tufts and Brown, the elite dodger-first schemes he built around stars including Dylan Molloy, Kylor Bellistri, Matt Moore, and Connor Shellenberger, or the unguardable inside finishers he developed such as Payton Cormier, Xander Dickson, or Ian Laviano, Kirwan can build offenses that win in a variety of ways.

Kirwan’s double crease within his pairs (or 1-4-1) offense became particularly effective in his time at Virginia. With a distributor in Shellenberger (who is top-10 all-time in assists), Kirwan built an offense that didn’t necessarily have to win on-ball matchups to blow defenses away.

The simplest goal for an offense is to get a step in some matchup on the field. Someone has to beat their guy. In Kirwan’s double crease, that comes from the actions designed to confound defenses just a few yards out from the crease.

Read Full Deep Dive Here 👉 Sean Kirwan’s Double Crease by Zach Carey

💭 WEEKLY THOUGHT
🔄 Recruiting is a Two-Way Street

College coaches spend their entire summers recruiting - attending camps & showcases, hosting prospect days, and speaking with clubs, high school coaches and anyone else they can to gather information on prospective student-athletes. With that being said, recruiting is a two-way street. As a student-athlete, here are four things you can do to be proactive in your process.

Do your homework. What schools do you want to go to, and why? Have you visited the school? Do you know what the academic requirements are? What is the social life like? Now more than ever there is an abundance of information out there. Spend time really thinking about what you want and work to align a list of schools that fit you.

Identify a trusted mentor or advocate. Work to find someone who knows you and your game - a club coach, high school coach, trainer, etc - that has consistently given you honest feedback throughout your journey. Communicate with them what your interests are. Are the schools you are interested in realistic? Are you aiming too high? Too low?

Express interest in the schools you want to go to. For the majority of student-athletes out there, if not all, you must show interest in the schools you want to go to. There are a number of ways to do this - send emails prior to and after events, attend on campus prospect days, attend satellite prospect days, speak with your club, high school coach or mentor about your desires, etc. As a student-athlete in this process, you cannot assume that a college coach or mentor can read your mind. You must be proactive in letting people know what you want. This is one of the few things that you can control in your process!

Embrace Uncertainty. One of the best things you can do during this process is be open minded. Maybe a school outside of your top 5 or 10 expresses interest. Before disregarding it, spend some time looking into it. It is okay to keep your core values for what you want in a school while also being flexible. There are a number of schools out there that have a lot to offer.

Best,
Coach Class and Coach Dunn

🔥 RECRUITING COVERAGE

In this week’s recruiting section, we are highlighting some 2028 athletes who just finished BIC 2028 Men’s.

Check out the full BIC Women’s 2028 Standouts and BIC Women’s 2029 Standouts from June 16-17.

OJ Ika | 2028 | Attack | Loomis | West Coast Starz

Ika was on fire at Best In Class 2028. Ika’s game was polished and he scored in a variety of ways. He quickly put himself in discussion for a top 2028 in the class. He showed great decision making in when to shoot and when not to, and he seemed to make every shot from 10 and in count in the back of the net. While he’s explosive off the dodge, he’s lethal in taking advantage of bad approaches.

Brock Bernhardt | 2028 | LSM | Smithtown East | 91 Chaos

Brock proved to be a great on-ball defender that can pressure the ball and play out on the perimeter. He had 3 CT's day one, all from pressuring the ball on the perimeter. His lacrosse IQ was always impressive as he was always communicating on the backside and has great slide timing. Very coachable. Has a great motor, frame, and can comfortably play LSM or Close Defense. This is a player with all the tools to be great and a player that you want on your team. Bernhardt put himself in discussion for top pole at the event.

Mac Crawford | 2028 | Midfield | St. John’s Prep | 3D New England

Crawford has insane burst to his left hand. He won almost every matchup off the dodge, firing in a few shots on the run to his left hand and starting the offense by drawing slides. He’s at his best on sweeps and dodges with his head up. As he keeps developing some counters to his right hand, he will be very tough to stop.