Coach Deane's Recruiting Newsletter | May 2025

The State of Youth Sports in Illinois

In 2008 – almost 20 years ago now – Mike Gabel and I were professional players on the Chicago Machine, living in Chicago and working day jobs when we weren’t playing. I was in insurance sales, and Mike was a speed and agility trainer. We realized we were both passionate about coaching and developing lacrosse players. We decided to quit our jobs, move into a one-bedroom apartment in Lincoln Park, and it was there we founded True Lacrosse.

Our goal was to grow the game in Illinois and provide a higher level of training, development, and coaching to players who really wanted to get better.

We started the company by going around to every high school program (45 of them in 2008, and we went to every single one of them!) and hosting free clinics. We had a lacrosse goal in the back of each of our cars, and we drove around Chicago’s suburbs to work with players doing private lessons and free clinics.

We were so passionate about the game and helping these players from a non-traditional “hotbed” like Chicago get the opportunity to play at the next level, that none of it ever felt like work. It was our passion, and it still is to this day.

A lot of people don’t know this, but for the first five years after starting True Lacrosse, Mike and I didn’t even take a salary. We paid for our living expenses as roommates and put everything back into the company to continue to grow the game in Illinois.

The parents we met back in 2008 whose kids were on our first ever True Lacrosse team all really wanted to have their kids coached. They didn’t care about the jersey, the rankings, the name; all they cared about was great coaching, development, and training, and that Mike and I were going to help teach their boys and give them a great experience and some life lessons along the way that could be used after they put down the stick.

Fast-forward to today and the focus of the game has changed dramatically. There has been a shift away from development, training, and personal growth, to playing time, rankings, and team prestige.

The market for club lacrosse is getting saturated with multiple clubs that are being started by well-meaning but ill-informed parents who don’t have the knowledge or background in the lacrosse or coaching but want to offer their child an experience tailored to what they think their child needs. This is happening here in Illinois and across the country. It’s unfortunate because the message being sent to players is, “if you aren’t getting the amount of playing time you feel you deserve, just join a new team,” when it should be, “If you aren’t getting the amount of playing time you feel you deserve, let’s work on developing those skills and figure out how to help you grow.” It takes the emphasis off doing hard work and putting it instead on instant gratification.

Half of college lacrosse players do not make it through four years of playing college lacrosse. Many will quit or transfer because they cannot handle the adversity that comes with competing at that level or dealing with the challenges of not seeing the field as much as they thought they would. Perhaps they aren’t playing their freshman year, or they get moved from attack to midfield. They haven’t built up that resilience or the understanding that being part of a team means being a team player, and that might not look like getting to do what they want to do all the time. The coach will move players where he or she feels they will be successful, and that might not be what the player wants.

As someone who is extremely invested in Illinois lacrosse and has been developing players in Illinois for almost 20 years now and helped thousands of Illinois lacrosse players go on to play college lacrosse, I am disheartened to see this trend of parents starting clubs to soften the blow for their child who is disappointed in their experience. And don’t get me wrong, competition in this market and great coaching and training is awesome for the Illinois lacrosse community. But it needs to be done the right way and happen for the right reasons and with integrity.

Youth sports can make or break your child’s experience, but it can also make or break their ability to compete and succeed in college and in the real world. Put your kids in situations where they are around good people who have a good value system and are looking out for your kid by helping them prepare for the next level and all that comes after. Core values are extremely important for a program. Make sure your program’s core values align with the core values you have as a family.

Thanks for listening. As always, feel free to reach out anytime if you have any questions, concerns, or would like to discuss anything further.

Coach Deane