College: DI Lacrosse: The three S's – One set for coaches, one set for players

The three S's are pretty widely known among NCAA coaches when assessing lacrosse recruits. As the saying goes: "Speed, Size, Skills, you gotta have at least two." Skills here refers not just to stick stills, but to Lacrosse IQ. These three S's are immutable for coaches. That is to say, if you are tiny, you must be very quick and have an off-the-charts lacrosse IQ. Case Matheis at Duke is a perfect example.

But, after you are recruited, another set of three S's becomes REALLY CRUCIAL. The above set of three S's is for coaches The following set of S's is for athletes. These three S's are immutable, too! Studies, Sports, Social life: Pick 2, but you can't have all 3. Here are the in-season time requirements for  the typical Ivy League Lacrosse player:

Hours in a week: 168

Practice, lifting, time to/from practice:
20 hours per week

Team meetings: 6 hours per week
Game time and travel time: 10 hours per week
Total: 16 hours per week

Study: 35 hours per week

Classes: 15 hours per week

Travel to/from/between classes: 3 hours per day
Total: 15 hours per week

Sleep:
7 hours per night:
49 hours per week (you can't afford more than 7 hours a night in-season)

Eating and travel time to food:
11 hours per week

Laundry, showering, dressing, shaving and other ablutions
7 hours per week

That's your 168 hours, with no social life.

If you want a social life, the hours have to be stolen from somewhere. Eating, sleeping, studying, attending classes – pick your poison!

The life of a DI athlete can be very rewarding, but only if you are obsessive about time management. If you aren't.... well, you can drop the sport, you can drop out, you can drop on the depth chart, you can drop your social life, or you can flunk out. Those are your choices.