Syracuse Women's Lacrosse: Program Grabs Youngest Commit in Sport's History; Raises Recruiting Questions

You've heard stories about grade school students committing to basketball and football programs. Now, it appears that lacrosse is the next sport to see this kind of early commitment.

Yesterday, the Syracuse Orange women's lacrosse program received a verbal commitment from Caitlyn Wurzberger of Delray Beach, FL. Wurzberger is a Florida Select attack and currently attends American Heritage School. She's in eighth grade.

She "is humbled and honored to play for the Orange and coach [Gary] Gait," she told FLN. She plans to major in communications and journalism.

This is youngest recorded commitment to a Division 1 lacrosse program in NCAA history.

Now those who are familiar with NCAA rules (as we are all sadly admitting) know that any program cannot make direct contact with a recruit until September 1 of their junior year of high school. However, there are no rules against using third parties, such as coaches, parents, family friends etc or simply going about the process on their own.

Wurzberger's commitment now has the Lacrosse coaching community hoping to enact stricter NCAA rules that trickle over into all sports.

Virginia men's coach Dom Starsia was among the coaches pushing for a new proposal to slow down recruiting. During the IMLCA convention in December, he spoke in favor of following the IWLCA in submitting to the NCAA a proposal that bans contact with high school student-athletes before Sept. 1 of their junior year. Eighty-five percent of the IWLCA voted in favor of the proposal, as did a majority of IMLCA Division I membership on Dec. 11. US Lacrosse has supported both organizations and encouraged the NCAA to act.

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I think we can all agree that since the NCAA has not changed a thing, there's no reason for coaches to change what their doing. It's all just another example of how the NCAA really has zero clue how to work in a modern day sports landscape.