College scholarships: Coaches, players open up on truths, concerns

Gerry Byrne has some sage word for college lacrosse hopefuls. (Mike Miller/Fighting Irish Media)

The basics are that in Division 1, offers go out Sept. 1 of the player’s junior year, and in Division 2, they go out earlier, on June 15. Division 1 men’s teams are allotted 12.6 athletic scholarships per roster, and women’s teams 12.

In Division 2, men have 10.8 scholarships and women have 9.9. When you have rosters of roughly 40 players, mixing and matching who gets what can be, well, complicated.

It’s the reality of having limited resources for a lower-revenue college sport, which makes the whole dynamic of putting together a team seem more like managing the salary cap of an NFL franchise.

“Yeah, certainly. Absolutely,” said Meredith McGinnis, who knows her way around the process. She coaches both at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, Mass., and with the club program at Mass Elite. She also played at Northwestern University after a stellar career at Westwood (Mass.) High School.