A high school teammate of mine was once called for a 'High Sticking' penalty.

It always took me an extra hour to get through airport security with my lacrosse sticks.

Even my own grandparents think I played football in college. And I played for a Division One College Lacrosse team that was ranked in the Top 20 for much of last season.

Despite all of its growth in the last few years, lacrosse is just not a mainstream sport in many parts of the country. In Michigan, where I learned the game, many people have never heard of the sport.

While player participation is still relatively low in my home state and in many other regions, there are a number of very good athletes who have potential to play in college. Look at the rosters of the top 10 teams in the country and you will see teams dotted with players who grew up in places like Illinois, Minnesota, Texas, Arizona and Florida.

There is a significant jump from high school lacrosse in a non-traditional lacrosse region to the college game. Many players are up to making the jump. However, because it is considerably more difficult to get recruited from a non-traditional lacrosse region, many of them might not get the chance.

I am from Troy which is a suburb seven miles north of Detroit. My high school, University of Detroit Jesuit, is the only lacrosse team in the city of Detroit. I felt I got good coaching in High School, but I knew that it would be an uphill battle to play lacrosse in college. In Michigan there are fewer players, a lower level of competition, and less exposure to college coaches than in other parts of the country.

After a lot of hard work trying to get exposure to college coaches I was fortunate enough to be recruited and play at Colgate University.

Although there are two college programs coming to Michigan—U of D Mercy and Adrian—there were no college lacrosse teams in Michigan when I was in high school. In addition, Detroit is too far for many busy college coaches, thus we rarely had any scouts at our games. So despite being a High School All American, First Team All State, and All League, I had to go to camps to be seen by college coaches.

Had I played in New York or Maryland I may have been a more highly tauted recruit. I was recruited primarily by Patriot, MAAC, and Division III schools. To gain exposure to these coaches who recruited me, I went to many summer camps.

Some of the camps I went to are Le Moyne, Blue Chip 225, Top Star, and Top 150. Camps can be very frustrating (and very expensive) for players. There is significant pressure to perform your best as a coach may only see you play once at camp. Transportation can also be quite a challenge. I remember taking a Greyhound bus through the night from Detroit to Gettysburg to get to Top Star.

Early in your high school career I would not go to recruiting camps. You want to work up towards the top competition. You do not need to earn a scholarship your freshmen year of college. I would go with some team mates to a camp that you think would be fun. In between my freshmen and Sophmore year in high school I went to Le Moyne. My brother went there and I thought the camp would be fun.

When I was older I wanted to get looked at by more coaches so I went to recruiting camps. I just picked a few recruiting camps that fit into my schedule and went alone. These are more pressure but are necessary to attend if you want to get exposure to college coaches.

It is important at camps to always work as hard as you can each game. This can be difficult as you can play 7 or 8 games per day. You never know when a coach from the school that you want to go to could be watching. However, if you have a bad game, do not worry about it. My knee was bothering me during my first few days at Top Star Camp. I was a step slow and was not playing very well. Yet I improved in the last few days of camp and was able to make the camp all star team.

It is equally as important to be friendly and a good team mate. The coach of your camp team will either be a college coach or a college player. At night the camp staff talks about the players and personality matters. No coach will want to recruit someone who for whatever reason will not be a good team mate.

I also wrote emails to some of the coaches at schools I was interested in. I introduced myself, expressed interest in the team, and asked for more information about the school and program. It is not a bad idea to write specific coaches in advance of camp so that they will look to watch you play at camp.

After the camps I also sent some film out to coaches. The film helped me at some schools and hurt me at others. Army had originally expressed a lot of interest in me. However, for whatever reason, they ended up telling me I was too slow to play there when they saw me on film. I can run two miles in eleven minutes and plan on running the Detroit marathon in under three hours soon. I suppose that was Army's loss because we finished ahead of them three of my four years in the Patriot League standings.

Luckily, the film I sent to Colgate caught the eye of the staff, and it led to an invitation to visit the campus. I took an official visit to Colgate and loved it. I never thought I wanted to go to a smaller school in a small town like Colgate. However when I saw the campus, athletic facilities, and met the players, I knew Colgate was the place for me.

My suggestion to players looking to get recruited is to send film only if the coach requests it or if you feel like you need more exposure. It can be expensive to make and mail and may not necessarily help you. If you come from a hotbed, coaches may have seen you play anyway so it could be a waste.

If you do not get recruited by a school, you can try walking on. It is surprising how many walk-ons make college lacrosse teams. We had guys walk on every year at Colgate. I would recommend writing an email to the coach after you apply to the school. Go to the team's website and get a feel for the program. E-mail the coach and say you would like to try to walk on and see what he says. A coach does not have to grant you a walk on so be respectful and ask nicely.

If you are from a non-traditional lacrosse region, it is certainly more difficult for you to play in college. But you can increase your chances significantly if you work on gaining exposure. If you have talent, your biggest obstacle will be getting coaches to notice you, but that can be made up with camps, a highlight film, and emails to the coaches.

You only get one change to play in College. Make the most of it.

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John Dunn was a three year starter for a Colgate team that beat Army, Navy and Syracuse. Ever humble, John says he was simply a part of the team’s overall success.

John graduated from Colgate in the Spring of 2007 with a degree in Molecular Biology. This summer he worked as a research assistant at two well-known hospitals in Boston.