Team 24/7 Lacrosse Player Spotlight
2021 Carson Skinner
Learn more about some of the top High School lacrosse players in the Carolinas with the Team 24/7 Lacrosse Committed Player Spotlight
Getting to Know Carson Skinner
Player Name: Carson Skinner
College Commitment: Wagner College
High School: Dorman High School
Position: Midfield/Attack
Graduating Class: 2021

What other schools did you consider?
Lynchburg and Roanoke
How did the school you chose separate itself from the others you considered?
Outside of the campus and the academic programs, I felt like I had the best connection with the coaching staff at Wagner in comparison to some of the other schools I had been talking to. They had been recruiting me the longest so we developed a good relationship.

How would you describe your recruiting process overall?
The recruiting process was very long and stressful at times but looking back on it now, I would say that it was a fun and enjoyable experience. I know not everyone goes through it so I was fortunate.

What was your favorite part of the recruiting process? 
My favorite part of the process was just getting to talk to all the coaches and getting to learn more about all of the schools and programs. It was really cool and eye opening to see what types of opportunities I had in front of myself.

What opportunities and information assisted you during your recruiting process?
I found SportsRecruits to be incredibly helpful. The platform made it easier to put myself out there to college coaches and express interest in their program. I was really late to the game in the recruiting process so it helped me gain exposure quickly.

Did you feel like you had support from the Team 24/7 Staff during your process? If so, how?
Yes, Coach Flanagan and the rest of the staff was amazing in reaching out to coaches and helping me with getting the most exposure that I could in a really short period of time. The summer going in to my Senior year was the first time I had attended events like Crabfeast and Naptown and it was also the summer that COVID prevented coaches from seeing us play live so it was really helpful having the 24/7 staff help me navigate the process.

What individual or showcase events, if any, did you find the most beneficial during your process?
I did not attend a lot of individual events so I found the team events to be the most helpful events in my recuriting process. We attended some really good events like Autumn Gold, Crabfeast and Naptown which helped me get film against really good competition and open doors in the recruiting process.

What would you tell younger players or parents to help them prepare for the recruiting process?
Have fun with it, it’s a long process and not everyone gets to go through it. You're lucky if coaches are asking you to come play for them at their school. Learn to enjoy it and it’ll all be worth it in the end.
Coach Flanagan on Carson
In the fall of 2019, I got a call from Pete Mezzanotte, the Head Coach at Dorman High School about one of the kids who played for him. I grew up playing with Pete and have always had a ton of respect for him. Pete started for 4yrs as a short-stick defensive midfielder at Towson and was one of the best SSDMs in the country during his time there. He knows the game extremely well so when he called to tell me he had a kid that he thought was pretty good, I was listening.
Pete went on to tell me about Carson and that if we had any openings, to keep him in mind. We were playing with a pretty thin roster that Fall so Carson jumped in with us to play at Towson Autumn Gold. For a guy that had never practiced with us, didn’t know anyone and had no idea what we were doing on offense, he played pretty well and the guys really liked him. We invited him to come train with us over the winter and he showed up every weekend ready to work. It was clear pretty quickly this winter that this was a guy that fit our culture and someone the guys wanted to have around. Due to an injury, we had a spot open up on the roster for the 2020 Summer and were happy to offer that spot up to Carson.

After seeing him play in the Fall and watching him train with us over the Winter, we knew that Carson was a good player with a lot of potential and just needed exposure. The one challenge? COVID. Carson’s recruiting exposure at that point was pretty much that one fall event he played in with us and some small prospect days. He had never played in some of the bigger summer tournaments and there wasn’t much of a recruiting process taking place. Now we were looking at a strong possibility of the summer season not happening due to COVID and he was not going to get any exposure. 

We started “screaming from the rooftops” and telling any coach that would listen about this kid. Some coaches had decided that they were done with 2021s and had moved on to 2022s while some were listening. We would get any film we could to coaches of Carson and started telling his story. We really believe that he was going to be a steal for someone in the recruiting process, if they would just give him a chance. 

In a world of uncertainty, Carson was unphased. No one knew if we were going to be able to play that summer or not but Carson worked hard every night at practice and was doing the right thing off the field to keep his dream of playing college lacrosse alive. When it would have been really easy to just say “this isn’t going to work out for me”, because of COVID and the summer looking unlikely, he didn’t flinch. His persistence was admirable, and he eventually got his opportunity to play that summer. When his opportunity came, he played great and walked out of that summer with a number of opportunities to play at the next level.

I’m still confident that he flew under the radar in the recruiting process and was a steal for Wagner. I can’t wait to watch him play at the next level. 
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