On Feb. 2, 11 Lincoln students signed letters of intent to continue their athletic careers in college. Among them was senior Owen Lotti, who will be attending Emerson College to play lacrosse this coming fall.

College recruitment for lacrosse players is a long process for those looking to get the attention of coaches. For Lotti, it started well before his junior year, which is when coaches and players are first allowed to communicate with each other.

“It started with me just playing club lacrosse,” said Lotti. “Then eventually emailing some schools [I was] interested in going to, or [the schools] just reached out.”

While most players seek out top lacrosse programs, that was not the case for Lotti. He knew his lacrosse skills could help him get into the colleges that he may not have been admitted into otherwise. 

“My goal was to not necessarily go to like a Division 1 powerhouse, but to go for like a smaller Division 3 school,” says Lotti. “For me it was always academics first because I wasn’t going to get into any of the schools [I wanted to go to] without lacrosse.”

Last year, as a junior, Lotti started receiving his first offers, but he did not commit to a school immediately. Instead, he waited to see which other schools would reach out.

“Generally the Division 1 offers come first, and I got those during my junior year. And then Division 3 tends to recruit later, so I just kind of held out,” said Lotti.

When it came time to make a decision, Lotti had multiple options.

“I had probably like five to eight Division 3 offers. In terms of Division 1, I had three.”

When he did make his decision, he had multiple reasons for choosing the school that he did. 

“I ended up picking Emerson [College],” said Lotti. “It was smaller and it had a lot of creativity focused majors, a really good alumni and it has a really good location in downtown Boston.”

After reflecting on the recruiting process, he says there were a few things that surprised him.

“I thought it would be like 99% of the coaches just watching your game film and watching you play, but in reality it’s a lot more about if you’re a good fit for the school, and if you’re genuinely a good person,” said Lotti.