How Young Lacrosse Players Get Called Up to Junior Early (Full Guide)

Every season, a handful of 15 and 16-year-olds get the call to play up with a Junior B lacrosse team. In lacrosse circles, this is called "AP-ing" – an affiliated player call-up. The rules, pathway, and mental prep around it are not widely explained. This is how it actually works, what coaches look for, and how to hold your own once you get there. Owen Rice of the Kahnawake Hunters AP'd at 15 and walked through the whole experience on Episode 31 of The Creator's Game.

What Does "AP" Mean in Junior Lacrosse?

AP stands for Affiliated Player. It is the formal mechanism that lets a junior team pull up a minor-age player for a limited number of games during the regular season or playoffs. The exact rules vary by league (OLA, BCJALL, others), but the concept is standard across the sport.

In most leagues, a player has to be at least 15 to AP to Junior B, and the player stays registered with their home minor team. There is usually a cap on how many AP games a single player can dress in a season before they are considered a full-time junior. Teams use APs for injury coverage, playoff depth, or to give a clearly ready young player early exposure to the next level.

How Coaches Decide Who Gets the Call

Most junior coaches do not pick APs off a whim. Here is what actually goes into the decision.

1. You are already one of the best in minor

Call-ups almost always come from top-line minor midget or bantam players. If you are a role player at the minor level, you are not going to suddenly be a difference-maker at junior. Coaches want players who have been dominant for a season, not promising for a month.

2. You can physically handle it

Junior B is a massive jump in physicality from minor. 21-year-olds are on the floor. Coaches look at whether a 15 or 16-year-old can take a hit, finish a check, and not get run out of the building. Size is not everything, but being undersized and soft will keep you in minor.

3. Your mental game is already there

Young call-ups who work out tend to be the ones who do not say much in the room. They listen, watch, and take their shifts. Loud, cocky young players get humbled fast and often do not get invited back. Quiet confidence travels better at any level.

4. A connection to the coaching staff

Small lacrosse communities are relationship-driven. If your minor coach has coached with a junior coach, or played with them, or knows them well enough to say "this kid is ready," that phone call matters. That is not favouritism. That is a trusted source telling another trusted source who to trust.

What to Do Before the Call Comes

Most players who eventually AP have been preparing for years without naming it that way. Here is what the preparation actually looks like.

• Play floor year-round if you can. Indoor lacrosse is where habits are built – stick tricks, small-space offence, net front defence. Communities with year-round floor access produce more call-ups than communities without it. If you do not have a year-round rink in your area, ask your association board what it would take to make that happen.
• Get on an elite tournament team. Laxachusetts, California box tournaments, local Native tournaments. Playing a weekend in an unfamiliar building against unfamiliar competition is how you find out what your game is actually worth. It also puts you on the radar of coaches and sponsors outside your home community.
• Watch junior lacrosse on purpose. Watch the pace. Watch how plays develop. Watch how mistakes get punished. The junior game has a different rhythm than minor and you can absorb a lot of it just by paying attention at live games before you are ever in one.
• Work on the part of your game that will not scare coaches. Scoring is the most obvious. Two-way play, physicality, faceoff work, and goaltending all project too. Pick your thing and sharpen it.

What Your First Junior Games Actually Feel Like

The common experience is exactly what Owen Rice described on Episode 31 of The Creator's Game. Exciting and nervous in the same breath. The floor is faster. The players are bigger. Your dressing room goes quiet in places it did not in minor.

The best advice, from a coach: keep a cool head, do not go out to hurt anybody, play the game. Do what got you the call. Do not try to prove you belong by chasing a fight or forcing a highlight play on your first shift. The guys who stick around are the ones who take short shifts, finish their checks, and show they can be trusted with the ball in their stick.

Parents: How to Help Without Getting in the Way

If your kid is getting a call-up, keep it boring. Drive them to the rink. Make sure their gear is ready. Do not tell the coach how to use them. Do not tell your kid they are being underused. Call-up time is not the moment to try to negotiate.

Also, pay attention to the full-time schedule. A 15 or 16-year-old splitting time between minor and junior is playing a lot of lacrosse. Watch sleep, nutrition, and school. Burnout is real and it ends careers before they start.

The Long Game

The point of an early call-up is not the call-up itself. It is the runway. A player who APs at 15, plays full-time junior at 16, and gets three full seasons before aging out at 21 has a much better developmental curve than a player who waited until 18 to play junior at all. You are buying experience at a level you will need eventually. The sooner you get it, the more of it you have.

This article is based on Episode 31 of The Creator's Game from Beyond Pryde. Listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.