but I knew dozens of families who had sons and daughters who played college lacrosse. One of them was an All-American at Maryland and her sister is the head coach of VCU's WLAX program. None of them were what I would consider "rich kids". All were middle to upper middle class kids from the inner (Catonsville/Ellicott City) and outer (Eldersburg/Westminster) suburbs of Maryland. All of them fit the profiles of average Tech students. IMHO, "the rich kid" thing is somewhat of a stereotype. You didn't say that but I wanted to give my opinion from my relationships and observations.

Your "bluebloods" comment is 100% correct. UVA, UNC, UMCP, JHU, 'Cuse, Northwestern, Notre Dame, ... are the blueblood programs. Maryland isn't a rich school. It's student population has a similar income level as Tech's. They're good because they are in the heart of lacrosse country and have 60+ years of tradition. A huge disadvantage for Tech. Having JMU win the WLAX national title a few years ago is promising for Tech.

How can John Sung get the Tech program closer to the level of the bluebloods? Recruiting is key but I agree that the bluebloods will always get a majority of the Top 100 players. Sung has 2 top 100 players (Paige Petty and Maryland transfer Kennedy Lynch who was the 48th best player in high school). Kayla Frank was a Top 100 player but she's no longer with the program. Some say that incoming recruit Katie McCarthy from New Jersey is a Top 100-type recruit. Sung likes recruiting legacy players (parent(s) or sibling(s) played at a high level in college) and coaches kids. He'll take chances on talented undersized players. Sung will sign tall and athletic players too who he sees as potential future ACC talent. That seems to be the JMU recruiting strategy. With the transfer portal, Sung can try to get high school All-Americans unhappy about their playing time to transfer from the blueblood programs or find ACC quality players from lesser programs. This season already seems like a lost cause with the loss of Kayla Frank and the COVID issues. Maybe I'm being too negative. In the ACC, Tech and Louisville will always be the "outsiders" when it comes to recruiting Top 100 talent. At least Tech has more advantages than U of L. Their academic reputation is by far the worst in the conference and their location in the Mid-South is far from the majority of the nation's top lacrosse talent.