Oh PR, You Fill Our Hearts With False Hope
by KevinHD on Jun 11, 2009 7:00 AM EDT
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[Warning: Lacrosse post. And part of it is about Michigan.]
Blue-White Illustrated did a story about how well Penn State was recruiting in sports that didn't play in front of 110 thousand people. Buried in that story was this blurb about the Men's Lacrosse team:
Coach Glenn Thiel signed a monster class for the 2010 season that includes nine players and two from lacrosse powerhouse Brother Rice in Bloomfield, Mich. All-Americans Nick Dolik (attack) and Danny Henneghan (midfield) will bring championship experience after leading Brother Rice to the No. 1 national ranking this year. Dolik led the way on offense, amassing 65 goals and 41 assists while Henneghan added 23 goals and 16 assists.
Lacrosse is an interesting sport in that just about all of the power is centered in Maryland, New Jersey and New York. Teams like Penn State, Ohio State, and Notre Dame often compete, but when it comes to winning championships they are simply no match for the powerhouses out east.
Penn State is an afterthought and so Thiel needs to be creative when he recruits. Getting these Michigan players is great, but there is a reason the national powers in college lacrosse are out east: that's where the high school talent is.
Now Brother Rice has been dominating their competition; according to these guys "in the Michigan lacrosse scene, it’s been Rice and then everyone else." Great, but like, it's Michigan.
And how exactly does BWI get off calling Rice the #1 team in the nation? Because, um...
Now that's not a real poll, but rather a totally awesome national high school power ranking from a site called LaxPower (NCAA Men's and Women's rankings are also available). As a long LaxPower addict, I warn you to click at your own risk.
Geekness aside: only historians in the great state of Alabama would ever consider Brother Rice a national champion. They lost several games to teams in Ohio, which only placed one team in this top 31 poll. It's not to say they aren't a very good lacrosse team, and that these players aren't elite, but let's be real: the PSU lacrosse team isn't a national powerhouse and they aren't recruiting like it either.
And while we are here: A Michigan varsity team? Our friends at Varsity Blue have been covering what is essentially the Penn State Icers of college club lacrosse. The big question is whether the state of Michigan can support the varsity team that so many people up north desire. The answer is pretty simple: without some type of major east coast pipeline, they don't stand a chance.
Ohio State, which is the only D1 lacrosse team in the state, has exactly five natives and one player from Michigan on a roster around 40.
Notre Dame, which generally speaking has major ties to the east coast but also a monopoly on the entire midwest save OSU, has just three players from Ohio and one from Michigan.
Penn State, which has the advantage of being quasi-east coast, has one player from Ohio and two from Michigan.
There are probably some Michigan natives out east, I don't feel like looking through any more rosters, but the point is a UM team would be competing with ND, OSU and perhaps PSU for midwest recruits and there simply aren't enough to go around (and keep in mind they don't stand a chance of picking up guys who Cuse, Hopkins or Maryland think are worth a phone call).
After that, it's sifting through the leftovers in Maryland and New York. You can get in line back there behind Detroit:
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And yes,
it really is too easy to make fun to Detroit, even their college I didn’t know they even had.
Lax Recruiting
Two brothers from my high school (the Forster’s at LaSalle), went to PSU. The younger one was the top recruit in the nation, the older one was top 5. Apparently the last few years they have more than enough talent to compete.
Now i don’t claim to know anything about Lax other than my HS was a powerhouse (#3 on this years list that Kevin just put up), but lots of lax-heads claim our teams are talented but not playing to their abilities.
Hell yeah Explorers!!!!
Class of ’94. When i was there the program just started. Nice to see they have been coming along nicely.
World F#$king Champions
Yeah, well...
thats mine way down there at #1358!
Midwest lacrosse represent! Well…at least my team is still playing (and by still playing I mean fielding a team, not playing deep into their playoffs).
Put a tarp on that circus! - showtime @ BSD
#8 and 24
Are in my school’s district. My HS peaked at 60th in 2005, but was 171 in this years poll (5th in the league). I know my high school has had a few lacrosse players get schollies from PSU to play.
I can’t believe I just spent a half hour looking up lacrosse rankings for a high school I care nothing about. DAMN YOU LAX POWER!!
I think we already established that some of us have no impulse control
when it comes to clicking links, especially links with “warnings”
by The JuggerNitt on Jun 12, 2009 11:39 AM EDT up reply actions
Thanks STU boy
I was going to ask if that LaSalle was the same that Forster went to. I don’t know why this article highlighted these two guys and just made a quick statement about Forster when his team is ranked #3. My old roommate is on the Lax team and Jack used to live on my floor, and both of them mirrored what you said, our team is really talented and cold be great. The past couple recruiting classes for PSU have been insane, starting with the 07 class. (Could you imagine if Royster played too? He’d be a modern day Jim Brown)
#1 in nation
Brother Rice was named #1 by Inside Lacrosse at the conclusion of the 2008 high school season, which was “this year” when the upcoming freshmen athletes sign their letters of intent.
The BWI blurb must have been based on a release from the fall of 2008 and simply wasn’t updated. There is no question that Brother Rice wasn’t the #1 team this year.
In 2008, many felt it was a PR stunt by Inside Lax to name BR the #1 team. It was felt by many that La Salle and Loyola Blakefield were among many teams more deserving of the honor.
However, BR is a great lax high school. They have multiple seniors going D1 in any given year, so their talent is legit and tested against quality competition. I haven’t seen the kids that PSU recruited play at all, and I wouldn’t recommend stocking the whole team with midwesterners, but these guys should be solid.
PSU schedule
That PSU lacrosse schedule looks like the football non conference schedule!
Because ESPN doesn't make enough cheap shots!
DO YOU HAVE ANY PRIDE, DANNY?
"I hope after touchdowns this year all our players just point at Zug." - jtothep
by ReadingRambler on Jun 11, 2009 9:07 AM EDT up reply actions
Hey
We can only take over one regional sport every few years;
It’s wrestling this year, but look out Johns Hopkins, we’re totally offering your coach huge Lacrosse money (50K per year?) to come make us a LAX power as well.
"I honestly think the "Spread HD" is going to work pretty well, and we’ll be just fine this year". - 8-27-2008
And after that
We can make the Icers a varsity club and hire someone from Michigan or North Dakota or whoever the powerhouse is!
DO YOU HAVE ANY PRIDE, DANNY?
"I hope after touchdowns this year all our players just point at Zug." - jtothep
by ReadingRambler on Jun 11, 2009 9:08 AM EDT up reply actions
Not sure there really is one powerhouse
In the last 21 years, no team has more than two titles (although nine have won twice in that span). For that matter, it’s hard to say one conference has been dominant – the WCHA has eight titles in that span (although five were consecutive from 2002-06), followed by the CCHA and Hockey East with six each (the ECAC has the remaining one).
fine, we'll just take all the coaches from all those schools
and some can be assistants
by The JuggerNitt on Jun 11, 2009 4:15 PM EDT up reply actions
I know what you were going for
but by cutting off the rankings at Brother Rice, you don’t show #32, MY Ward Melville Patriots. We did hand West Islip their one loss, when they were #1 in the country, but for the 5th consecutive fucking year, they beat us in the County Champs.
Bastards.
Wow
No offense, but I didn’t know anyone here actually gave two shits about lacrosse. Good to see I was wrong.
DO YOU HAVE ANY PRIDE, DANNY?
"I hope after touchdowns this year all our players just point at Zug." - jtothep
by ReadingRambler on Jun 11, 2009 9:42 AM EDT up reply actions
Evan Royster
is not particularly fond of your apathy and is coming for you.
by Screen Name 20 on Jun 11, 2009 9:54 AM EDT up reply actions
Really?
Evan Royster played lacrosse? Where’d you hear this? I mean, this seems like the kind of “interesting factoid” they would announce during the telecasts of the games. It’s something that should have been mentioned at least once.
Or twice.
Or four times. A game….
"...You know, Reemer, someday I'm gonna own a big sports bar."
by IcersGuy on Jun 11, 2009 10:07 AM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
Not trying to break news guy
He’s not fond of LAX hating.
by Screen Name 20 on Jun 11, 2009 10:20 AM EDT up reply actions
Royster LAX Scholarship
Didn’t Royster have an LAX Scholarship from Johns Hopkins and he turned it down to play football at PSU?
if only they could have said that in one of those factoids during games
then we might have known.
Also would have been nice if we were told that it helps with his balance in football
by The JuggerNitt on Jun 11, 2009 12:23 PM EDT up reply actions
Who needs vision to find the hole?
I’m a feel guy myself. I don’t know about the rest of you.
Put a tarp on that circus! - showtime @ BSD
by bconway6 on Jun 11, 2009 2:44 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Yeah, he had a Johns Hopkins full ride to play LAX
but also played FB in high school, but turned down JH to be a badass running back.
I’m less scared of Royster and more scared of his friends.
DO YOU HAVE ANY PRIDE, DANNY?
"I hope after touchdowns this year all our players just point at Zug." - jtothep
by ReadingRambler on Jun 11, 2009 10:34 AM EDT up reply actions
I remember Cadogan being big
but I don’t recall him dwarfing the rest of the O-Line like that
by The JuggerNitt on Jun 11, 2009 12:25 PM EDT up reply actions
LOLZ!!1!
I’d have to imagine that’s probably the first time they’ve ever been called dwarfs.
by Screen Name 20 on Jun 11, 2009 1:27 PM EDT up reply actions
Not that he isn't huge
but, he is a little bit in front of the others, so it might be a forced perspective shot.
he isn't THAT much closer in the picture
it looks like with the angle he’s at most 6" closer, and his shoulder is actually behind Ohrnberger (though they’re all standing on the line angled to face towards the center.
6’4" 294
6’3" 283
6’1" 293
6’2" 289
6’5" 314
So yeah, doesn’t help that he’s farthest away from the person closest in size to him, plust that angle, but he is quite a bit bigger than the other guys on the line, especially the 2 he’s closet to (Ohrnberger and Shipley)
by The JuggerNitt on Jun 12, 2009 11:46 AM EDT up reply actions
Wow!
I know absolutely nothing about LAX, but I do know that Mt Lebanon won the PA state championship in their division, and they were ranked 259?
LAX
I walked on the lax team in 2000….we had the talent but could never get over the hump. we finally made the tournament in 03, but lost in the first round. There is no reason we shouldn’t be able to compete in the northeast. Our team was all Maryland, Long Island, and upstate ny with a few philly guys thrown in. But lax is growing exponentially in the midwest, so there is reason to believe that these kids are legit. we let a good assistant go after i graduated, lars tiffany, who took brown to the tournament this yr only to lose in ot to Hopkins. I don;t know if anyone cares, but thats just my insight
oh, and I am from md, and the private schools down there, Gilman, McDonough, St Pauls, Boys LAtin, all give some “academic aid” for those who handle the rock pretty good, so its tough for any public school system to compete, locally or nationally. But we had players from schools on that list of top 20 high schools
Reminds me of the one good player my HS football team was GOING to have
We suck consistently every year, but we had a speed demon WR in my class, but before he got to HS, he was given a full ride to a private school somewhere, then got recruited by a few schools and went to UVA. I just looked him up online, he got a few Big10 offers
Sounds like you guys did the same thing with lax.
St. Andrews
at #24 is pretty much the Brother Rice of Florida. The next school down here on the list comes in at #174.
Also, if you take a look at the bottom of the list, the 3000’s are littered with Florida schools. Like the Midwest, it’s been gaining momentum down here but will never compete with football or baseball, or even volleyball for that matter.
You followed the Selection Sunday Thread?
How could anyone who wasn’t there follow that thing?
"From the outside looking in, you cannot understand it. From the inside looking out, you cannot explian it."
I fell into the depths of insanity that day
DO YOU HAVE ANY PRIDE, DANNY?
"I hope after touchdowns this year all our players just point at Zug." - jtothep
by ReadingRambler on Jun 11, 2009 10:01 PM EDT up reply actions
Never to return?
I think we all stayed a little bit crazy after that thing.
"From the outside looking in, you cannot understand it. From the inside looking out, you cannot explian it."
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