Michigan’s first class of recruits as a Division-1 squad will probably play a key role in the 2012 season, providing a much-needed talent upgrade to usher in the varsity era. So, who are these dudes?
| Strittmatter, Vince | Potomac, MD | Georgetown Prep | Defense | 6-2, 185 |
 Vince Strittmatter A Nike Blue Chip selection, he plays LSM and defense in high school but is apparently a defender at the next level, per Laxpower. He was a multi-year starter/contributor (3-year varsity player – former/future teammate Fern Murias only played 1 year of varsity) for a Georgetown Prep team that has nearly double-digit seniors headed to play D-1 ball. Selected to the 2010 Maryland Free State team. He was also a corner/wideout for Georgetown Prep’s football team. He has a younger brother, Chad, who also plays lacrosse at Georgetown Prep, no word on whether he’s a prospect. |
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| Portnoy, Andrew | Mountain Lakes, NJ | Mountain Lakes | Attack | fgh |
| Oddly enough, he’s a defenseman on his hockey team, and he also serves as the team’s assistant captain. He stepped up to lead Mountain Lakes in scoring after they lost Kevin Ryan to graduation (Ryan plays at Loyola). Game report mention of Portnoy. He’s listed as a walkon on LaxPower. | ||||
| Van Slyke, Alex | Grand Rapids, MI | Forest Hills Eastern | Attack | 5-11, 180 |
| Made the All-State Team even as a freshman and sophomore. As a junior, he stepped it up to earn All-American honors. He’ll be a 4-time All-Stater by the time this season is over. His highlight reel (embedded just below) shows a pretty good picture of what you’re going to get: Primarily a righty, but he’s comfortable playing with his left. His stick skills and shot won’t blow you away, but he has very good athleticism and dodging ability, with an excellent feel for the game. Willing to catch-and-shoot, dodge, feed, etc. He’s your classic tiny jitterbug guy, except not that tiny. I saw him play against Brother Rice in the state championship game, and (like most of his teammates) he didn’t get a whole lot done. | ||||
| Weiss, Emil | Cary, NC | Apex | Goalie | |
 Emil Weiss Weiss is not only a top-notch goalie, but also… uh… a neighbor of NHL player Aaron Ward. He was a 2-time All-American in North Carolina, and was the area player of the year this spring, saving more than 70 percent of shots on goal over the past two years. Conference DPOY. He’s probably one of the surest shots in this recruiting class to start next year, so Weiss is probably the most important piece. I’veheard he was also being recruited by Duke, but I didn’t see any mention of it in news articles (and the Blue Devils picked up a different goalie), so take it for what it’s worth. |
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| Edelstein, Daniel | Los Angeles, CA | Harvard Westlake | Midfield | |
 Daniel Edelstein A pretty good football player, he was 2nd-team all-area in football in a league that pumps out Division-1 talent. He had 13 goals and 7 assists this year, if MaxPreps is to be trusted (it is not). Lacrosse at Harvard-Westlake is expected to take a step back next year, thanks in part to the graduation of Edelstein:
THAT’S WHAT YOU THINK. |
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| Marcus, Alex | Greenwich, CT | Greenwich | Midfield/FO | |
 Alex Marcus Marcus is listed by laxpower as a midfield/faceoff specialist, and I would guess that faceoff/get off will be how he starts his career. He’s a pretty good one, and though Connecticut isn’t exactly Baltimore in terms of competition, going 15/15 in a single game is pretty impressive:
He was an honorable mention All-FCIAC selection. |
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| Eisenreich, Jack | Chatham, NJ | Chatham | Midfield | |
| He was the second-leading scorer for his team, behind Fairfield-bound Nick Guida. He was on the, uh, all-sophomore second team in the county a couple years back (seems like a terribly specific list to me). He’s “efficient around the goal once [he gets] the ball.” His fall sport is soccer, at which he’s pretty good. His older brother Billy plays at Bucknell, and was the fourth-leading scorer for a Bison team that made the NCAA Tournament, despite missing four games. | ||||
| Bennett, Ben | Long Lake, MN | Blake School | Defense/LSM | |
| He’s also a hockey player (duh, he lives in Minnesota), and is a defenseman on the ice, as well. He was listed as one of the top 10 boys lacrosse players in the state by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He was 1st-Team All-State and an All-American, and his teammate George Ordway was named Mr. Lacrosse (Ordway is playing D-3 hockey at a school in Vermont next year). | ||||
| Mosko, Andrew | Bethesda, MD | Georgetown Prep | Midfield | 6-2, 195 |
 Andrew Mosko Like his high school teammate Strittmatter, he was invited to the 2010 Blue Chip Lacrosse Camp, but he was also present in 2009. Inside Lacrosse had this to say about the 2009 appearance:
He was also selected to the Under Armour Underclassmen Team, and joined Strittmatter on the 2010 Free State Team. He’s an offensive/defensive lineman for GP’s football team (varsity as a sophomore and senior, took his junior year off to focus on lacrosse), where he’s listed at 6-1, 220. He also has a little brother, Hugh, who was on Prep’s JV team as a Freshman. |
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| Meter, Will | Beverly Hills, MI | Brother Rice | Attack/Midfield | |
 Will Meter I’ve already talked quite a bit about Meter in this space. He was named Mr. Lacrosse in the state of Michigan, an All-American, and the MVP of the Brother Rice team that turned every in-state opposition to dust this season. I was impressed with his feeding ability at the State Championship game, and also took in another of his games (he gets mentioned as “#15“). He was mostly a distributor, rather than a scorer, in the two games I saw Brother Rice play this year. It’ll be interesting to see if he plays a more diversified role in college. With Brother Rice’s talent advantage over most teams in the state of Michigan, it’s easy to have a guy like Meter perform a very specific role. I didn’t catch any Rice games in which they were challenged, so I’m not sure if he displayed a wider range in those contests. Lord knows Michigan is going to have its share of challenges next year. |
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If any other Michigan recruits are added to the Laxpower database, I’ll get my Googlin’ on for them, as well.
Looks like a solid roster of DIII and DII players. Tim, love your website.
Interview with the Marquette Coach – sounds like he has a plan to build the program. Not just WOW were a DI program now isn’t this great!
You won’t actually play a scheduled season until 2013. When does a team actually start to be formed and come together — the spring or fall of 2012, some time before that?
I think you hit the ground running immediately after this lacrosse season…You look for those students that, for whatever the reason, they fell through the cracks of the recruiting world, or looking to get out of a bad situation as a transfer, so that we can try to get as many quality young men on campus for this coming fall, 2011, and have those students red-shirt, sit out a year, work out, become better people, focus on their academics, and then continue their lacrosse career having been on Marquette’s campus for a year….I think it’s a process after that as you move along. Certainly next year, the 2012, 2013 recruiting classes, they’ll be big recruiting classes. You’ll see a freshman class of 15, 16 students in those 2012, 2013 years to try to help that roster get closer to 40, 45 students.
Meter is Mr. Lacrosse in Michigan. Eisenreich’s older brother is a stud at Bucknell and he may have the same potential for all we know. Weiss is supposed to be the real deal. Van Slyke will be a two year AA in Michigan, so they are getting a couple of the top players from the state, which they should do every year. Some of the others come from power programs out east (Mosko, Strittmatter, Marcus and Portnoy for example). All of this recruiting was being done when they were still club, so I’d say this is a pretty solid class for a club team. I’m sure they are recruiting hard for 2012 and 2013 this summer, and my guess is they are attracting interest from some of the best lacrosse players in the country. Give them time to build.
They also just hired one of the better assistant coaches in the game in Judd Lattimore. He’ll make an impact.
Not sure what your problem is Hap. You’ve made clear you don’t believe Michigan has any idea what they are doing, and that JP doesn’t have a chance. I’m not sure why you’re so bitter, but you’re entitled to your opinion. My guess is you’ll have a year or two to trumpet your “told you so’s” while they lose more games than they win – probably a lot more in year one. Enjoy that. I can’t see this team being bad for long.
Meter has said he wouldn’t have come to Michigan if they weren’t going D-1, so something tells me he’s not exactly a club player masquerading as a D-1 recruit thanks to a lucky circumstance.
Considering the previous several Mr. Lacrosse winners from the state of Michigan have had the opportunity to play lacrosse at the next level (Joe Glendening picked D-3 football instead), I think it’s more than fair to say he’s a real-life D-1 player.
Forgot about Ben Bennett from Minnesota. Another mid-level D1 recruit. Like I said, don’t expect them to tear it up in the first couple of years, but it’s not like they are going into this without a clue or any talent at all. As they work recruiting and build facilities over the next couple of years, this team is going to become very good.
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I would definitely not say a roster of DII and DIII guys. I think a handful of them are probably of that quality but I know for a fact that Meter, Mosko, Strittmatter, and Weiss all had their share of quality D1 offers and looks. I am not sure about the rest.
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