Hello: Will Perkins

Michigan’s recruiting hot streak continued late last week, when ESPN Rise reported that TX Attack Will Perkins pledged to become a Wolverine.

Will Perkins

Relevant Articles

ESPN Rise’s commitment article mentions that he’s a 6-3, 200 pound attackman, and also lists his junior stats as 45 goals and 16 assists. His Youtube highlight (embedded below) points out that he caused 10 turnovers and collected 20 GBs as a junior captain for his team. He was the leading scorer during Brine’s King of Spring event with 12 goals (averaging 3 per game) – fellow commit Evan Glaser was also near the top of the leaderboard with 7.

As a rising sophomore, he was named to the All-Star Game (top 42) at the Top 205 West event, and Inside Lacrosse pointed out that he was taking advantage of a lot of one-on-one opportunities from the top – which certainly sounds more like a midfielder role. Last summer, he played midfield for St. Mark’s at the Denver Shootout:

These two [Perkins and teammate Matt Murphy] made quite the pair on a scoring opportunity, both showed un-selfishness and were just as big on passing as shooting. Often I saw these two hook up to score early in the day and were wide open at the top of the box or on the wing to fire a nasty shot.

…but he is being recruited as an attackman (his move to midfield for St. Mark’s was a matter of necessity for the team, which didn’t have enough midfielders). That “nasty shot” is on display in the highlight embedded below as well, with Will showing a righty gun on low-to-high and sidearm shots when given time and room. An in-game report mentions that he “rips” shots, which would also indicate plenty of power.

He was an offensive performer who stuck out at Jake Reed’s Blue Chip camp last summer, according to Inside Lacrosse. He was a contributor for St. Mark’s as a freshman (he even notched a goal and an assist in the State Championship game). From the looks of things, he was a freshman starter. He’s listed as a member of the “Heat Elite,” the top players in Texas.

Other Interest

Will Perkins photo by Robert Goldstein via ESPN Rise

According to his commitment article on ESPN Rise, Will also had interest from Drexel, Air Force, High Point, and Stony Brook. Stony Brook (#9) and Drexel (#16) are the high-profile teams of that cohort. Air Force was a mediocre team in the ECAC – Michigan’s future conference – and High Point doesn’t take the field for their first varsity season until next spring.

Teammates of Note

St. Mark’s sent Jeff Perkins (yes, Will’s older brother) to Dartmouth last fall. He was fourth on the team in scoring as a true freshman this spring. Midfielder Fred Addy joined Perkins as a Division-1 player from the 2010 St. Mark’s class, going to Princeton.

From this year’s senior class, only midfielder Gil Cassagne is going to play in college, at D-3 Bates. Perkins is the first member of the class of 2012 to commit to a college.

St. Mark’s finished #124 nationally to LaxPower this spring, and #2 in the Lone Star State.

Video

He’s also in the highlights from ESPN Rise on the King of Spring event.

The Upshot

Will is a big, strong kid who knows how to use that size. He brings a good physical presence, but that’s not the extent of his game. Whereas Michigan’s previous attackman recruits in the 2011 and 2012 classes have seemed like quarterbacking, distributor-types, or finishers on the crease, Will brings a different skill set by shooting from the wings.

Based on his video, he’s mostly right-handed, taking very few shots with his left hand. He does, however, finish from close with the left if needed, and distributes with his left. The ability is there, it just needs to be fine-tuned to be more of a weapon in college.

Will is a good complement to the skill sets that Michigan is already bringing in, and adds a new dimension to the incoming recruits. With his physical development and skills, he may be ready to play immediately. Of course, we won’t know what the depth situation will be like until this season rolls around.