Hello: Gerald Logan

The final member Michigan’s 2012 signing class yet to be profiled is Hotchkiss postgrad goalie Gerald Logan, originally from Sachem (N.Y.) North.

Logan defends against Virginia-bound James Pannell. Photo by Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke of Newsday

Relevant Articles

Michigan’s commitment brief:

Logan will spend a postgraduate year with head coach Chris Burchfield at The Hotchkiss School. In 2011, Logan lettered at Sachem North High School for head coach Jason Mauro. He had a .608 save percentage. Logan also lettered at Shoreham-Wading River High School. He also earned four letters playing soccer.

Local commitment article brings the goods:

“Gerald is a great kid, a great teammate, has a diligent work ethic and I believe he’ll be very successful at the University of Michigan,” said Sachem North lacrosse coach Jay Mauro. “In speaking with their coaching staff, I know they are very excited to have Gerald become part of their program.”

Logan attended a postgrad year at The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut this past spring. It’s easy to see why he might have thought he needed a bit more college exposure, given that he was splitting time in net as a junior, and transferred high schools his senior year.

It’s easy to see how a kid like that – no matter how talented – could get lost in the shuffle (though it sounds like there may have been serious drama at S-WR leading to the transfer).

The Sachem North roster listed him at 6-1, 190. With a year of post-grad under his belt, he’s probably a little heavier than that now. He put up some gaudy save numbers in high school. He was a big part of Hotchkiss’ success this past spring.

“Logan, our goalie played real well, and we did a good job of taking away the inside,” Hotchkiss coach Chris Burchfield said. “We wanted to take away the close stuff.”

Taking away close stuff (aside from being an obvious strategy) likely means that he spots the ball well against outside shooters, something that is clearly important. He can also stop the point-blank shots. WHAT CAN’T HE DO???

He was named an All-Star for the 2012 class at the 2011 King of the Hill tournament, playing with Long Island Express.

Take it for what it’s worth (which is to say, not much), but an Inside Lacrosse commenter mentions that he’s a “stud,” and will keep 2013 commit Robbie Zonino (the No. 35 player in the nation) off the field. Another commenter chimes in to note that he’s an impressive pickcup for Michigan after seeing the kid play with LI Express. A LaxPower forum member echoes the sentiment that he’s “excellent.” “Best in the country” according to another IL commenter.

Logan clears against Brunswick. Photo by Bob Luckey of Greenwich Time

On the field, he certainly seem willing to come out of the net in the clearing game:

But Shoreham, with its goalie, Gerald Logan, carrying the ball most of the way, countered quickly for 10-5.

Photo depicting his AWESOME CLEARING ABILITIES at right. He also gets props for turning saves into fast-break opportunities the other way, another sign of good clearing ability.

Logan played soccer in high school, and was a stellar keeper in that sport, as well. He’s also a good student: as a junior at Shoreham-Wading River, he was named to the All-Scholar team for his league. A soccer article mentions his long wingspan. Not sure if that applies as a positive in lacrosse, but it can’t hurt.

His father, also named Gerald, is a cancer survivor.

Other Interest

No word on any other interest. The post-grad year looks (to me) like an indication that college interest was not what Logan was expecting leaving high school, and he committed to Michigan prior to his time at Hotchkiss.

Teammates of Note

We’ll start with Logan’s teammates this season at Hotchkiss. Logan is one of five Division-1 signees (including East Grand Rapids alum Jake Coretti, an attack who will go on to Rutgers). The other three are attack Connor Gallegos, bound for Georgetown, defenseman Michael Quinn, who will play at Yale, and Notre Dame-bound attack Matt Kavanaugh. Four more Hotchkiss grads are taking the D-3 route, all from the high school team (all five D-1 signees appear to be postgrads).

Sachem North and Shoreham-Wading River both put out the talent you’d expect of high-caliber Long Island teams. Members of Logan’s graduating class at Sachem North went on to UMBC and Stony Brook, plus a Division-3 commit and three Division-2 players.

Video

You can watch an entire game from the Shoreham-Wading River days on Vimeo. Based on the stats alone, Logan seemed to be the most-used of the three goalies.

The Upshot

I like what Michigan has to work with in rising sophomore Emil Weiss, but Logan is another valuable piece of the arsenal (and John Paul has said in radio/podcast appearances a few times this spring/summer that he expects Logan to challenge for the starting job). Both guys should get significant minutes, and there’s no reason to doubt JP’s statements that Logan will have a chance to unseat Weiss as starter.

The depth at goalie is helped immensely. It was clear in 2012 that Emil Weiss was head and shoulders better than the other keepers on the team, and that when he went down (which was an unfortunately frequent occurrence) that Michigan was going to struggle. Having two viable options in net is going to be a huge boost.

There’s a zero percent chance that Logan doesn’t play this year (barring injury, of course), and only a year separates him from Weiss – and in the 2013 class, from Robbie Zonino. The goaltending situation at Michigan gets a huge boost from a talented and experienced player.