So, uh, it hasn’t been a long time since the last links post, right? Rounding up the past couple weeks of items that have been brought to my attention.
Gear
Delta Lacrosse club coach Nick Zoroya sends along some imagery of the team’s uniforms:
Courtesy of Delta Lax coach Nick Zoroya
Courtesy of Delta Lax coach Nick Zoroya
Gear for the Detroit Catholic Central alumni team.
#GrowTheGame
High school lacrosse participation reached an all-time high in the state for both genders.
D-3 Kalamazoo College will add men’s and women’s teams. (HT: The Growth Blog).
Lacrosse Magazine’s Joel Censer talks about the increase in parity of the game, brought about by expansion at all levels. And yes, I’m linking it with the phrase “increase in parity,” even though his title calls that into question. Not directly related to the in-state teams, but its lessons can apply to both U-M and Detroit.
High School
Brother Rice’s eighth-straight state championship is only the No. 15 best spring championship moment, according to MLive.
The Warriors finished third in the Midwest region, according to Laxpower, though it wasn’t able to unseat Dublin (Ohio) Jerome. Ohio – where the sport is not sanctioned by the state high school athletics governing body – finished with all but nine of the region’s top 25 teams (I’m just sayin’).
You can watch the state championship games – and a few selected games from the 2012 season – on the MHSAA.tv website.
Detroit Country Day goalie Ahmed Iftikhar was profiled on State Champs! High School Sports:
Iftikhar will play at Penn next spring.
Mike Costello names his all-area team for Ann Arbor. Troy Senior Nick Kondoleon is the Troy Patch Athlete of the Season. Utica Eisenhower’s team packed the All-State teams.
Novi will play a tough schedule in 2013, with Catholic Central, Birmingham, and Holt all on the docket so far.
Collegiate
Bloomfield Hills Lahser grad Justin Tuma – a three-time All-American at D-3 Roanoake – has joined the coaching staff at Randolph-Macon College:
For his career, Tuma finished with a program-best 460 ground balls, averaging 6.30 per-game during 73 career appearances. Tuma also fashioned a 63 percent success rate on face-offs during his career, winning 511 of 808 attempts. Offensively, he had 141 points on 67 goals and 74 career assists.
Tuma is actually somebody that I thought would be considered for the opening at Detroit. It remains to be seen who will lead the Titans’ offense going forward.
Speaking of coaching openings… Inside Lacrosse touches on Judd Lattimore’s departure for Penn. GLS #strongtakes here.
Detroit will host a summer camp for faceoff specialists July 23-25, featuring former Notre Dame FOGO Jake Marmul. The Detroit Catholic Central alum won 166 of 295 (.563) faceoffs in three years with the Fighting Irish, and missed his junior year due to injury.
The official Detroit site ascribes to a pretty standard few of growing a program:
- No expectations, no results
- Low expectations, exceed with results
- Higher expectations, don’t meet them
- Higher expectations, meet or exceed them.
…and 2012 was the Titans’ phase three of the growth process. An article whose premise is basically “hey, we didn’t live up to expectations” comes off a little negative from a PR angle, but at the same time, it’s refreshing to see the honesty.
Michigan coach John Paul joined Inside Lacrosse’s Terry Foy for a podcast on Michigan’s Team One, and growing for the future. Thanks to a tweet from coach Paul, Hoya Suxa of College Crosse has pledged his allegiance to the Wolverines. Mssr. Suxa is pretty kind in his season recap for Team One, all things considered. Michigan had a league-leading eight All-ECAC Academic honorees.
U-M alum Brekan Kohlitz was picked up by the MLL’s Charlotte Hounds, where he’s currently listed as a practice squad member.
Don’t forget, the Michigan women host their inaugural summer camp starting tomorrow.
Grand Valley State is primed to take on some of the best competition in MCLA-2 next season.
Recruiting
Michigan signee Brendan Gaughan was named first-team All-Avocado League (note to self: move someplace where sports conferences have names like “Avocado League). In the category of “I’m not sure why something like this exists,” you can also see him introduce himself to the world of Youtube. Internet! Gaughan will participate in the Under Armour All-America Classic this weekend, airing on ESPNU at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Fairfield (Conn.) senior Charlie Keady, also a Michigan commit, was named second-team All-State.
2013 Michigan commitment Austin Shanks led his Paul Dwyer Saints team to the field lacrosse championship at the OFSAA festival. His photo was the one that the print edition of the newspaper ran with the story. Shanks was invited to Paul Rabil’s elite camp this summer.
His incoming classmate, Conestoga (Pa.) goalie Robbie Zonino, led his squad to the PIAA championship:
Zonino, a junior, was sensational in the third period with five saves, many of them on point-blank shots.
While Michigan’s incoming 2012 class is sure to provide a huge boost in the talent level on the team, 2013 looks like one that will really help raise the level of play in Ann Arbor.
A couple commitments for Michigan on the girls’ side. Philly-area 2013s Kelly Kubach (Penn Charter) and Brooke Pancoast (Radnor) have joined the Wolverines’ inaugural freshman class.
Etc.
The Heat Lacrosse Exhibition at MVP Fieldhouse in Grand Rapids is happening… now. Schedule here. The Rush is providing highlights of the event.
As always, if I’ve missed anything, or you’d simply like to bring something to my attention, hit me on Twitter or via e-mail.
FYI – Brendan Gaughan’s You Tube introduction was a request by Under Armour for their All American game. You do an incredible job with this site. Please keep the updates coming! Go Blue!