Plenty of links today. As always, if you want to bring something to my attention, drop a note in the comments of this post, or hit me up on twitter @GreatLaxState or via e-mail at t.w.sullivan1@gmail.com.
MCLA
The club season has come to an end, closing the book on the college lacrosse game in Michigan.
Davenport’s season ended with a semi-final loss to Grand Valley. Jac Coyne talks Grand Valley’s defeat of Davenport in the semis.
The MCLA Division-1 All-Tournament team includes Michigan State’s Spencer Martin.
The MCLA is rolling out on-demand service of their tournament games. Grand Valley v. St. Thomas is the only Michigan-relevant game to date, but there are plans to add more.
The Division-2 All-Tournament team is littered with players from Michigan colleges:
- GVSU Attack Jack Dumsa
- Davenport attack Jordan Richtsmeier
- GVSU midfielder Conor Schwalm
- Davenport defender Mackenzie Ganzcak
- GVSU Goalie Danny Kransberger
- GVSU faceoff specialist Ian O’Brien
All-American lists are also out in their full glory, featuring several of the same players.
The Detroit Free Press drops a mention of Michigan State’s Sportscenter appearance. No love for Grand Valley’s Goalie Goal.
High School
Detroit Country Day is rounding into form just in time for the state playoffs to begin.
“No one will feel sorry for us, and neither do we,” [Country Day Coach Byron Collins] says. “We are looking forward to the state tournament but we will approach each day as a day to get better as a program.”
The article also give the Yellow Jackets props for winning the MSLCA B Bracket. DCD won the B-bracket third-place game at this weekends North American Lacrosse Invitational.
West Michigan All-Star takes a look at the high school playoff brackets and where West Michigan teams stack up in them.
Catholic League results. Shocker of the century: Brother Rice took home the A Division on the Boys’ side. Madison Heights Bishop Foley won the B Division title. On the girls’ side, Bloomfield Hills Marian and Livonia Ladywood are your Division 1 and 2 champs, respectively.
The MHSAA Tournament has started, and that means it’s time for Brother Rice to shine:
“Entering this season, I thought we had the potential (to defend the state title), but the kids really need to work and get to the next level,” Ambrose said.
“And the stars have to align a little. I think on a good day we can play with anyone. We have to play at a high level every day, and the kids are beginning to realize that.”
Talk about sandbagging. Rice hasn’t lost to a Michigan-based team in 765 years. A Detroit Free Press feature on Brother Rice’s quest for eight straight MHSAA titles.
North American Lacrosse Invitational coverage.
Clarkston’s Travis Craft was the MI Prep Zone boys athlete of the week.
A couple high school roundup-type posts that I don’t want to hold until after the weekend:
East Grand Rapids 16, Lapeer West 2.
“Our Pioneers played pretty well tonight,” said EGR coach Cedric Soubry. “It was our first state tournament game and we came to play. We are still having some issues on both sides of the ball; however, our hard work is paying dividends. We seem to improve after each game.”
EGR had some rough moments earlier this season, but they’re clearly peaking at the right time.
Holland Christian 15, Grand Rapids Christian 9. It was a 5-4 nailbiter at halftime, but Holland Christian increased their lead to a comfortable margin after the break.
Birmingham Seaholm 16, Saline 7. The entire story consists of a restating of the score, so no details for you.
Recruiting
I’ll be the first to admit I know nothing about Canadian Junior A lacrosse, but incoming Michigan freshman Kyle Jackson put up four goals in a recent game, so… nice.
Detroit’s recruiting class grows by five:
- Clarkston D Nick DeMattia (mentioned on GLS last week).
- Atlantic Beach (N.Y.) Lawrence D Chris Donahue.
- Northville Midfielder Nick Mellucci
- Dexter midfielder Michael Spuller, who has scored 785 million goals for the Dreadnaughts this year
- Detroit Catholic Central D Jordan Yono.
That brings them to 16 signees, assuming none slipped past me since the fall announcement.
Davenport’s recruiting class grows with the additions of Flint Powers seniors Brock Owen and Ryan Dziadzio.
Etc.
St. John’s defenseman Harrison Freid, formerly of the Michigan club team, will play in the USILA North-South All-Star game.
A brief lacrosse mention in a story about facility upgrades at the University of Michigan:
Brandon said the master plan also calls for building a lacrosse facility. Michigan added men’s lacrosse this year, and the women begin play in 2014.
I’ve heard the plan (or at least pipe dream) is for indoor and outdoor practice/competition facilities. Time will tell what actually gets built.
Internal Linkage:
- Requiem for a Season: Detroit Titans 2012
- North American Lacrosse Invitational Photos
- Final Edition of The Next Level for 2012
As always, thanks for stopping by. Contact information is at the top of the post if you’d like to bring my attention to a story.
Congrats to Harry Fried! There were a lot of naysayers thinking he wouldn’t even play at St Johns. Started every game and playing in the North/South game. Not too shabby!
I think he proves a couple things: The excellent Michigan club teams of the last four years were better than anyone thought, and Michigan lost way too much going into their first varsity season to expect to maintain any significant level of athleticism.
If Freid had been healthy in the 2011 MCLA tournament, who knows how different the Michigan MCLA legacy could have turned out (of course, it was more the offense than the defense that let Michigan down against Arizona State that year).
Re the MCLA D2 championship game, one of four non-Minnesota players on the champion St. Thomas team is Dan Ziegeler, a freshman from Ann Arbor Pioneer. Dan is a FOGO who went 46 for 77 on face-offs and garnered 23 GBs, and one assist in 17 games.
Great stuff, I hadn’t realized that.