It’s been way, way too long. Let’s hop right into the links.
Division-1
Michigan Coach John Paul in the alumni game. Photo by Clark Bell.
Michigan had its East-West scrimmage (won by the East 14-13) and alumni game just over a week ago. Even Wolverines coach John Paul – a club team player in the late 80s – suited up (pictured at right). You can see more pictures from the event here.
Neither Michigan nor Detroit has posted an official schedule yet, but both schools’ are starting to come together thanks to postings by other teams. For example, add a Michigan game at Fairfield to the schedule for March 14. That’s an ECAC conference matchup. Same with Loyola’s March 23 trip to Ann Arbor and Ohio State’s April 13th visit – possibly a replay of last year’s Battle at the Big House.
I’ve also heard Michigan will take on Yale in a neutral-site game, but no official confirmation yet.
Michigan’s Paxton Moore was profiled by the MGoBlue site. Same treatment for Charlie Keady.
The Detroit women will play in the Atlantic Sun Conference this spring, and that league will be eligible for an NCAA automatic bid in its first year of existence. Detroit women’s coach Laura Maness reviews the Titans’ fall:
MCLA
Multiple-weeks old fall ball scores are probably not so relevant, but Grand Valley bested Hope 14-6. Pictures from the game.
Lacrosse Magazine talks about Davenport’s move up to MCLA-1.
High School
Former Michigan State MCLA All-American Smith Atwood has been named the head lacrosse coach at Ann Arbor Pioneer.
Cranbrook’s Matthew Giampetroni represented the state of Michigan at Paul Rabil’s Project Nine even earlier this month.
Club/Youth
The U.S. Lacrosse Fall 7-on-7 takes place in Northville this weekend.
The Michigan State women’s team is hosting a winter training kick-ff at the Great Lakes Golf and Sports Complex in Auburn Hills a week from Saturday. You can find out more information on the event on their website, and see the flyer for it here.
The CanAm Showcase will take place at Detroit Country Day Nov. 10-11, featuring some of the top youth players in the area. The event is modeled after the Philly Lacrosse Showcase.
Heat Lacrosse won the Top Cheddar tournament in Wisconsin. A photo of the winning team via their Instagram site.
True Lacrosse is holding a winter league in Fenton for high school and middle school-aged players.
Mark Greaney of the Premier Lacrosse Group was a guest on WTKA a few weeks back. The former U-M assistant talks about PLG and area lacrosse in general.
Etc.
The U.S. Lacrosse Michigan Chapter will be having its seventh annual Hall of Fame induction Nov. 10. Visit this site for more details.
I’ll put together another post on expansion and realignment sometime soon (given that it’s been nearly three weeks since the last GLS post, that’s for a given definition of “soon”), but for now, feast your eyes on Denver coach Bill Tierney saying he’s heard rumors of SMU, USC, and… Minnesota? starting programs. Obviously the Gophers would be a big step for the Midwest.
Former Michigan midfielder Aaron Hodari is a co-founder of the news aggregator Glocal, along with Country Day (and Syracuse) alum Lincoln Cavalieri.
As always, if you have news tips, links, etc., pass them along to the e-mail or twitter.
I’m excited for your next expansion post. Minnesota isn’t shocking to me since lax has grown a ton in the Twin Cities area. Hot bed? No, but in terms of Midwest talent, it’s one of biggest areas. Laxpower lists 83 HS teams in Minnesota, which is about three-quarters of what Michigan has, so there’s interest.
And there’s some talent there too – for the class of 2013, Minnesota produced 6 D1 players, 6 D2 players and 12 D3 players, in addition to probably 40+ club players.
MI: 9.9m population, 116 teams (I omitted Rice and Clarkston’s B teams)
MN: 5.34m population, 83 teams
Sad to say, but there’s actually more high school lacrosse (proportionally) in MN than MI.
The other thing UMinnesota has going for it is a huge student body (over 50k). That’ll help them draw some solid attendance for their home games. Having a big campus following always helps a team going through transition.