Long time, no link. On with the show:
Michigan
For those who wanted to see Michigan take on Jacksonville and Mercer (or see Davenport take on St. Thomas and North Dakota State), but didn’t want to shell out five bucks for the Laxx.tv feed: you’re in luck. The site will now stream all those games free of charge.
Lacrosse Magazine sits down with Michigan coach John Paul to talk about the rough start of the Wolverines’ inaugural season, and how Michigan is building a championship culture without, you know, winning.
Just about everybody – including the Syracuse student newspaper and College Crosse – has chimed in at this point about the importance to the sport of Michigan adding D-1 lacrosse.
Michigan head coach John Paul was a guest on the ESPNU/Inside Lacrosse podcast. I haven’t had time to listen to it, but I assume topics of conversation included puppies, rainbows, unicorns, and late slides.
Detroit
Detroit’s women’s team participated in “Cardio for a Cause,” benefitting the American Cancer Society:
UDM’s Jason McDonald publishes his third blog post for Lacrosse Playground, followed by – you guessed it – the fourth.
Detroit Titan Scott Drummond (also a product of Birmingham Seaholm) was named the MAAC’s rookie of the week.
MCLA
Davenport puts out a press release for the signing of Brandon Machen. “But they’re an MCLA team!” you say. The school looks at them as a varsity squad – which I assume is a big part of the reason they’re going MCLA-1 soon.
It’s also a big part of the reason they put out tons of content on their official site. Game recap from their victory over MCLA-1 squad Miami University. Press release on staying No. 1 in the MCLA-2 polls.
If you’re interested in keeping up to date with the goings-on with UM-Dearborn’s lacrosse team (and really, why wouldn’t you be), you can now follow the squad on Twitter.
High School and Recruiting
ESPN puts out their regional previews for the Midwest on the girls’ side: East Grand Rapids senior Lauren Hooker, who is Marquette-bound, is the only all-region player from Michigan among the females. Brighton and Okemos are the two top dogs in-state.
Things are a bit more interesting for the boys, starting with the all-region team:
G: Ahmed Iftikhar, Sr., Detroit Country Day (Beverly Hills, Mich.), Pennsylvania
LSM: Chris Walker, Sr., Brother Rice (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), Michigan
M: Brad Lott, Sr., Trinity (Louisville, Ky.), Michigan
A: Ian King, Jr., St. Xavier (Cincinnati, Ohio), Michigan
That’s three Michigan-bound players, and two who play their high school ball in the state (with the overlap of Brother Rice defenseman Chris Walker). Of course, Brother Rice and Detroit Country Day are expected to repeat as champions, but Novi and FHE/N get some love, as well.
Michigan and Detroit commitments continue to dominate ESPNHS’s top women’s commitment of the week, thanks in part to readers from this site clicking through. Thanks, everyone.
Interesting editorial from Philly Lacrosse regarding sophomore commitments.
A few Michigan-based players make the Brine All-American rosters.
An equipment company’s commercial is a weird way to find out about a college player’s commitment, but this is the world we live in:
Chase Young is the ideal example of Maverik Lacrosse’s popular new commercial called “The Future is Here.” A sophomore, African-American player at St. Joseph’s Prep, he helps coach youths for the LEAPS Lacrosse program in the inner city. Recently, Young committed to play at the University of Michigan, a new Division I program that can only help the westward expansion of lacrosse at the major college level and beyond…
“Personally, it represents my lacrosse career – an East Coast kid, inspired by Coach Christmas, coached and mentored by Coach Gregg, heading to the Midwest (new lacrosse area) to be a part of the new Division I Lacrosse Program at the University of Michigan. I am extremely thankful for having the opportunity to participate in a commercial that represents the growth of lacrosse.”
And there you have it. I haven’t been keeping the greatest track of 2013 and 2014 commitments with the season in swing, but I’ll definitely catch up in the postseason.
ABC News’s Bob Woodruff is a former lacrosse player who played at Cranbrook and went on to Division-1 Colgate. He was also the commencement speaker at my college graduation, but that’s neither here nor there.
WEEKEND CONTENT ADVISORY
I will be previewing Detroit and Michigan’s weekend games ASAP, respectively, but if there’s any breaking news – which is doubtful, I likely won’t be around to talk about it.
I’m heading to Denver for Michigan’s weekend two-pack, and likely won’t be available for the blogging until I get home on Wednesday.
As always, follow on Twitter @GreatLaxState, and feel free to hit my inbox with any tips, questions, comments, suggestions, etc.