The first Lax Links of the new year. As always, use the e-mail and Twitter inboxes for news tips, articles, player commitments, etc. Let’s hop right into it:
Gear
Grand Valley's new gloves (Courtesy @GVSULax).
Michigan will rock two new sets of Warrior gloves this spring.
New gloves for GVSU as well (pictured at right).
This is Not a Link
It is, however, an opportunity. Royal Oak Shrine is starting a high school club team. The team currently has a coach, but is also looking for one with more experience, with an eye toward becoming a varsity program a couple years down the line. Interested parties e-mail me, and I’ll pass along the information.
D-1
The final Michigan coaching clinic of the offseason takes place tonight. Instead of a 7 p.m. start from the Junge Center in Ann Arbor, it will be in Oosterbaan Fieldhouse at 6 p.m. It’s free, e-mail Director of Operations Joe Hennessy if you plan to attend.
Villanova transfer Mike Francia has joined Michigan’s team for the spring. I’ll give a bit more attention to Francia in the coming days, but for now: he’s from Wilton, Conn. and played in 12 games for Villanova as a freshman, putting up three points. Michigan freshman Riley Kennedy gets the official site profile treatment. Defenseman Brendan Riefberg is profiled as well.
Michigan’s game against Colgate gets a shoutout as a “winner” in Inside Lacrosse’s year-end coverage.
With the announcement that Michigan and Colgate, and Holy Cross and Navy, will square off in mid-March at Citi Field in Flushing, N.Y., I am excited to see how this event plays out. Flushing is about as far out in Queens as you can go, and with the presence of a lot of Mets fans already on Long Island, I am hoping there is a pretty strong allure from the local lacrosse community to come check this out.
That is one of two Michigan games that will air on the ESPN networks this fall, something of a letdown (since the other, against Hopkins, is on web-only ESPN3). Fingers crossed for a pretty good Big Ten Network schedule, but given their… dedication to Purdue campus programming (yes, that’s a euphemism for something harsher that I will leave unsaid)… I wouldn’t count on much more than the Spring Game contest against Ohio State April 13.
Michigan is one of the teams College Crosse singles out Michigan as a contender for the “Reverse Survivor” award – the last D-1 team to get a win this spring. While friend of the blog Hoya Suxa is right that – without Mercer and Wagner (and Vermont, and Quinnipiac) on the schedule, Michigan won’t be favored in many, I think it’s also fair to say that they’re one of the teams most likely to make a big leap from last spring to this.
Inside Lacrosse picks Detroit to finish fourth place in the MAAC, while also honoring four Titans as pre-season all-conference selections. Seems like an odd placement after last year featured about as much bad luck as possible… and UDM still finished with the No. 2 seed in the league. Time will tell, but I think third place seems like a reasonable low bound, unless the bad luck bug strikes again. On the other hand, a limp to the finish with losses to Manhattan and VMI is a limp to the finish with losses to Manhattan and VMI.
College Crosse doesn’t offer predictions (aside from saying that UDM will be battling for one of the 2-5 slots in the league), but does give a bit of information about each team in the MAAC, including Detroit.
The Lacrosse All-Stars preview of Detroit was done by taking two seconds to look at the stats and five more to look for a Youtube video, but hey, no press is bad press, right?
Jamie Hebden, Andrew Khalil, and Chris Nemes have been pegged as UDM’s 2013 captains. That’s two D/LSMs and a defensive middie, in case you were starting to worry that this team’s identity wouldn’t once again be focused on the defensive side of the ball.
Do you think the UDM women are worthy of preseason all-conference awards from the Atlantic Sun? You can show your support in a fan vote.
Recruiting
Atomic Lacrosse will host a recruiting presentation from UDM’s Matt Holtz and Jake DiCola from Albion Jan. 27.
Troy midfielder Jay Darish has committed to Albany:
In his two-year career Darish has posted 58 goals and 41 assists, earning 2012 All-State honors. Darish plays for the Raging Rhinos club team, and attended Top 205 West, Patriot Games, Syracuse Shoot Out, Cherry Bomb, Can-Am Showcase and Philly Showcase. Also a two-year starting quarterback on football team. Also considered Hobart and Rutgers.
He’s a 2014 prospect, and as far as I can tell, the second headed out-of-state, along with Cranbrook midfielder Michael Giampetroni, who will play at Duke.
PhillyLacrosse has a signing day picture from Radnor High School in Pennsylvania, including Michigan-bound defender Brooke Pancoast and goalie Grace Collins.
Whitby This Week reports on Whitby (Ont.) Christ School (Limestone, N.C.) goalie Jason Weber signing with Detroit.
Florida Lacrosse News covers the Michigan commitment of Boca Raton (Fla.) St. Andrews defenseman Jake Bargas. Penn, Syracuse, and Denver were among the other schools he considered, so it’s a big commitment. We also live in a world where you can see a trailer on the internet for a longer film that played at his Bar Mitzvah. Internet!
Inside Lacrosse reports that Michigan has picked up a 2014 commitment from The Woodlands (Texas) midfielder Sean McCanna:
The 6-2, 175-pound McCanna is a member of Dallas Select. This past summer he played at Texas Top 99 (all-star), Denver Shootout (all-star), King of the Hill (all-star), Gait Cup (Dallas Select finished runner-up to Alcatraz 2013) and Maverik Showtime. Also a starting wide receiver on Class 5A football team. Also strongly considered Fairfield.
Fairfield isn’t America’s Greatest Competition to beat for a recruit, but McCanna has a pretty good resume there. Highlights:
Portage Northern midfielder Isaac Hazen committed to Grand Valley.
MCLA
Michigan State is one of 412Lax’s most interesting teams of the 2013 MCLA season. The coaching change, unsurprisingly, is a big reason:
Sparty fired their whole staff after making an appearance in the MCLA quarterfinals. Insert Brandon Schwind who coached at D3 Fontbonne from 2007 to 2010 and Haslett High School in Michigan from 2011-2012. Schwind brings NCAA credibility with him but how will the kids react when times get tough? How will Schwind react? God bless him for taking the job.
I was down on Michigan State’s decision when they made it (and honestly, still a bit to this day), but I still think Schwind will do a good job – and from the reports I’ve heard, his approach to coaching is probably better at the college level than high school anyway.
Ferris State’s 2013 schedule.
Etc.
Oakland University women’s coach Towbey Kassa and Michigan State women’s coach Greg Normand talk about making the transition from coaching men’s lacrosse to women’s.
The Hartland Patch talks about the growth of the women’s game.
Grand Rapids-area readers can play drop-in lacrosse at Woodland Sports Tuesday evenings for just five bucks (certainly beats the prices – and scarcity – of adult leagues in the supposedly more established Detroit area).