It’s been a minute, yeah? Breaking up Lax Links posts by topic. First, recruiting.
More generally related, if you’re a high school player looking to be recruited, stop everything and read this. Former Michigan assistant and current 3D Lacrosse director Ryan Danehy breaks down how (and how not) to send college coaches an e-mail. Lacrosse Playground also talked to U-M headman John Paul about the recruiting process.
Detroit
UDM announced the remainder of its 2014 class over the summer.
Farmington (Minn.) 2015 defender Mitch Grengs will be a Titan. He had a wide range of school of interest, including MArquette and even some non-varsity programs.
Okemos 2015 attack Blake Turner committed to the Titans. TopLaxRecruits talks commitment.
Harborfields (N.Y.) 2015 Terrence Haggerty will take his attack skills to Detroit. UDM was the only D-1 school under consideration.
Detroit Catholic Central 2016 faceoff specialist Alex Jarzembowski committed to Detroit. Jarzembowski looked at some Patriot League programs.
Carmel (Ind.) 2016 attack Seth Mendell committed to Detroit.
The Titans made a big statement with a pledge from 2017 (the first ever public Titan pledge from a player yet to start his sophomore year that I can recall) midfielder Brennan Kamish of Detroit Catholic Central.
Michigan
U-M yanked a 2015 verbal from Maryland in the form of Northport (N.Y.) attack Rocco Sutherland. LaxLessons breaks down his game and decision. A big snag for the Maize and Blue.
Future Wolverine Decker Curran led his Greenwich (Conn.) team to its first-ever state title. He’s Recruiting Rundown’s No. 47 player in the 2015 class:
No matter the spot of the field or release point, when he gets his hands free with his 100 mph cannon, the goalie’s only option is to turn and rake the ball out of the back of the net. Uses some ridiculously crafty moves when dodging and is always producing in transition.
Sounds like the type of player Michigan (also: anyone) can use.
Student Sports Lacrosse (which I believe is now defunct) broke down the game of 2016 Michigan LSM commit John Michael Priddy out of Dallas (Texas) Jesuit.
Duxbury (Mass.) 2016 midfielder Shane Sullivan will be a Wolverine.
Based on the way people reacted, Michigan’s landing 2017 goalie Zion Dechesere of Henderson (Nev.) Coronado was a capital-B capital-D Big Deal. LaxLessons shares that the other schools considered include Maryland and some middle-tier program. His reasons for picking Michigan are familiar by now – and something that U-M is really pushing to get kids away from national powers:
Why did you choose the school? “The reason I chose the University of Michigan is because when I first visited the school I fell in love. The academics are second to none, and the athletics are amazing as well.”
Not many schools can provide the Big Ten education experience (five of them, in fact).
West Chester (Pa.) 2017 defenseman JD Carroll committed to Michigan.
Brunswick (Conn.) 2017 attackman Alex Buckanavage committed to Michigan. Penn State, UVa, and Ohio State were other finalists, so that’s another big grab.
Manhasset (N.Y.) 2017 attackman Kevin Mack picked Michigan as well. LaxLessons has the breakdown.
2017 faceoff specialist Connor Cronin was another commit to elicit a wow (technically a “wow-ski”) reaction from former U-M assistant Ryan Danehy. TopLaxRecruits and LaxLessons both take a look at the product of Northport (N.Y.) High School.
2017 midfielder Hunter Batesko committed to Michigan (though we’ve gotta hook Joe Lombardi up with the info that “Big Blue” is Kentucky). The 6-2 two-way player also considered Maryland, UVa, Notre Dame, and North Carolina.
New Canaan (Conn.) 2017 midfielder Ryan O’Connell also picked Michigan, over MAryland and others.
Manhasset (N.Y.) 2017 long-stick Ben Cirella “touted by many as the best LSM in the class” picked Michigan.
If most of the Wolverines’ commits live up to the hype, that 2017 class should be a monster. U-M’s 2014 class cracked the IL top 20, and the groups only appear to be improving going forward. Both 2016 and 2017 sound awesome, and the Wolverines should have the talent to really turn the corner on the field soon.
On the ladies side, Kent Denver (Colo.) 2016 attack Erin O’Shaughnessy picked Michigan.
Central Michigan Ladies
There’s a new Division-1 squad in town! Er, uh, state! Central Michigan is putting together its first couple recruiting classes, and doing so with a heavy emphasis on in-state and Western recruits.
CMU gained a commitment from Rockford 2015 defender Kelly Spehar.
Cydney VanHoven, 2015 midfielder from East Grand Rapids, will head to Mount Pleasant as well. More info on her from TopLaxRecruits.
Breaking up the Grand Rapids-area party is Okemos 2015 attack Natalie Bloniarz, another in-state pledge for the Chips.
Clare Laughery of Aliso Niguel High School in California will be a Chippewa.
The Chippewas also picked up a commitment from Mountain Vista (Colo.) 2015 attack Holly Billett.
2016 Rockford goalie Katie Elwell committed to Central Michigan.
MCLA
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 2015 goalie Ben Barrick will play at Grand Valley. Clayne Frazier, a 2015 defenseman from South Lyon, will join him.
High School/Club Links
Didn’t post many 2014 commitments above (because, like, they’re already in college), but True Lacrosse did post a rundown on several guys, so I find that to be useful.
Forest Hills Northern 2016 attack Peter Fisk committed to UMass. Forest Hills Northern 2015 goalie Grant Lardieri will play at UMass Lowell.
Rockford 2016 midfielder Alex Vander Molen will be a lady Buckeye.
Brother Rice 2015 A/M John Lockwood committed to Dickinson.
Grosse Pointe South 2015 FO/Mid Mac Carroll picked Manhattan.
Walled Lake Northern’s Alaina White will play at Pace. She is a 2015 defender. All Lacrosse Michigan talks about the pledge.
Detroit Country Day 2015 attack Emilio Sosa committed to Kenyon.
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 2015 defenseman Sam McClain will head to Rollins.
2016 Brother Rice LSM/D Brian Cosgrove committed to Fairfield.
As always, feel free to use this thread for questions, comments, etc. If I missed anything, you can drop it here or shoot me an e-mail: t.w.sullivan1@gmail.com or Tweet: @GreatLaxState.
Yay Tim. Content! We all know you’re busy with football, so we appreciate when you have the time to drop some lacrosse updates.
Have you seen the new recruiting website http://www.recruitingrundown.com? Ty Xanders is running it. He has a piece on UM’s one 2018 commit so far.
http://recruitingrundown.com/2014/10/03/michigan-continues-to-roll-in-recruiting-snagging-touted-18-john-john-lombardi/
Yep, there was a Recruiting Rundown link in there (on Decker Curran). Totally missed on adding something about John John Lombardi – though I had intended to – because the only breakdown I’d seen had been behind a paywall on LaxLessons. The RR post on him will be in the next Lax Links post… oh, probably about six months from now (but hopefully not).
I think it’s worth noting that Michigan has been able to upgrade their recruiting each year with only the promise of new facilities somewhere down the road (until now), without a winning record, with turnover almost each year in their one coaching position with D1 experience, and with a head coach who came from club lacrosse (I’m sure there’s some negative recruiting aimed at that by schools they are competing against). Everyone assumes Michigan should recruit well in every sport, which is true, but in lacrosse when you are competing against other great academic schools with already established traditions in the sport, warmer weather (often), big-name coaches and better facilities, what they have been able to do so far is pretty impressive.
I don’t think negative recruiting is as big a deal in lacrosse as it is in football or basketball at this point (though with early pledges and decommitments making their way over from those sports, maybe it’s the next trend), so I’m not sure Michigan would get hit by that as much. Especially since, despite Paul’s previous lack of D-1 experience, he is highly respected by some of the big-name coaches in the sport (Petro and Tierney among them), I don’t think they’ve been hit by it that much.
I think the differentiation between Michigan and other schools in recruiting is more pointing out the difference between going to a small East Coast school of a certain education type v. the Big Ten atmosphere at Michigan. Michigan is one of the few who can sell what they sell, and other schools are going for the recruits who want a true Ivy League experience (not just a Big Ten facsimile of that) or the liberal arts school thing.
Carolina, Virginia, Duke, ND? I think Michigan sells very well against schools like OSU, PSU and Maryland, and their recruiting is starting to bear that out. Clearly if you prefer a school like Hopkins or the Ivys that’s not going to lead you to Michigan, so that is more of the either/or comparison you’re talking about.
I think negative recruiting does come into it more than you believe, and just because JP is respected in some circles doesn’t mean those guys aren’t going to use every advantage they can get when a big-time recruit is on the line.
Glad to see Michigan winning some recruiting battles with Maryland. Many of my relatives are Terp fans, and I told them that once UM (that’s Michigan, not Maryland) got a 3 year foundation of varsity play, they would start pulling recruits that were considering Maryland, North Carolina, Penn State, and Syracuse as Michigan’s superior academics would be a key drawing point.
Tim,
You going to be doing a write-up on Michigan’s scrimmage with Fairfield?
I didn’t go (honestly, I just totally forgot it was going on), so I’ll gather what I can, and if there’s enough to post about, I will.
haha. Unfortunately lacrosse still has a ways to go if people who cover the sport forget about fall ball (not a knock on you – more a reality check for the sport). Let us know if you forget the football spring game.
Was definitely hoping you’d be there. How about any of the other regulars? It was an encouraging result. Would love to hear thoughts, who played and who didn’t, who impressed, etc, etc.
I wasn’t there (obviously) but from what I heard, UM looked good against a legit top 20 team.