Summer Camps: Be the Best 3D camp

Peter Worstell's excellent training camp, Be the Best, is going on now. I'll have more pictures later, but I couldn't wait to post this one!

Three All-Americans from Cornell are coaching at Be the Best. Here, left to right, are Tewaaraton Winner and All-American Rob Pannell, Tewaaraton watch list and All-American Roy Lang, and Tewaaraton Watch list and All-American Steve Mock. Si's Roy Lang is the only NorCal guys in the picture, and what a player he is!

Pics from BTB 

Three Cornell All-Americans

An auspicious list of college coaches gives back to the game by teaching at Be The Best. For example, here's the cap and badge for the Head Coach at Bryant University, who coaches MV's Niko Dutra and DLS's Will Montero.

Mike Pressler

NCAA Player Impact Ratings

In an earlier post, I covered a mathematical system, developed by Dr. Martin Feldman, for assessing the impact lacrosse players have on the game. My earlier post can be seen here.

In this post, I list the NorCal NCAA players in DI and DII who performed in the top bracket created by Dr. Feldman, the author of "Player Impact Ratings". To make Dr. Feldman's list, DI players had to participate in at least ten games. Players whose Impact Rating number would have made this list, but who did not participate in ten games are not included. To give just one example, Giancarlo Sangiacomo's Impact Rating would easily have made the top defender list, but he did not play in the requisite ten games.

NCAA DI:
Attack: Parker Brown (Brown), Alex Capretta (Princeton), Billy Mattimore (Bucknell)
Midfield: Rob Emery (UVA), Roy Lang (Cornell), John Glesener (Army)*
Defense: none in top 200
Goalie: none in top 200

NCAA DII:
Attack: Austin Pridham (Colo. Mesa), Casey Hock (Queens), Gabe Garcia (Colo. Mesa)
Midfield: none in top 200
Defense: Brian Raaka (Dominican U)
Goalie: none in top 40

NCAA DIII:
Attack: Jack Bodine Haverford)
Midfield: Nick Alimam (Kenyon), David Lee (Williams)
Defense: none in top group
Goalie: Nick Massa Kenyon

You can find the rankings for all NCAA players whose complete stats were reported by the respective colleges here.

Taking all positions into account, NorCal's highest rated NCAA DI Impact Player was Parker Brown of Brown University. For NCAA DII, Brian Raaka of Dominican University was NorCal's highest rated Impact Player, and for NCAA DIII, Nick Aliman of Kenyon College.

Congrats to the players who repped NorCal Lacrosse so well!
________________________
* John Glesener played his Youth Lacrosse for the Scorpions and played his Freshman year at De La Salle, before moving to West Genesee, New York.

Roy Lang traded to Ohio Machine

Roy Lang 

Roy Lang, SI 2x HS AA, Cornell 2x NCAA DI AA, and Tewaaraton semi-finalist,  had a terrific first MLL season with the Rochester Rattlers. So good, in fact, that he was a hot commodity as other teams sought to upgrade their rosters. And, as often happens, Roy was sought by, and traded to, the Ohio Machine today. Head Coach of the Machine, Ted Garber, said,""Roy has quickly proven to be one of the up and coming dynamic midfielders in the MLL. I was very impressed with him when we played the Rattlers last summer," said Garber. "In order to be able to trade for Roy, we had to give up Dan Groot a proven quality MLL player and a tremendous team member, but in the end I believe that the trade worked out for both the Machine and Rattlers in a positive way. Roy will give the Machine another tremendous athlete at the midfield position who will add to our offensive fire power."

Roy had 13 goals, 7 assists and 26 GBs in his rookie season.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.theohiomachine.com/news/6251/machine-acquires-midfielder-roy-lang

2 NorCal laxers make Academic All Ivy-League

Parker Brown and Roy Lang were named to the Ivy League's All-Academic team yesterday. Most of us know these two for their amazing Lacrosse exploits, but it is a significant accomplishment to be stellar academically while playing a NCAA DI sport. In addition, these two players have been named to All-Ivy Lacrosse teams for their on-field performance. To me, these guys epitomize the scholar-athletes that the Ivy league seeks.  A sound mind in a sound body is the way this dualityt is sometimes put. I believe these two are role models for all NorCal players and I feel lucky to have watched them play! Thank you for setting such a high standard to which younger laxers can aspire.

All -Ivy

SPRING ACADEMIC ALL-IVY ANNOUNCED

Providence, RI – The Ivy League released its list of student-athletes selected for 2012 spring Academic All-Ivy. Recipients needed to be starters or significant reserves on an officially recognized varsity team with a 3.0 or better cumulative grade point average.

Parker Brown

Parker Brown, Sr., Men's Lacrosse, Public Policy & American Institutions (San Francisco)
Honorable Mention All-Ivy; co-captain; 113 career points, including 63 career goals; led team with 40 points in 2012, including a team-high 20 assists; NEILA Scholar-Athlete.

Roy Lang

Roy Lang, Sr., Men’s Lacrosse, American Studies & History (Mill Valley, Calif.)

Third-team All-America; first-team All-Ivy; finished with 22 points on 16 goals and six assists, while recording 23 groundballs and seven caused turnovers.

Emery & Lang named 2012 DI NCAA All-American

The United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA), whose members are NCAA college coaches, annually names NCAA All-American Lacrosse players. They recently released their 2012 teams. Northern California had the following players named:

DI:
Roy Lang 3rd team MF Cornell, attended St. Ignatius
Rob Emery HM MF Virginia, attended St. Ignatius

This is the first time ever that two NorCal guys have been named to the USILA All-American. Congrats to Roy and Rob!

You can see all the All-Americans in all three Divisions at:

http://www.usila.org/AllAmericanPDFs/2012-DivI-AA.pdf

Roy Lang - marked man?

Roy Lang, former 2X HS AA at St. Ignatius and former 1st team AA at Cornell, has played precisely one game in the MLL. Here's the money quote from an article about theOhio Machine's upcoming game against Roy's team, the Rochester Rattlers:

The question that remains is who’s going to stop Ned Crotty?

After his spectacular performance against the Bayhawks last week, Crotty made his presence known that he was back in the MLL. His skill, vision and knowledge will be his weapons to dismantle the Ohio defense.

Joining Crotty in the “who/how to cover” category is rookie Roy Lang. He had a stellar game versus Chesapeake and is a threat at the midfield.

It would make sense to see Kyle Hartzell on Crotty to shut him down, and then put Bice or Schmidt on Lang. It’ll be a tough call for Coach Garber.

Some things never change....

Read the entire article at:
http://www.inlaxwetrust.com/2012/5/18/3028723/ohio-to-host-rochester-in-first-ever-mll-home-game

Roy Lang Plays 1st MLL game before graduation!

Roy Lang, the former 2X HS AA at St. Ignatius, 1st team NCAA DI AA and Tewaaraton nominee, played his first MLL game on May 12th. He was drafted 11th by the Rochester Rattlers and was activated within days of his final college lacrosse game. That college game took place on May 4th. Just a week later, he scored his first professional goal as a member of the Rochester Rattlers, in a 10-6 victory over Chesapeake. Two weeks after that first MLL game, Roy will graduate from Cornell University. What a dizzying lacrosse career Roy has had! Congrats to Roy on his first professional goal. Even greater congratulations are due for his graduation from an Ivy League school!

Michael Tagliaferri named to Under Armour All-American game

Today I learned that Michael Tagliaferri, San Ramon Valley Senior, Junior Year HS All-American and University of North Carolina commit, was named to play in the Under Armour All-American game in Baltimore this summer.

Only 44 graduated High School Seniors participate in this annual event – 22 on the North team and 22 on the South team. As has been the case in the past, this game will be nationally televised by one of the ESPN channels.

Corrigan Enterprises manages this event and here's what they have to say about it:

" The Top 44 senior boys and girls are selected by a committee made up of the nation's most knowledgeable figures in high school lacrosse. Only true seniors in good academic standing are considered for participation. The players will compete in separate boys' and girls' North vs. South All-Star Games during the event.

The 2012 Under Armour All-America rosters are selected byINSIDE LACROSSE and the selection committee."

Michael becomes the sixth Californian to participate in the Under Armour All-America game, joining three other NorCal guys and two from San Diego. The earlier Under Armour All-Americans are:

Casey Hingtgen 2006 La Costa Canyon Dartmouth 

Will Yeatman 2006 Rancho Bernardo Maryland 

Alex Capretta 2008 St. Ignatius Princeton 

Roy Lang 2008 St. Ignatius Cornell 

Rob Emery 2010 St. Ignatius Virginia

Congratulations to Michael, who is definitely one of the finest High School players in the United States. I look forward to watching him in this game and in games when he's wearing Carolina Blue!

2 NorCal players make All-Ivy

Two former NorCal players – both two-time HS All-Americans – made the All-Ivy team released today. Parker Brown – formerly of UHS – was named All-Ivy as an Honorable Mention Attackman, while Roy Lang – formerly of SI – was named to the 1st team All-Ivy team as a midfielder. Congrats to both of these scholar-athletes for their on-field performance!

While not from NorCal, Greg Mahoney of Yale was named as a 1st team Midfielder. Mr. Mahoney is a Western Lacrosse player who hails from Mercer Island Washington. These three constitute all the Western United States members of the 2012 All-Ivy teams.

Roy Lang selected as Tewaaraton nominee

Roy Lang

Former SI standout, Roy Lang (2 time HS AA, 1st team NCAA DI AA) has been nominated for the 2012 Tewaaraton award. Considered the nation's most versatile Midfielder, Roy is among only 25 players in the country to be a nominee for the most prestigious award in Lacrosse. You can read a Cornell article on Roy's nomination at:

http://www.cornellbigred.com/news/2012/4/25/MLAX_0425121010.aspx

Interestingly, more than ten percent of the Tewaaraton candidates are from the Western United States, as Peter Baum (former Oregon HS AA) of Colgate, and Pierce Bassett (former AZ HS AA) join Roy on the 2012 Tewaaraton nominee list.

The first-ever Tewaaraton nomination for NorCal and the largest percentage of Western players ever for the Tewaaraton. The Westerly winds of change in the lax world have gone from gentle breezes to near hurricane force!

NorCal lacrosse & the Ivy League Tournament

Alex Capretta

In an earlier post, I've written about the NorCal pipeline to the Ivy League. Without spending much time on that, the summary is that every Ivy League school has at least one NorCal guy playing or committed to it.  And they're contributors, sometimes HUGE contributors. This weeks final regular season games, setting the field and the seedings for the Ivy League Tournament, proved that point.

• The Princeton v Cornell regular season ender would determine the #1 and #2 seeds in the Ivy tournament, Recall that the winner of the Ivy tournament – not the regular season champ – gets the automatic bid to the big dance. In that game, Princeton prevailed 14-8, with Alex Capretta, former SI HS AA, had five goals for the Tigers. But, Roy Lang, former SI HS AA and 1st team NCAA AA, scored  one for the Big Red and was named to the Tewaaraton candidates list. Connor Hunt, former DLS HS AA, also plays for the Big Red.

• The Harvard v Yale regular season ender would determine whether Yale would be the #3 seed or the #4 seed in the tourney – and whether Harvard would be in the tourney – or not. Yale prevailed, 10-8, and secured the third seed. Harvard was out! Yale recruit JW McGovern, SI HS AA '12, was rooting for the Bulldogs, while Spencer Evans, SI '13, was rooting for the Crimson.

• Both Dartmouth and Brown had a chance to be the #4 seed if Harvard lost. Brown prevailed, defeating Dartmouth 10-8, securing the fourth seed in the Ivy tourney. In this game, Parker Brown, former UHS HS AA, had 2 goal and 1 assist, while Thomas Mattimore, former SI HS AA, had 1 goal and 1 assist. Two Dartmouth recruits, Jack McCormick, DLS '13, and Wiley Osborne, Menlo '13, were rooting for the Big Green! Brown Attackman, Tim Jacob, former Bellarmine HS AA, saw action in this game.

UPenn was not in the hunt for the tourney this year, but Nick Richards, former DLS AA, saw plenty of action this year.

Quite a testament to the athletic – and academic – prowess of all these guys!

SI Alum Roy Lang has hat trick against Syracuse

Former SI standout and 2x HS All-American, Roy Lang had a hat trick yesterday in a 12-6 Cornell victory over Syracuse. Significantly, it was Cornell's 700th victory in Men's lacrosse. Roy is on a roll lately and Cornell is very dangerous when Roy is feelin' it! You can read a game report and see the box score at:
http://www.cornellbigred.com/news/2012/4/10/MLAX_0410122710.aspx

It's worth noting that the NCAA DI 1st team All-American was also named to the Academic All-Ivy team last year!

Happy Birthday to You, Roy Lang!

In yesterday's 14-10 victory by the Cornell Big Red over the Harvard Crimson, SI Alum Roy Lang demonstrated why people call him the best two-way player in the college game. Here's his Coach, Ben DeLuca, on Roy:

Eleven players scored goals, with senior midfielder Roy Lang acting as the main catalyst and embodying perfectly what DeLuca calls a "two-way mentality in the midfield." The 6-foot-3 200-pound Lang -- on his birthday -- scored five points on three goals and two assists, adding four ground balls and causing two turnovers on his way to bullying Harvard's midfield players for the better part of 48 minutes.

"I told the guys after the game, I don't think anyone plays more than Roy Lang," DeLuca said. "He plays in the defensive end, on man-down, on face-off, on offense ... He does just about everything for us. And that's a pretty scary thought if I'm on the other side of that and see Roy Lang with the skill set that he possesses with the ball in his stick coming at you in an unsettled situation with guys that maybe aren't so used to playing defense."

SI alums Lang & Emery score as UVA defeats Cornell in OT

Roy Lang

Rob Emery

Former SI alums Roy Lang and Rob Emery, opposing middies in an OT victory by UVA over Cornell, scored one goal and two, respectively, as the Wahoos won in a 9-8 OT thriller. You can read a write-up at: http://games.insidelacrosse.com/game/recap/6403/2012-03-10/cornell-big-red--virginia-cavaliers

SI alum Roy Lang scores in Cornell victory over Army

SI alum Roy Lang scored a goal yesterday in Cornell's victory over Army. The Big Red overwhelmed Army 18-7. You can read the article at:
http://www.cornellbigred.com/news/2012/3/3/MLAX_0303121517.aspx