Recruiting: Gathering of Outlaws Alumni, Part I

Every year, the management of the Alcatraz Outlaws sponsors an Alumni game. Former Outlaws, back from college, confront the current crop of Outlaws in a friendly. It's a great opportunity for the college guys to see their former teammates and get caught up. The Outlaws management always provides terrific food to players, parents, and assorted fans!

It's also an opportunity for parents of former Outlaws to get to visit once again. That's a really important thing for parents, who used to see each other all the time when the games were thirty miles, or less, apart. Now, arranging parent get togethers, with the boys all scattered along the East Coast and Midwest is often impossible. So, the gathering of Outlaws is just as important to the parents as it is to the boys.

This year's Alumni game drew great players and a great crowd. Here are a few pictures of this past Saturday's get together:

The Outlaws - old and new - with Alcatraz in the background

The Gathering! Just before the opening FO

Will McKee (SI and Lehigh) and Mike Hernandez (Piedmont and Michigan) talk to the current Outlaws about NCAA DI lacrosse (its pain and pleasures)

Jordan LaTendresse (San Ramon Valley and Penn State) with his Dad

Former teammates at SI: Bobby Gray (Notre Dame) and Giancarlo Sangiacomo (Providence)

See part II of this article at: 

http://norcallacrosse.blogspot.com/2013/06/high-school-gathering-of-outlaws-part-ii.html

OSU v Lehigh at Kezar – the local story

Will McKee (photo by Doug Ko)

Lehigh defeated the Ohio State University at Kezar Stadium Sunday, 15-13. It's always fun to watch Lacrosse, even Fall Ball games, but for me the story was the return to San Francisco of Lehigh FO/M Will McKee, who plays DI Lacrosse for Lehigh. Will has played in Kezar Stadium many times – in both Football and Lacrosse – but this time had a different vibe. He was a Lehigh MountainHawk and kids in the stands asked for his autograph after the game. San Fran Preps did a story about Will's return, which you can read at: http://www.sanfranpreps.com/2012/10/22/beyond-preps-will-mckees-return-to-kezar-stadium/

Will took a few face-offs, played some midfield, and his team won, so he had a great time at his homecoming. He even got a plateful of his favorite cookies from a fan (Barefoot Contessa Chocolate Chunks for those in the know).

Both Ohio State and Lehigh practiced at St. Ignatius' turf field on Saturday, so that was yet another familiar field for Will. He was a High School All-American at SI and he'll develop into a fine college player. Way to go Will!

Adrenaline AA game results and Gear Pix

A Dad who attended was nice enough to take this picture of both North and South squads together. The NorCal boys all played on the North squad in the dark Jerseys. The South team prevailed, 17-11. Click on images to get a larger view.

I hear Will McKee had a terrific game – 2G and 3A. JW McGovern dressed, but did not play due to the broken hand he suffered in the Foothill – Orange County game. I'll try and get a report on Chad Cohan's highlights, later today.

The Adrenaline All-American game is famous for its flamboyant gear that is given to participants. Arguably, the best gear in the country! Here are some helmet shots:

NorCal Chapter of US Lacrosse releases Boys' All-Americans

The following press release is from the NorCal Chapter of US Lacrosse:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 24, 2012

Northern California Chapter of US Lacrosse Names Boy’s High School All Americans

SAN FRANCISCO – After a rigorous evaluation process, fifteen Bay Area high school lacrosse players have been named as US Lacrosse High School All-Americans. Players, who are nominated by their coaches and supported by their respective leagues, were voted on by a committee of Northern California lacrosse coaches and league representatives that included one representative from each League in Northern California and the NCJLA.
The following local players were named to the team (players listed in alphabetical order):

ALL AMERICANS

Chad Cohan, Senior, Attack, St. Ignatius College Prep
Richard Cornew, Senior, Defense, Menlo-Atherton High School 
Michael Hernandez, Senior, Midfield, Piedmont High School
Sam Holton, Senior, Defense, Archbishop Mitty High School
JW McGovern, Senior, Attack, St. Ignatius College Prep•
Will McKee, Senior, Midfield, St. Ignatius College Prep
Wiley Osborne, Junior, Attack, Menlo School
Cameron Parsons, Senior, Defense, Monte Vista High School
Joe Reid, Sophomore, Midfield, Casa Grande High School
Jerome Rigor, Junior, Attack, Foothill High School
Alex Rutan, Senior, Midfield, Las Lomas High School
Mikie Schlosser, Junior, Attack, Davis High School
Patrick Shevelson, Senior, Goaltender, Foothill High School
Michael Tagliaferri, Senior, Midfield, San Ramon Valley High School• 
Jordan Weiss, Senior, Midfield, San Ramon Valley High School


"We are extremely proud of our 2012 All Americans," said Carlos Trujillo, Nor-Cal Chairman for US Lacrosse Secondary School Division. “All of our candidates this year are outstanding young men on and off the lacrosse field and represent the best of Bay Area lacrosse. Their talents on the field further display the continued growth of the sport of lacrosse in our region. These young men earned the respect of their teammates, opponents and coaches. Many of these players have Division I college commitments from schools like North Carolina, Princeton, Penn State, Yale and Duke and we wish them well in their college careers. We are equally proud of our Academic All American's who represent both outstanding lacrosse and the best and brightest in their respective classrooms."
Also receiving awards were the following players and coaches:

ACADEMIC ALL AMERICANS

Peter Doyle, Senior, Midfield, St. Ignatius

Justice Fleischmann, Senior, Midfield, Acalanes 

Gus Gradinger, Senior, Goaltender, Monte Vista 

Chase Hildeburn, Senior, Midfield, Miramonte HS 

Jamie Muresanu, Senior, Midfield, Marin Academy 

Brian Rath, Senior, Goaltender, Campolindo HS 

Sommer Stein, Senior, Defense, Marin Academy

COACH OF THE YEAR 

Chris Packard, St. Ignatius

ASSISTANT COACH OF THE YEAR 

Patrick Chung, Monte Vista

MAN OF THE YEAR

Carlos Trujillo, Archbishop Mitty

US Lacrosse will make their official announcement in Mid-June. 
__________________________
• Both JW and Michael are two-time US Lacrosse All-Americans

NCAA DI & DIII: Happy NorCal Seniors

Several NorCal Seniors are happy tonight, as the colleges they'll be attending in the Fall have been selected to play in the 2012 NCAA DI Championships. They are:
• Chad Cohan SI (Duke commit)  Plays Syracuse in Durham, NC May 12th at noon
• JW McGovern SI (Yale commit) Plays Notre Dame in South Bend, IN May 13th at 5:15 PM
• Will McKee SI (Lehigh commit) Plays Maryland in Bethlehem, PA May 13th at 7:30PM
• Mike Tagliaferri SRV (UNC commit) Plays Denver in Chapel Hill, NC May 12th at &:30 PM

I'll be taking in both the Duke v Syracuse game and the UNC v Maryland games. Who knows, maybe I'll see some of the guys at the games!

In DIII, both Patrick Shevelson FH and Phil Aliman SI (Kenyon commits) will be interested in Kenyon's game against Dickinson on May 9th.

Complete Roster for 2012 Adrenaline All-American game

Here is the initial list of invitees to the Adrenaline All-American game:

This roster may change depending on who can attend this game.

NorCal players named to Adrenaline All-American game

Will McKee

Fifty graduating Seniors from the Western United States have been named to the Adrenaline All-American game on June 2nd, 2012 at  Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA. Divided into two squads of twenty-five, the North team includes six players from NorCal. They are:

Chad Cohan A St. Ignatius Duke

Michael Hernandez M Piedmont Michigan

JW McGovern A St. Ignatius Yale

Will McKee M/FO St. Ignatius Lehigh

Michael Tagliaferri M San Ramon North Carolina

Patrick Worstell M San Ramon Syracuse

The complete list of invited players was sent out this afternoon. Each player will receive Maverik gloves, a Cascade Helment with a custom All-American Head Wrap and Adrenaline Movment will be outfitting each All-American with custom uniforms and apparel packages. GameTime Footage, the offical game film and highlight provider of Adrenaline, will be providing each player with a free copy of the game and the Adrenaline All-American MVP will be awarded a free highlight reel of his performance.


I know that graduation day for the SI players occurs on June 2nd, so that's a conflict for the three of them. I do not know how they will resolve it. In any event, these six are all wonderful players and Adrenaline is, in my opinion, on the money in naming them to their Western All-American team!. Congrats to all these players!  

Day 1 of the Langkammerer

Here's an incomplete – and sketchy – report on Day 1 of the Langkammerer.

Brophy Prep (AZ)  6 Bellarmine (CCS CA) 3 Either Bellarmine's getting better or Brophy had an off game. This spread is smaller than I expected.

Marin Catholic 14 Serra 6 This IS about what I expected. Marin Catholic is a very nice team that seeks to find the open man on the crease. They are successful in this and that's why they're good on offense. They are energetic and relentless on defense and that creates offensive opportunities. This is a team I have grown to like. I like Serra, too. They are just earlier on the development curve than Marin Catholic.

St, Ignatius (CCS) 13 Monte Vista (NCS) 4. This is about what I had expected. Well, it was 1 goal less differential than I expected, and if the refs had not mistakenly excluded a goal by SI I would have been right on the money. SI's Will McKee continues his amazing performance at the foX, The D unit is superbly coordinated and the midfield produced a few nice goals, including a big rip from 10 yards by Phil Alimam. The SI Attack line is the best I have ever seen, in CA – possibly beyond. They are all interchangeable in skills, feeding, and finishing. What that means is when an opponent puts their top pole on, say, JW MCGovern, Poles 2 & 3 face Attackmen who are functionally equivalent. Here's my premise: There is almost always a hierarchy of talent among any Close D unit and in an Attack unit that is good (and equal in skill) the Attackman covered by the weakest Pole will have a BIG day! If you have not seen this Attack line – Chad Cohan, Joe Lang, JW McGovern –  you are missing something special. You owe it to yourself to see these three this season. In an earlier post, I suggested this might be – in quotes – "an interesting game." The outcome was about as expected. The Mustangs are a well-coached team, with a number of fine players, but – this year – they were not a strong match for the Wildcats.

Corona Del Mar 15 – Menlo School 5. It was 3-0 CDM when I left things didn't get any better for Menlo. CDM is big, fast, smart, and unselfish. Their offensive QB, Mike Keasey, is smart, fast, and versatile. The Sea Kings are a very good team! The kind of team whose smarts, ball movement, and physicality makes them a WOW team to watch. Menlo is a smart team, with nice stick skills. The kind of team you want to do well. Against many teams the attributes of smart and skilled can carry the day. Today they ran into a team that is also smart and skilled, but has additional attributes of size and speed. Menlo rarely underperforms expectation, and they did not underperform today. The computers said they lose by about 10 goals and that's the way it turned out. I'm a fan of Menlo lacrosse and will watch them again this season!

More tomorrow on a VERY entertaining Langkammerer.

Another highlight vid of SI v SRV

If you can't get enough - here's another highlight of the great Si v SRV game. This one's by lax.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL3DUhGvy9U

Can't help but comment that the best goal of the game, in my opinion, isn't included on either vid. Here's the story: Will McKee was dominant at the FO X all night and he won several draws forward. As y'all know, winning 'em forward is good - very, very good! On Will's first forward win, he scooped it up, roared down the field, passed it to the Point and JW McGovern ripped it in from 14 yards. Nice goal, but merely the set-up for the second act. Later, Will wins it forward again, scoops it up, roars down the field, passes it to the Point... but keeps running! In one of the sweetest give-and-goes in my memory, JW slams it back to Will, who is now bearing down on the goalie unimpeded. I would not have wanted to be that goalie! Will takes it on the run, loads up, and RIPS IT for a superbly coordinated goal. In those two plays – two goals, two assists. Will with the assist on the first and the goal on the second. JW with the goal on the first and the assist on the second. Basically, both goals started out with the forward win, and looked like the same play, but this SI team has many variations on the same theme. Great goal, Will, and great work at the FO X!

2012 SI v SRV game highlight reel

Here is a brief highlight vid of the Saint Ignatius v San Ramon Valley game of March 9th, 2012

http://www.laxratz.com/2012/03/st-ignatius-prep-v-san-ramon-valley-9th-march-2012/