Chad Cohan to Duke

Senior Chad Cohan, the excellent St. Ignatius Attack, has committed to Duke University. There he'll join his lacrosse playing brother, Dax, as well as his sister. While I've known about this commit for a while, it was only recently publicized.

Chad is a very good all around Attackman, whose riding game, lacrosse IQ, and crafty dodging are excellent. These qualities made him an appealing recruit to Duke. I believe he'll be a solid contributor at Duke! Coach Danowski is fortunate to have landed him.

As an interesting aside, The Cohan brothers and the Emery brothers apparently live in parallel universes. Both sets of brothers attend/attended St. Ignatius, both sets of brothers will attend the same school, both sets of brothers will attend powerhouse ACC schools, and both sets of brothers will attend a college that won the NCAA DI Men's Lacrosse Championship within the last two years.   

WestSideLax rates Top Western Club teams

WestSideLax.com has been running a series that counts down the top 10 club teams in their "West of the Mississippi" geography. It's pretty good and you can read it here. They've counted down from #10 to #4 so far, in the following order:

10. Vegas Starz

9.  Golden State Titans

8. Arizona Burn

7. Zip-It Lacrosse

6. RC Starz

5. Denver Elite

4. Brady's Bunch

 That leaves three to go. Who will they be?

There are a number of candidates in my opinion, including Minnesota Elite, Team America, Dallas Select, and the Alcatraz Outlaws. In addition, if one includes the single-school summer teams, I think both Cherry Creek and Fog City would make this top ten. But, let's say "Club" – by the WestSideLax definition – includes only multi-school teams. So, here we go! My #3 is Dallas Select. They made the final 4 at three different summer tournaments (Finals at Denver Team Camp, Semi-Finals at Notre Dame, and Semi-Finals at UNC), though they didn't do as well at King of the Hill. My #2 team is Team America, built around Corona Del Mar, Palos Verdes, and St. Margaret's players. Team America made it to the Sweet Sixteen at Champ Camp. Champ Camp is, in my opinion, the second most competitive summer tournament in the country. While the Brine Shootout has become the toughest summer tourney, Champ Camp still provides VERY difficult competition. My #1 Club team  West of the Mississippi – would be the Alcatraz Outlaws, who made the Finals of both tournaments they entered – King of the Hill and the Gait Cup, losing in both tournaments to Laxachusetts. Laxachusetts, in my opinion, had the best summer tournament run in the country in 2011.  So, those are my top three Club teams.

That leaves unanswered the question as to how Cherry Creek and Fog City would be ranked if they were club teams. My take is that both would rank above Dallas Select and below Team America. I'd also make one final adjustment to WestSide Lax's rankings. The Golden State Titans would rank a smidge higher than #9 in my rankings. Their performance at the Hotbeds was a major accomplishment. 

What do you think?

Thanks to WestSideLax for their excellent idea and thoughtful analysis! 

Another NorCal DI recruit?

The Dilettante has been hearing rumors that another NorCal Class of 2012 laxer has committed to a DI school. Comment if you've got the whole story!

Duke Lacrosse Coaches Clinics on the Web

The Dilettante has been fortunate to take in the Duke University Coaches Clinics in each of the last two years. They've been given at the Duke Lacrosse film room to local North Carolina coaches for several years now. It's a five star clinic by Coach Danowski and his excellent staff. This Fall's Clinics will be available to Coaches all around the country as the sessions will be broadcast live on the web, using the schedule below. All times are in the evening using the Eastern time zone. Full details can be found at:

Go Duke
Well worth any High School Coach's time and highly recommended!

Wednesday	Sept. 21	7-9:30
Wednesday	Oct. 19	7-9:30
Wednesday	Nov. 16	7-9:30
Wednesday	Dec. 14	7-9:30
Wednesday	Jan. 18	7-9:30

Griffin Goudreau 2011 Highlights

Griffin Goudreau, the 6'5" 220 pound Close D/LSM has committed to play for NCAA DI Providence College. Griffin, who attends Bellarmine College Prep, played for the Alcatraz Outlaws this past summer, where he caught the eye of a number of coaches. Here are his highlights from the 2011 season.

Matt Corbin 2011 Highlights

Matt Corbin, the fine De La Salle Close D, has committed to play NCAA DIII at highly regarded Haverford. Matt is in the Class of 2012 and will join another NorCal guy next year on the 'Fords - Jack Bodine, Class of 2011, from  Saint Ignatius.

Haverford is a supreb academic institution and Matt is a very strong student. Sounds like a great fit. The 'Fords are getting a tough, sizable, tenacious defender. They're lucky to have him!

Michael Hernandez 2011 Highlights

Michael Hernandez, the fine 2012 Piedmont Middie, has committed to the University of Michigan. He played for the Alcatraz Outlaws this past summer, where he tore it up at the Gait Cup and King of the Hill. Here are his Junior year highlights.

In Praise of Off-Season Teams from a Single School

For almost a decade, I've been watching summer lacrosse travel teams do battle with teams from other locales–teams from New Hampshire to Florida, and Texas to Washington– in tournaments with as few as eight teams in the bracket to tourneys with as may as 74 in the bracket. They've all been great fun and cumulate as one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.

Over these years, what I appreciate most about summer tourney teams has changed. For whatever reason, I used to be most attracted to the big, fast, powerful hyper-AllStar teams that attempted to amalgamate the very best athletes from a sizable geographic region. Teams like Gotskillz, Tri-State Black, Laxachussets, Long Island Express, Dukes and the Crabs. It was great to see these aggregations of superstars go mano-a-mano against an opposing superstar from another of the very top clubs. I still like to watch these one-on-one battles among the very elite Select teams, but in the last few years I've found myself drawn to the School teams.You know, the teams comprised of players from a single High School. I've had a hard time understanding why this change occurred, but think I finally can explain it – at least to myself.

School teams may attend the same tournaments as Select teams, but they have different objectives. School teams are formed primarily to prepare for next season's  conference play and the Regional, Sectional, and State tournaments that follow. Last year's Seniors have graduated and the heart of the new team will have to be found among the former Juniors, Sophs, and Frosh who were on the Varsity last season. Yes, the players want to be seen by the peripatetic bands of college coaches who carry their Renettos and clipboards, rotating from one field to another every half a game. But the purpose and the attention of their school coaches is focused on building the best possible SCHOOL team for the next season. 

The objectives of recruiting clubs are different. They form teams to showcase the best players in a given grade within an entire region. There is no future for these teams. They play in the moment, for the summer, then they evanesce. Generally, there's not much teaching going on with the recruiting teams. They run basic offenses, have basic slide packages and hope to compete by exploiting mismatches. Off ball movement, off ball picks, fake slides, the two man game, the three man game and other team elements of lacrosse are mostly missing when one watches the recruiting club teams. I've got nothing against Club teams. They serve their purpose. It's just that the play so predictable. There's a lot of individual athleticism and not much coordinated grace. It is what it is.

School teams have team objectives. They exploit with skills and superb coordination. It's beautiful to watch. It's purposeful beyond the objective of getting Jimmy recruited by XYZ DI school. These teams adapt to changing conditions. If the offense isn't effective when initiating with a dodge, they'll switch to initiate off the pick. If neither crease sliding nor adjacent slides are working, you'll see these teams move into a zone. Lacrosse becomes a thinking man's game. I love it!

The different objectives of school teams doesn't mean they can't compete in tournaments dominated by Club teams. De La Salle did very well at the UNC camp a couple of years ago. Saint Ignatius won the UNC Camp a year ago and made the Sweet Sixteen at Champ Camp - the last school team standing! And at Hotbeds this year, the Championship Game was between two School teams - West Islip and Ward Melville.

So, which school teams among our NorCal enclave travel together in the off season? Well, the Snipers, from Monte Vista, go to the Adrenaline Challenge every January, and always do well. They won NCS last year. The De La Salle boys have traveled as a team for the last several years. Many of those years they won NCS. Saint Ignatius, traveling as Fog City, has gone to Champ Camp or the UNC Camp for the last four or five years. They've been the top team in CCS for some while. Bellarmine has traveled as a school team as well. I believe it has helped them become  the powerhouse they are today. Let me know of other schools who travel together in the off season. Don't get me wrong. All of these teams abide by CIF rules and regs, but - within the rules - they find a way to play together in the off season  

So, here's to the School teams! They make Lacrosse endlessly entertaining for fans of the game.

Statistical Analysis of Men's NCAA DI lacrosse

As the saying goes, "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." But in today's ultra-competitive sports world, the use of statistics can help a coach better understand his opponents, while using stats to create better performance by his own team. Michael Lewis even wrote a best selling baseball book - Moneyball - in which the key element of the Oakland A's extraordinary record of wins per dollar spent on salaries was shown to derive from GM Billy Beane's advantage in the use of statistics.

Lacrosse is just coming into its own with sophisticated statistical analysis. Recently, a seven page article deconstructed game data from all 2011 NCAA DI contests. Without giving too much away, one of the key takeaways was the exceptional shooting performance by Canadian NCAA DI laxers. You can read the article at: http://www.laxpower.com/content/mauboussin/stats_analysis.php

Huaraches - No, Not the Nike Lax Cleats

Plenty of laxers are familiar with the Nike Huarache cleats. They get lots of pub from the custom designed versions given to attendees at recruiting events put on by Jake Reed's Nike Blue Chip and Peter Worstell's California Gold. You can see a Nike example in an earlier blog post I made. But I'm writing about the sandal Huaraches that seemed to draw lots of attention recently at East Coast lax tourneys. At least that's how it seemed to me as 5 colleges coaches and 3 players admiringly asked about the huaraches I was wearing during my summer swing to Maryland.

Huaraches, of course, were originally a Mexican sandal, popularized as low cost footwear, whose soles were made from old tires with strips of leather forming the top. Huaraches have gotten more stylish over the last 50 years or so, and I see lots of guys wearing them as hot-weather footwear on the West Coast. But they seemed very nouveau to East Coast laxers, who may be looking for something new and different than the thong flips that have been so popular over the last decade among the lax bros – at least those who have "tilt." So, here are a few examples of huaraches I've seen worn by West Coasters:

Love 'em or hate 'em, they do keep your feet cool and non-sweaty, while keeping your feet from going all pink and red on you.

NorCal All-Stars at Hotbeds

A number of NorCal Select teams traveled to the Battle of the Hotbeds tournament at U Delaware a week ago. Hotbeds has become a much more competitive tourney over the last three years or so and is attracting many more NCAA coaches to watch the boys. Amongst the big-time team tourneys, only a handful are watched by more coaches. So, making the All-Star team at Hotbeds is a nice recruiting bio bauble!

The Golden State Titans captured all the NorCal spots on the All-Star teams at Hotbeds, and here they are:

Class of 2012

Michael Tagliaferri M San Ramon Valley

Class of 2013

Cam Bowlby G San Ramon Valley

Will Ernst G University

Charlie Ford LSM St. Ignatius

Will Montero M De La Salle

Congrats to these boys for their outstanding individual tournaments, and to all the Titans for performing so well as a team!

Golden State Titans finish 5th at Hotbeds!

In this morning's quarterfinal game between the Titans and Ward Melville, WM prevailed, 9-3. That was the beginning of a three-game run to the Championship by Ward Melville. After defeating the Titans, WM thumped the Florida Hammerheads, 8-3 in the semis, and then defeated West Islip by the same score in the Championship game. Congrats to all the Titans – and to their coaches – for a great run at a well-regarded tournament. A 10-1 record is a wonderful performance!

Golden State Titans at Hotbeds

The Golden State Titans, coached by Chris Rotelli and Erik Martin, have put together a record of 10-0 during the Battle of the Hotbeds at the University of Delaware. That record propels them to the playoffs, which will take place this morning. Based on records so far, West Islip and the Florida Hammerheads have qualified for the semi-finals, while four teams–including the Titans–meet in quarterfinal games to determine which teams move on to the semis. The Titans face Ward Melville at 8AM today. Winner meets the Florida Hammerheads at 9AM to determine which team moves on to the Finals, which take place at 10AM.

You can read some terrific game reports by Ed McGovern here. Go get 'em, Titans!

LAX recruiting: The Parent Trap

Here's the funniest article on Lacrosse recruiting I've ever read. Actually, it's the only funny story I've read about lacrosse recruiting. Possibly apocryphal, but many elements have the ring of truth.

Sports Illustrated

Team Talon: US Lacrosse U15 National Championships

The Nor Cal Talons U15 team finished 4th in the US Lacrosse sponsored National Championships for the U15 title over this past weekend. Congrats to the boys and their coaches. I've included the roster below:

Joe Reid of Petaluma was named to the All-Star team of the National Championships!

Two other California teams made the 32 team Championships. NorCal Blue and DH Elite – coached by Kyle Harrison – were also competing. Congrats to all these California boys. You can read more at:

http://www.laxmagazine.com/high_school/boys/2010-11/news/072411_for_the_love_of_the_game_wins_us_lacrosse_national_championship

A short highlight vid of the Talons' game against Dukes Lacrosse U15 team can be seen here.