College: NCAA DII: Queens University thrashes Coker, looks forward to Colorado Mesa

Casey Hock

Queens University thrashed Coker last night, 14-6. NorCal standout Casey Hock went off for 6 points in the game – with three goals and three assists –  leading all players in points. Coker is a middle of the pack team in NCAA DII, ranked 26th out of 50 by LaxPower, while Queens weighs in as #10 in DII. Casey is playing very well, starting all four games and leads the Royals in goals with 7 and points with 10, while being tied for 2nd in assists with 3.

The game of interest to NorCal fans takes place between Queens and Colorado Mesa on March 9th. The Mavericks, ranked 20th in DII, travel to Charlotte to take on the Royals. I've never seen the Mavericks play, but they have a strong NorCal contingent on the squad. I have seen the Royals play, though only twice, and I'll  put my money on Queens, primarily because Colorado Mesa has to travel 2/3 of the way across country to play the game.

Sadly, I won't be in the stands, as I'll be in New Haven, taking in a series of games that Yale will be playing, but a part of me wishes I could be in Charlotte for this game! Biggest aggregation of NorCal guys going at it in all of the NCAA!

College: Colorado Mesa travels to North Carolina to face Queens

In an upcoming NCAA DII Intersectional battle between two teams with NorCal players, the 20th ranked Colorado Mesa Mavericks will travel to Charlotte, NC taking on 11th ranked Queens University Royals. March 9th.

Colorado Mesa has five NorCal guys on the roster:
Mitch Flaherty Amador Valley
Eric McCosker De La Salle
Shane O'Neil Foothill
Austin Pridham Bellarmine
Guiliano Sanchez De La Salle

Queens has one NorCal guy:
Casey Hock Monte Vista

Casey has started all three games for Queens and has tallied four goals so far, playing a rugged schedule having faced #9 Post and #1 Mercyhurst.

For the Mavericks, Austin Pridham was third in goal and assists last season, Eric McCosker was third on the team in caused turnovers, and Shane O'Neil was third in ground balls in 2012. All big-time contributors!

Should be a great game!

College: Penquins clobber Argos

Dominican University met Notre Dame de Namur Saturday and the Penquins thumped the Argos, 18-3. LaxPower has a nice write-up that can be read here.

Nice comment about former Miramonte standout Brian Raaka. At the moment, Dominican is ranked #7 in NCAA DII.

College: DII Queens defeats Wingate in opener

In a nother North Carolina game, NCAA DII Queens University of Charlotte defeated Wingate, 14-5. Casey Hock, former Monte Vista standout and All-American, put up a hat trick in the victory. Six shots producing three goals is pretty impressive. Charlotte is a 3.5 hour drive for me, so I did not see this one in person. I'll get to one of his games this season!

Nicely done, Casey!

Mike Sappio at USNA

This blogger most often talks about NCAA lacrosse players from NorCal, but this blog entry is about a club player – at the United States Naval Academy – Mike Sappio. I've known Mike for a decade or more, first as one of his coaches at Lamorinda, then as a fan who watched his High School career with keen interest. Mike was not an All-American. He was not recruited to play NCAA DI Lacrosse. He played for Miramonte and was a very capable defender. He was athletic enough, he was gritty enough, and he was certainly smart enough to be a DI player. He just wasn't big enough.

He'd always wanted to go to the Naval Academy, as he comes from a  Maritime family. An allergy kept him from being admitted during his Senior year, so he ended up going to UCSB, a school that mapped to his academic prowess. But, he applied to Annapolis again – he's relentless, you see. This time, Navy couldn't resist. His grades, his character, his relentlessness – let me say that again – his relentlessness – made him irresistible to Navy. Well, that and his character and test scores! So, here is Plebe Michael Sappio, in uniform:

Michael Sappio

He made the Club team at Navy, but WAY more important than that, he's someone you can count on to defend our country. Congrats on your achievement, Mike! Can't think of anyone better than you to stand watch for us!

College: Lacrosse weekend: watching NorCal laxers in North Carolina

Ben Krebs after his stint in cage

Just back from my 3rd NCAA DI game of the weekend! Friday night, #4 UNC defeated the Air Force Academy, 16-8. NorCal standout Mike Tagliaferri – the San Ramon Valley legend – did not play, as he is still suffering a slow-healing injury.

Saturday, #6 Duke met #8 Denver and Denver prevailed. Both Dax and Chad Cohan – former SI standouts – are on injured reserve and didn't dress. Ben Krebs, Foothill's fiery and passionate goalie and scholar-athlete, dressed but saw no action.

Today, Duke took on Jacksonville and won big. Ben Krebs played the fourth quarter, until he was pulled, allowing the last goalie on the depth chart have a shot in cage.  During Ben's time in cage he faced 5 SOG and saved 4 – for a heady 80% save percentage.^ Nicely done, Ben!

So, that's my report from the East on this very first week of the season. It was a blast!
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^ The goal Ben allowed came when Duke was 2 men down.

Movin' On

With apologies to Lewis Carroll:

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and college lax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."


After a decade of posting about, watching, and talking about Northern California lacrosse,  I have reason to spend the next four lax seasons on the East coast – watching college games in all three NCAA Divisions. Most of the players I knew in Youth and High School lacrosse, in indoor leagues and on summer travel teams have moved on. Literally dozens of them have made the cross-country trip East. My Son is just one of them. I've never seen an Amherst vs Williams game, a North Carolina vs Duke game, or a Harvard vs Yale game! So, for the next four years, that's where you can find me from mid-February to Memorial Day.

Oh, I'll write here every so often – maybe once every month or two – and even then, it'll be about the college game. But, I'll still be watching the game I love and watching all the NorCal guys I've known over the years as they make their mark on the college game.

So, to all those who read this blog and to those who continue to read the NorCalLaxForum, where I was lucky enough to find games enough, or teams enough, or players enough to write 3,470 posts – I want to say, "Thanks for the memories!"


P.S. There may be a couple of you who wonder what my connection to NorCal Lacrosse is:

Here's my boy in the Blue and White of Lamorinda and the Blue and White of Yale.

He's 8 years old in the top picture and 18 years old in the bottom, where he's on the left.

Inside Lacrosse player write-ups at Adrenaline Challenge

Adrenaline Challenge Recruiting Round-up

Inside Lacrosse has a nice recruiting round-up from the Adrenaline Challenge. You can read it here. It features comments on a number of NorCal guys, including:

Mikie Schlosser M Davis HS/Michigan
Joe Reid Casa M Grande HS/Denver
Jack McCormick A De La Salle HS/Dartmouth
Josh Wellman M/FO Oak Ridge HS/Penn State
Niko Souza LSM San Ramon Valley HS/Furman
Austin Appleton G Sacred Heart Prep
Matt Emery M St. Ignatius/Virginia

Adrenaline Challenge All-Star teams released

All-Star teams, comprised of players selected by their coaches, were released by Adrenaline. As has been the case in past years, already committed players did not participate in the All-Star games, thus giving college coaches their best opportunity to see players who were still considering colleges. Here is the 2013-2014 list of All-Stars:

and here is the list of 2015-2016 All-Stars:

NorCal's ADVNC wins 2013 Adrenaline Challenge

Adrenaline Challenge Elite victors, ADVNC

NorCal's ADVNC team won the Adrenaline Challenge this past weekend, defeating Lax Dawgs Brown in the Championship game of the Elite Division. They prevailed, 11-5. You can read a write-up by Inside Lacrosse here.

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!
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* 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.

update on Mike Tagliaferri

Mike Tagliaferri

An article in the Danville, CA Patch provides an update on Mike Tagliaferri, with particular emphasis on his time with Team USA U19. You can read the entire article at:

http://danville.patch.com/articles/danville-lax-star-is-home-after-whirlwind-year-including-a-gold-medal-win-for-u-s

Key quote: "Michael Tagliaferri has been home in Danville maybe three days since graduating in June from San Ramon Valley High School.

Actually, he missed his graduation ceremony. And his grad night. And other festivities.

But ... he has a gold medal to show for it."

SRV's Niko Souza commits to Furman

Niko Souza

Niko Souza, San Ramon Valley's versatile Junior (Close D, LSM, FO), has committed to Coach Richie Meade and Furman University. On the summer circuit, Niko played for The Golden State Titans in 2011 and the Alcatraz Outlaws this past summer. As a Soph he was named to the 2nd team of EBAl's All-League squad. 

Watch Niko's highlight Reel at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQpMncdwR34

Looks like Coach Meade is getting a good one!

St. Ignatius to make East Coast trip!

It's official! St. Ignatius will travel to New York to play the legendary Long Island Catholic powerhouse – Chaminade. Last year, Chaminade finished 16-2, playing one of the toughest schedules in the nation. They finished the year rated #8 in the country. The Flyers had wins over national #2 ranked West Islip and national #6 ranked St. Anthony's.

In addition, SI will play Seton Hall on their Eastern swing. This game will be played as part of the Konica Minolta Big City Classic event, held at MetLife Stadium in Rutherford, NJ. More important, Seton Hall is coached by Dave Giarusso, formerly Head Coach of St. Ignatius. What a reunion and what an amazing road trip for the SI guys!

Game info:
Thursday 4/25/13 at Chaminade, Mineola, NY @ 4PM
Saturday 4/27/13 vs Seton Hall at the Konica Minolta Big City Classic MetLife Stadium, Rutherford, NJ @ 11AM

While it's too early to speculate on whether SI can win one or both of these games, I am sure the Wildcats will give it everything they have. Here are some stats on college commitments and school size that show SI will need to be on top of its game:

Current NCAA Commitments*: DI DII DIII Male students
Chaminade Flyers                     21   2     4         1,700
Seton Hall Pirates                       7    0     3           975
St. Ignatius Wildcats                   8    0     3           710

I wouldn't miss it!
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* Data from LaxPower recruiting lists for recruits entering college in school years 2013-14 & 2014-5

The most important stats in a lacrosse game

Mathematical analysis of sports performance has become an important tool for player evaluation. In baseball, Bill James analyzed more than a hundred years worth of box score data to determine which statistics had an impact on game outcomes. Over time, Baseball's General Managers have used his system – Sabermetrics –  to evaluate players. GMs seek to trade low-rated players for higher-rated players to improve their teams' onfield performance. The same statistical exercise goes on in basketball, football, and hockey. Now, the math whiz behind LaxPower, Larry Feldman, has produced a set of factors that determine, not only player performance, but tell us which factors of our game have the biggest impact on winning and losing Lacrosse games.

 Once these factors are given relative weights – determined via multivariate regression analysis – it is possible to rank player performance. Feldman goes one step farther, by adjusting player's performance rankings to the quality of opponents a player and his team face. This data, for NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, is now available.

 So, what factors from the box score does he consider and how does he weight them to produce accurate predictions of game outcomes and relative player performance? Here they are, sorted by largest absolute number, regardless of positive or negative value:

 Assists 1.25
Goals 1.00
Caused Turnovers 1.00
Goals saved 0.80
Goals allowed -0.80
Turnovers -0.60
Groundballs 0.25
Faceoffs won 0.22
Faceoffs lost -0.22
Shots on Goal -0.10
Missed shots off goal -0.05

 Without having attempted to quantify these factors myself, I – like many lacrosse observers – have long felt that Assists, Goals, Caused Turnovers, and Goalie Save percentage were the most important determinants of victories. That's not to diminish Groundballs. Though Feldman gives a positive weight of 0.25 to a single Groundball, fact is that there are LOTS of Groundballs in a game, and the team that wins the majority of them will cumulate a substantial statistical advantage.

Still, Feldman has produced a set of "weights" for lacrosse statistical events that help us understand the game in new ways. I believe that Feldman's system, or a variant thereof, will become a standard set of tools used by coaches to analyze their own players, as well as the players on opposing teams.

Finally, Feldman takes into account the quality of competition faced in determining overall rankings of players by position. I'll post on this player ranking scheme in the next day or two.