College: Yale & JW McGovern on ESPNU

JW McGovern

I was watching the Princeton v Yale game on ESPNU Friday afternoon and grabbed a couple of screen shots of JW McGovern during the game. JW is the former SI standout and 2x HS All-American from St. Ignatius. Seeing that Princeton's Alex Capretta – another former SI standout – graduated last year, JW was the only NorCal guy in the contest. He's seeing some playing time for Yale's strong team – the Ivy League may be the strongest conference in the nation this year – and he's representative of the NorCal invasion of the Ivies.

Here are the screen shots:

JW #4 makes the key pass on a goal by #9

JW sets a pick on a dodge by #18

The announcer called him John-William McGovern, which seems a heckuva lot harder to say than J Dub, but it's always nice to hear your name on National TV! Only disappointing part of the game was that Princeton prevailed 10-9.

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.

Alcatraz Outlaws Alumni game

Each year, the Alcatraz Outlaws bring together the current team(s) and the alumni to have a little pickup game. It's great fun, and as you'll see, it's a great event for players,  parents, siblings, and coaches. Here are a few pictures of today's event:

Alumni:

Alex Capretta - Princeton grad

Connor Hunt - Cornell Undergrad

Carson Mead - news pending

Food:

Food by the truckload!

GOOD food, by the way!

The squad:

This year's players listen to Alums' advice
Speakers: Parker Brown, Jack Bodine, Alex Capretta, Rob Emery, Bobby Gray

The Outlaws with Alcatraz in the background

Players after the scrimmage

Parents, Fans & Future Outlaws:

Future Outlaw 

Parents and other fans

More of the crowd

From what I hear, a great time was had by all. Go Outlaws!

You can see the complete rosters of both Alcatraz Outlaw teams at:

http://norcallacrosse.blogspot.com/2012/03/alcatraz-outlaws-announce-2-rosters.html

2012 season stats for NorCal NCAA DI players

Here is a compilation of season statistics for all NorCal NCAA DI players for the 2012 season. If I have forgotten any DI players from NorCal, please send a comment.

Please note that I have included John Glesener, who played his Youth Lacrosse with the Diablo Scopions (and played for DLS as a Freshman). I also include Billy Baird, who played his Youth Lacrosse with the Lamorinda Lightning. Nineteen NorCal guys playing DI Lacrosse. A very few years ago, who'd have believed it!

NorCal DI category leaders are:
Goals: Rob Emery, 24, Alex Capretta 23, Parker Brown 20
Assists: Parker Brown 20, John Glesener 17, Alex Capretta 11
Points: Parker Brown 40, Alex Capretta 34, John Glesener 33
Ground Balls: Rob Emery 27, Roy Lang 23, Parker Brown 21
Caused Turnovers: Kevin Downs 8, Billy Baird 6, Giancarlo Sangiacomo 3

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!

Alex Capretta named Ivy League Player of the Week

Alex Capretta, SI alum and former HS AA, has been named the Ivy League player of the week for his five-goal performance in a victory over Cornell that provided Princeton with the outright Men's Lacrosse regular season title for the Ivy League. A nice article about Alex can be read on the Princeton Tigers athletic site:

http://www.goprincetontigers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10600&ATCLID=205421869

Congratulations!
 I believe, though I do not know for a fact, that Alex Capretta is only the second NorCal player to win an Ivy League "Player of the Week" award. Parker Brown, former UHS standout and 2X HS AA, has won the award twice. If you have additions to this list that can be corroborated, send me a message.

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!

Alex Capretta nets 4 against Rutgers

Alex Capretta

Former SI alum and HS All-American, Alex Capretta continued his white-hot scoring pace today against Rutgers, scoring four times in Princeton's 13-4 win. He now ranks third in points for the year at Princeton. You can read the game account and see the Box score at:

http://www.goprincetontigers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=46871&SPID=4265&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205411571&DB_OEM_ID=10600

Way to go, Alex!

SI alum Alex Capretta nets 2 against Brown

Former SI All-American Alex Capretta, has been on a roll for Princeton this year. A starter for the Tigers in all eight of their games, Capretta ranks third in points for Princeton with 17 and is tied for second in assists for the highly-rated squad. Princeton overwhelmed the Brown Bears, 13-2. Former NorCal HS All-Americans Parker Brown and Tim Jacob both played in this game for the Bears, but were held without points by the stingy Tiger defense.

SI Alum Alex Capretta scores game winner in 5th OT

Alex Capretta

SI alum Alex Capretta scored the game winner in the 5th OT, as Princeton defeated Yale,10-9. It was the ninety-fourth lacrosse game between these two Ivy League schools.
Including the OT game-winner, he had 3 goals and an assist in the game. It is his second hat trick of the season. You can watch a video of his goal at: http://www.goprincetontigers.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?SPSID=46871&SPID=4265&DB_OEM_ID=10600&id=856926&db_oem_id=10600

and read Princeton's game write-up at:
http://www.goprincetontigers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=46871&SPID=4265&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205403155&DB_OEM_ID=10600

Congratulations to this fine NorCal player!

SI alum Alex Caprette nets Hat Trick & assist against UNC

Alex Capretta

Former SI standout, now of Princeton,  Alex Capretta punished the net today in a valiant effort against UNC. Princeton fell a goal short in a 9-8 battle between two fine teams. With his assist, Alex tallied four points on the day. You can see the box score at:
http://www.goprincetontigers.com/fls/10600/statistics/mlax/mlax12/prin-unc.htm

Thus, Mr. Capretta was involved in 50% of the goals Princeton generated. In an earlier game this season, Alex had the hat trick in assists. Quite the versatile offensive player!