High School: Day 3 results at the Langkammerer

SI         10
Brophy   2

St. Margaret's Episcopal 18
Bellarmine                      12

Sacred Heart Prep   10
Marin Catholic        13

Lincoln              5
Redwood         10

High School: Langkammerer Day 2 results

Bellarmine 11
Redwood    4

Brophy (AZ) 8
SHP              7 (OT)

St. Ignatius       18
Lincoln (OR)     4

St. Margaret's    11
Marin Catholic   5

High School: 2013 Jerry Langkammerer Invitational

Jerry Langkammerer Invitational Trophy

The 7th annual Jerry Langkammerer Invitational will take place at St. Ignatius' J. B. Murphy Field on April 4th, 5th, and 6th, 2013. Eight terrific teams, from three states, and from both NorCal and SoCal will participate. The Langkammerer is, without question, the best in-season Lacrosse tournament in the Western United States.

Here is the list of participating teams:
School                                               State    Rank in State    LaxPower Power ranking
Bellarmine College Prep                     CA            30                  93.76
Brophy College Prep                          AZ              1                  97.32
Marin Catholic                                    CA              2                  99.14
Lincoln HS                                         OR             20                 91.96
Redwood HS                                      CA              7                  98.69
Sacred Heart Prep                               CA             46                 92.39
St. Ignatius College Prep                    CA              1                   99.18
St. Margaret's Epsicopal School         CA             56                  91.98


My schedule will not allow me to attend the Langkammerer this year. It will be the first one I've ever missed. Feeling very depressed about that!

Here's the schedule for the Langkammerer:
       

	Thursday Apr 4			Friday Apr 5			Saturday Apr 6
12:00 turf	Brophy vs  Bellarmine		12:00 turf	SI vs Lincoln		11:00 tuf	Lincoln vs Redwood
12:15 grass	Marin Catholic vs Lincoln		12:15 grass	SHP vs Brophy		11:15 grass	Bellarmine vs St. Margs
2:00 Turf	St. Margarets vs SHP		2:00	St. Margs vs Marin Catholic		1:00 turf	SI vs Brophy
			turf
330 Turf	SI vs Redwood		330 turf	Redwood vs Bellarmine		1:15 grass	SHP vs Marin Catholic

The usual caveats apply: Times and fields can change. Check in with coaches daily for any changes to the schedule.

High School: LaxPower's top NorCal teams

We're still early in the season, but some interesting anomalies are showing up in LaxPower's NorCal rankings. Here are LaxPower's top 4 NorCal Lacrosse teams. Quick! How many of them are EBAL teams?

1 St. Ignatius 99.13
2 Redwood 98.79
3 Marin Catholic 97.65
4 Jesuit-Sacramento 95.93

Not until #5 does an EBAL team appear, and even then another non-EBAL team is #6!

5 De La Salle 95.70
6 Bellarmine 95.00

At this early point in the HS season, I'm willing to bet on history and say the EBAL will rise in rankings throughout the season, but... BUT, there are some interesting things happening:

• Of the top 6 lacrosse teams, 5 are Catholic schools
• Two teams are from the WCAL, two teams are from the MCAL, with one each from EBAL and Sac Joaquin.  Are times-a-changin' or is it just early season shakeout time?

Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association releases All-Conference teams

The western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (WILA) recently released their Men's All-Conference teams. A number of NorCal guys were honored. You can see the entire ALl-Conference list at:

http://www.westsidelax.com/news_article/show/148615?referrer_id=427506

Several NorCal players I've enjoyed watching over the years were honored. Here they are:

1st Team

Kevin Arabejo D NDNU of Danville (HS in Ann Arbor, Michigan)

2nd Team

Reed Upson A Dominican Davis HS

Dalton Copeland M Dominican Novato HS

Brian Raaka LSM Dominican Miramonte HS

Honorable Mention

Austin Pridham A Colorado Mesa Bellarmine

Giuliano Sanchez D Colorado Mesa De La Salle

Congrats to all these guys for succeeding at the next level!

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!

Day 3 at the Langkammerer

The final day at the Langkammerer saw three teams trying to protect their undefeated records at the tournament. Brophy Prep, Corona Del Mar, and St. Ignatius entered the third day with 2-0 records. The #1 team in the Southern Section of California, Corona Del Mar, faced a rapidly improving Bellarmine team - perennial power of the Central Coast Section of CA - and St. Ignatius faced the #1 team in Arizona - Brophy Prep in what everyone knew would be quite the battle. The SI vs BP battle was particularly heady, since both teams entered this game undefeated.

Let's get the scores behind us. Corona Del Mar (CDM) defeated Bellarmine 7-4, while St. Ignatius (SI) defeated Brophy Prep, 8-6. Both were sensational games to watch, with speed, skill, and will to win evident on both sides of the field! Bellarmine held the lead 1-0 and 2-1 before CDM went on a big run led by Michael Keasey, but Bellarmine fought every minute of the game and CDM knew they'd been in a big-time battle. SI smoothly pulled out to a 4-1 halftime lead, only to see Brophy close the gap to end the game at 8-6. Brock Ghelfi was one of two "Players of the Game," in my opinion, with 4 goals and an assist in the game with SI. Will McKee, SI's exceptional Face-off guys was the other. Will has been dominant in every game but one this season and yesterday was no exception. All those extra possessions made a big difference in this game.

Two teams ended up undefeated – Corona Del Mar and St. Ignatius – with Brophy Prep hard on the heels of CDM and SI.

In a non-scientific – and alphabetic – way, the teams I most enjoyed watching were:

Bellarmine – most improved team over early season form
Brophy Prep – willful, never-say-die team with a stud carrying them. Very impressive group of young men.
Corona Del Mar – in my opinion the most athletic team at the Langkammerer
Marin Catholic – not the best record in the tourney, but one of two teams with great grit and tenacity. One of two teams I found myself unexpectedly rooting for!
San Clemente – the other team with amazing grit and tenacity that I rooted for through most of the tournament!
St. Ignatius - I liked the Wildcats because their combination of skill, speed, and balance allowed them to make it look easy on numerous occasions. Making it look easy, I've found, is almost always because of near-infinite practice. They were the smoothest team at the Langkammerer.

Day 2 of the Langkammerer

I have only two of the 4 games results and will fill in the others as I get them. First, Corona Del Mar prevailed in a nice match with Marin Catholic, 10-4. The Sea Kings are a strong team, with strength where you like it. That is, strength along the imaginary line drawn between the two cages. That includes: Goalie, Crease sliding Pole, LSM, FO guy, dodging middie up top and an X Attackman. If you have strength along this axis, you'll be tough to beat. The Sea Kings have it! In addition, their skilled O passes as well and as fast as any team I've seen this year. Well, any High School team I've seen this year! For its part, Marin Catholic gave them a heckuva game. I love Marin Catholic! They're gritty, they're well coached and they get the principles of the game. They clear out the crease, they cut to the crease, they feed the crease. As a result, they get open shots on the doorstep. They just didn't get enough of them against Corona Del Mar. My congratulations to Coach McGettigan for getting his boys to this skill level so quickly. Hope he stays at MC for many years!

The second game I watched was a conundrum to me. This game was SI 9 San Clemente 6. SI is a better team than San Clemente – a substantially better team. Yet, San Clemente had a plan and the will to execute it. They would zone SI to death. Well, NEARLY to death. SI's vaunted Attack line was next to impotent against the zone. That impotence was contagious and spread to the defense, which allowed a couple of open shots (and goals) from within INCHES of the crease. Very unlike the parsimonious SI D! This year, SI has been an Attack-led team. The Attack line was mostly fallow today. Middie Spencer Evans had the hat trick, Middie Matt Emery had at least one, Middie Phil Alimam ripped one, Middie David Fleming had another... followers of SI will know that these fine fellows roam the middle of the field! You know, regular guys – salt of the Earth. Unlike those Flo Bros on the Attack line who dazzle with their BTBs and between the legs goals.

Hey! A victory is a victory. One should be happy with victories over good teams – and that's just what San Clemente is, a very good team! Glad to have them at the Langkammerer! They represent the Southern Section well and they have a gritty, blue-collar mentality that always gets me rooting for teams! Way to represent, San Clemente!

Brophy Prep defeated Monte Vista 6-5 in a BIG win for the Arizonans. I don't have details. but I'll try and get them.
As I get more info, I'll report on the remaining game, which was:
Menlo School v Bellarmine

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.

Langkammerer Schedule released

Pairings for the Langkammerer have been released. They are:

April 12th
10:30 Corona Del Mar v Menlo School
11:00 Monte Vista v Serra
12:30 Brophy v Bellarmine
1:00 Marin Catholic v Saint Ignatius
Tournament Dinner at 3:30PM for all teams and coaches

April 13th
10:00 Menlo v Bellarmine
10:30 Marin Catholic v Corona Del Mar
12:00 Monte Vista v Brophy
12:30 St. Ignatius v San Clemente

April 14th
9:30 Marin Catholic v San Clemente
9:30 Bellarmine v Corona Del Mar
11:30 Brophy v St. Ignatius
Monte Vista v Menlo School

Here are today's LaxPower's power ratings for participating teams - high to low:

St. Ignatius 98.88
Corona Del Mar 97.36
Brophy Prep 97.32
Marin Catholic 96.31
Monte Vista 95.10
San Clemente 94.75
Bellarmine 91.17
Menlo School 88.70
Serra 84.16

When the sixth highest rated team in a tournament has a 94.75 power rating, you've got one heck of a tournament! Can't wait to see this event.

Teams set for the 2012 Langkammerer

I understand that the teams for the 2012 Jerry Langkammerer Invitational Lacrosse Tournament have been set. The dates are April 12, 13, and 14 at J. B. Murphy Field ar Saint Ignatius.
Here are the participating teams:

NorCal:
Bellarmine College Prep
Marin Catholic
Menlo School
Monte Vista
Saint Ignatius College Prep
Serra - San Mateo

SoCal:
Corona Del Mar
San Clemente

Arizona:
Brophy Prep

Looks like a fine field of teams!

Here's the trophy for the Langkammerer:

West Side Lax ranks NorCal teams and players

West Side Lax has produced its annual boys'  lax projections for NorCal. Here are the highlights:

Pre-Season Top NorCal teams:

1. St. Ignatius Prep

2. San Ramon Valley

3. De La Salle

4. Monte Vista Danville

5. Bellarmine

6. Berkeley

7. Acalanes

8. Foothill-Pleasanton

9. Amador Valley

10. Piedmont

Pre-Season Top NorCal Players:

1. Michael Tagliaferri, San Ramon Valley (2013) M: UNC
Senior midfielder who has been selected to play for the U-19 National team. Great dodger who can score from almost anywhere.

2. Matt Emery, St. Ignatius (2013) M: Virginia
Younger brother of UVA standout Rob Emery. Matt is a midfielder with great speed and athleticism with a fast shot. A 2 time Under Armour all American.

3. Mike Schlosser, Davis (2013) M: Michigan
Selected to play on the Under Armour All-American underclass team. Great midfielder who can dodge and finish with both hands.

4. Patrick Worstell, St. Ignatius (2012) A/M: Syracuse
Senior midfielder/attackman was an All American last season who is comfortable initiating from all over the field.

5. Wiley Osborne, Menlo (2013) A: Dartmouth
Crafty attackman who isn’t afraid to turn the corner and bury shots.

6. Charlie Ford, St. Ignatius (2013) D: Georgetown
Junior long stick midfielder who makes his living shutting down the opposition’s key players.

7. Spencer Evans, St. Ignatius (2013) M: Harvard
Great dodging midfielder with a powerful shot on the run.

8. Jack McCormick, De la Salle (2013) A: Dartmouth
Crafty left handed attack man. Jack is a great feeder and finisher.

9. Michael Hernandez, Piedmont (2012) M: Michigan
Tall, athletic midfielder with great clearing ability and good vision.

10. JW McGovern, St. Ignatius (2013) M: Yale
Athletic midfielder who is a key part of Saint Ignatius' strong offense.

Other Players to Watch:

Chad Cohan (St. Ignatius), Griffin Goudreau (Bellarmine Prep), Chad Bell (St. Ignatius), Joe Lang (St. Ignatius), Cyrus Scott (St. Ignatius), Gus Gradinger (Monte Vista Danville), Will Ernst (University), Will McKee (St. Ignatius),

So far, so good. WSL is offering up opinions, and opinions are subjective. All eighteen players on the list are fine  players and WSL can slice and dice them any way they please. We can all have opinions, but as I have said before with regard to WSL, "EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OWN OPINIONS, BUT THEY ARE NOT ENTITLED TO THEIR OWN FACTS." Here's the issue: WSL doesn't really know anything about  NorCal lax. They don't know the players, they don't know their positions, they don't know their grade levels, they don't know their bios,  they don't know what schools they attend or whom to believe and that's why their write-ups always seem so goofy.

A few examples should suffice:

• In the body of WSL's NorCal write-up they assert: "San Ramon Valley possesses the most talented individual in the WSL coverage area in senor[sic] Michael Tagliafrerri. Tagliaferri, the UNC commit and US Under-19 team member, is undoubtedly on[sic] of the top players in the country." Michael is a fine player. He MAY be the best player in the WSL area, but Matt Florence, a Senior Midfielder from Kent Denver in Colorado (a UVA commit) is also a member of the National U19 team. Last time I checked, Colorado was in the WSL coverage area.

• Michael Tags and JW McGovern are listed as Class of 2013, when they are Class of 2012

• Patrick Worstell, a wonderful player, is not an A/M. In SRV's offensive scheme he often "rests" at Attack, but he is a Midfielder through and through.

• Similarly, JW McGovern is an Attack through and through - not a midfielder as WSL lists him.
• Patrick Worstell plays for San Ramon Valley, not St. Ignatius as WSL writes.

I'll leave it at that – though I could easily go on.

Every one of the players listed is a fine lacrosse player and they deserve all the accolades they receive. One just wishes for a more knowledgable and reliable commenter than West Side Lax.

But read the entire article yourself at:
http://www.westsidelax.com/wsl-presents-2012-california-boys-preview-north-central-coast

Former Bellamarine standout has hat trick in season opener for DII Colorado Mesa University

Austin Pridham

Austin Pridham, former standout Attackman for Bellarmine Prep has made the transition to NCAA DII look easy, In his first game for Colorado Mesa University, he had 3 goals in a CMU victory over Adams State. He was the team's leading scorer. You can read the game write-up at:
http://cmumavericks.com/news/2012/2/25/MLAX_0225122833.aspx

Tim Jacob at Brown

One of my favorite players, Tim Jacob (Bellarmine College Prep, Class of 2011), gets a very nice mention from his college coach, Lars Tiffany at Brown University. Here's the quote from Inside Lacrosse: "The biggest surprise as a freshman this fall has been attackman Tim Jacob from Bellarmine College Prep and Palo Alto, Calif. He was not expected to make an immediate impact but has been a “pleasant surprise,” said Tiffany."

You can read the article about Brown's entering class at:

http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2011/09/28/fallball-2011-brown-bears-check

Way to go, Tim!

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.

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.