Uncommon for now....

A feed from one California guy to another California guy for the finish. Bang,bang...assist and goal. That's an uncommon occurrence in NCAA DI lacrosse. But not for long at the pace our guys are getting recruited.

More and more, California guys aren't lone rangers when they go back East. Next year, for example, it will be Jack McCormack of DLS and Wiley Osborne of Menlo School heading off to Dartmouth. Middie Mike Hernandez of Piedmont and Attack Brendan Gaughan of La Costa Canyon are Frosh who are both attending Michigan. At Penn State, Two Freshmen from the same school have enrolled at Happy Valley. Close D Jordan LaTendresse and M Jordan Weiss, both from San Ramon Valley, will be playing for Coach Tambroni!  At Notre Dame, former SI Attack, Bobby Gray, joins former Corona Del Mar standout Attack, Ryan Mix. This year's Yale Freshman class has another pair of SI/CDM guys – JW McGovern, an Attack from St. Ignatius and Mike Keasey, a Middie from Corona Del Mar.

Here, Yale takes on UMass in a Fall Ball game. Both Yale and UMass made the NCAA tournament last season and new guys are always competing for playing time. In this video from LAX.com, #10 Keasey brings the ball up the field and spots #4 McGovern sneaking around the crease from X. Feed and finish in the blink of an eye! From 3:16 to 3:24 in the vid.




By the way, the same thing is happening at top NCAA DIII programs. We've got former Foothill Goalie Patrick Shevelson and former SI Middie Phil Aliman who headed off to Kenyon this Fall where they'll join Phil's older brother Nick. Similarly, Close D Matt Corbin of De La Salle joins D Somer Stein of Marin Academy and A Jack Bodine of St. Ignatius at Haverford. It's absolutely explosive growth, folks, and you're watching it happen!

Rosters for Under Armour Senior Lacrosse All-America teams announced

Rosters for the Under Armour Senior All-America teams have been announced and can be scrutinized at:
http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2012/05/16/2012-under-armour-all-america-lacrosse-senior-teams-announced#comment-542865

As announced here earlier, Michael Tagliaferri was named to the UA North team. Other Western players making the Under Armour Senior All-America team are:

Brendan Gaughan A La Costa Canyon Michigan
Matt Florence M Kent Denver Virginia
Tanner Scales D Regis Jesuit Virginia

Neither Michael Tagliaferri nor Matt Florence will be able to play in the UA AA game, as they are both members of the USA U19 team and have conflicting schedules as part of the USA TEAM.

Congrats to all these fine Western players!

Lacrosse Magazine – top teams & players in the Western United States for 2012

Lacrosse Magazine's (LM) March 2012 issue forecasts the top 10 Western High School teams and lists five "Players to Watch." Five California teams made the cut, as did three Colorado teams. One team each, from Washington and Oregon complete the list. Two teams from NorCal are on the list – Saint Ignatius at #3 and Monte Vista at #8. Here's the list of Lacrosse Magazine's top 10 Western teams for 2012:

• Kent Denver CO

• Torrey Pines CA

• St. Ignatius CA

• Coronado CA

• Mercer Island WA

• Regis Jesuit CO

• Foothill - Orange County CA

• Monte Vista - Danville CA

• Lincoln - OR

Cherry Creek - CO

From the NorCal teams listed above,  Lacrosse Magazine cites important contributors to their teams as:

St. Ignatius

Chad Bell

Chad Cohan

Peter Doyle

Matt Emery

Spencer Evans

Charlie Ford

JW McGovern

Jack McGovern

Will McKee

LM lists seven of these players as already committed to NCAA DI programs and expects all nine to play DI lacrosse.

Monte Vista

Gus Gradinger

Sam Langon

Cameron Parsons

Jack Pederson

Austin Richardson

Andrew Simor

Lacrosse Magazine also lists 5 Players to Watch from the West. Four of the 5 are from California and one is from NorCal. The five, in the order LM lists them, are:

JW McGovern A St. Ignatius Yale commit

Zach Fixen, M Palos Verdes Maryland commit

Brendan Gaughan, A La Costa Canyon Michigan commit

Jack Bobzien, A Arapahoe, CO Hartford commit

Sean Doyle, A Torrey Pines Cornell commit

All four California boys played on the Under Armour Underclassmen All-American West team that did so well at the Under Armour tournament this past summer.

Parenthetically, I found it interesting that the three California Attackmen who are mentioned in the LM article first met at Jake Reed's Nike Blue Chip camp in the summer of 2009, just after finishing their Freshmen year. They were the only California Attackmen at that camp. Perhaps Jake Reed's "early-detection" sniffer is better than I thought.

Commenting on the NorCal player, LM quotes McGovern's coach, Chris Packard, as saying, "He is custom-built to play at X." LM goes on to say that McGovern "... has drawn comparisons to Virginia's Steele Stanwick for his ability to dissect defenses." 

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.