If I might interject, I agree with FairLax. Most athletic conferences in HS designate schools based on the size of the school. This is done to protect not only the integrity of the game but in football, for safety reasons.random observer wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2024 6:35 pmAs much as the landscape has shifted dramatically in favor of prep schools, I still contend that the best public schools can and do still compete with the prep schools, and I think to not have an overall ranking list for all programs is a disservice to said public school teams. It implies not that they are operating on a different playing field, but that they can't compete, which is absolutely not true. This narrative persists because there is an inherent evaluation bias against the public schools because they don't have a factory of D1 recruits; there are plenty of prep school kids that have ACC/B1G/Ivy names on their commit page who never play meaningful minutes at the next level, and plenty of public school kids going to lesser schools who then blow up in college and often get poached by the power programs. So at the beginning of the year when people make a pre-season list, of course they're going to include the MIAA team with 15 D1 commits over the public school power with half as many, even if it's not reflective of their relative talent. At the end of the day, I can't remember a single year where the best public school team wasn't among the 10 best in the country at year's end.3rdPersonPlural wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2024 4:01 pmI'm fine with 2 polls, but then the question would become 'at what point in the private school poll do the public schools enter?FairLax wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2024 1:58 pm It is really so silly, there should simply be two polls, one for Private Schools (of any kind) and one for Publics. It does not matter if you take PG's or not, Wick, L'Ville etc while they do not have PG's many of the kids have re-classed which is fine, do not have any issues with that at all, but they should not be compared to a school that simply pulls from the students who live in a particular town. Do people move to these hotbed towns for Lacrosse, yes they do, but they are legit residents, and their kids are of the appropriate age. Schools like Chaminade and St A's might not have PG's or re-classes but they are pulling from all over LI so to compare them to publics does a disservice to the Publics. Same goes for the MIAA.
#10?
#20?
Would anyone suggest that the best public school is in the top 5 or 10?
Everyone just cares about the top grade poll. #1 in a poll which only includes teams that are #10 and below is less exciting.
Question: What happens when some kid reclasses at a public school for some reason and also is really good at lacrosse? Now are they tossed out of the tier 2 group?
How do we compare public schools with 2000 students to schools with 500 students? Do we need another layer here?
Occam's razor suggests that we just rank the flippin' teams. Those who want to only consider teams that don't reclass and don't PG and don't allow kids who turn 19 that year to play can do their own poll, but the way things are going, even kids who are 19 years old are still in high school. If I had new babies, I'd have then enter kindergarten as late as possible. So would most of you.
So we ask for a filter. Done deal!
looking back just to 2023, Radnor may have been the best team period in PA , and they look to be strong again this year. Victor made the long trek from Rochester to Baltimore and split with two MIAA playoff teams. Darien had one of its worst teams in decades and still took down Brunswick -- they return almost their entire lineup and should be a threat to anyone in 2024. Manhasset got clipped in OT by Chaminade, but on the whole they were a nailed on top 10 team. We no longer have a dozen public schools on LI who can take down anyone on their day, but the best publics can and still do go toe-to-toe with the best privates/preps.
I agree, that a Darien, Manhasset, you pick the great public school program, can compete and often do with the best Private Schools, but the list of schools that can do that over time is relatively short. Quint Kessinich in a recent column made the case that to rank a school that draws nationally like the NE West schools with a public school is nonsensical. And while St A's and Chaminade do not recruit nationally, they are still not allowed to participate in the NY State playoffs.
