NESCAC

[jerseyman]

Looks like the recruiting fallout from the Amherst incident/punishment has begun: 2020 FO flipped to Tufts https://www.insidelacrosse.com/recruiting/profile/46770.

Interesting. How does that happen? Says he committed to Amherst in July 2019. So, he must have gotten a positive pre-read from admissions and likely applied ED - as the NESCACs encourage recruited athletes to do. So, how does he accept the ED offer, and then after the program blows up in March, he “flips” to Tufts? Only way that can really happen is he is off the charts smart and applied RD to Tufts and Amherst and got into both. Or, he applied to Amherst ED and got deferred/denied, but also had an application in at Tufts. No way Amherst releases kids from an ED commitment because the HC got fired. No way.

[Laxxal22]

I was thinking Tufts being the "big" school in the NESCAC maybe allows for a bit more flexibility with a late applications and seat/bed availability next fall. As for being released from ED, if that's what happened, Thompson getting fired could be the real reason for the switch but Amherst has to be delicate here. You hit a PC concerned institution with an argument of "I was misled about the character of the program and I don't feel COMFORTABLE joining it" and they'll back right off.

As for the player, huge get for Tufts. #11 Fogo in the 2020 class and was ranked in the Top 100 (97) through junior year. That's about as blue chip as you get for DIII. He should have an instant impact while pairing with Helfrich (IL 4th Team AA) for a season on what will be the top 1-2 face off punch in DIII. 

[jerseyman]

I was thinking Tufts being the "big" school in the NESCAC maybe allows for a bit more flexibility with a late applications and seat/bed availability next fall. As for being released from ED, if that's what happened, Thompson getting fired could be the real reason for the switch but Amherst has to be delicate here. You hit a PC concerned institution with an argument of "I was misled about the character of the program and I don't feel COMFORTABLE joining it" and they'll back right off.

As for the player, huge get for Tufts. #11 Fogo in the 2020 class and was ranked in the Top 100 (97) through junior year. That's about as blue chip as you get for DIII. He should have an instant impact while pairing with Helfrich (IL 4th Team AA) for a season on what will be the top 1-2 face off punch in DIII. 

This is huge for the NESCAC. Huge get.

[DeepPocket]

It was huge for the NESCAC (and Amherst) in July 2019 when he committed to Amherst. Now it’s huge for Tufts.

[kramerica.inc]

ED commitments are easier to get out of than you think. Seen it a million times as a college coach myself.

It's all about the reasons. Health, mental well being. Those will rarely if ever be challenged by admin.

Even if the student said they were not feeling comfortable about the current situation on the Amherst campus.

You think Amherst wants to relive this event in the media with a disgruntled prospective student?

And do you think the Amherst admin really cares about losing a decent incoming freshman lacrosse prospect after the way it intentionally hamstrung it's own lax program for the next few years?

[JBFortunato]

ED commitments are easier to get out of than you think. Seen it a million times as a college coach myself.

It's all about the reasons. Health, mental well being. Those will rarely if ever be challenged by admin.

Even if the student said they were not feeling comfortable about the current situation on the Amherst campus.

You think Amherst wants to relive this event in the media with a disgruntled prospective student?

And do you think the Amherst admin really cares about losing a decent incoming freshman lacrosse prospect after the way it intentionally hamstrung it's own lax program for the next few years?

Honestly, and I'm not trying to piss anyone off here, I wouldn't be shocked if lacrosse just isn't a part of the NESCAC in 10 years. The combination of the economic impact of the coronavirus - which will obviously be significant, even in the NESCAC - with administrations and professors in those schools who are increasingly "progressive" may eventually spell the end of lacrosse in the NESCAC. If a few dominoes fall, who knows.

If you believe that the administrations at other NESCAC schools view the world any differently than the administration at Amherst, I have a bridge to sell you. My oldest son was admitted to a certain NESCAC school, which I won't name here (not Amherst), and we walked out of the admitted students presentation halfway through it and got in the car and left. We are an exceedingly moderate family, but this was insufferable.

In the wake of what is happening right now, nothing will surprise me. A new world will emerge from these ashes, and a lot of things we took for granted will be questioned, a lot of changes will take place.

[kramerica.inc]

ED commitments are easier to get out of than you think. Seen it a million times as a college coach myself.

It's all about the reasons. Health, mental well being. Those will rarely if ever be challenged by admin.

Even if the student said they were not feeling comfortable about the current situation on the Amherst campus.

You think Amherst wants to relive this event in the media with a disgruntled prospective student?

And do you think the Amherst admin really cares about losing a decent incoming freshman lacrosse prospect after the way it intentionally hamstrung it's own lax program for the next few years?

Honestly, and I'm not trying to tick anyone off here, I wouldn't be shocked if lacrosse just isn't a part of the NESCAC in 10 years. The combination of the economic impact of the coronavirus - which will obviously be significant, even in the NESCAC - with administrations and professors in those schools who are increasingly "progressive" may eventually spell the end of lacrosse in the NESCAC. If a few dominoes fall, who knows.

If you believe that the administrations at other NESCAC schools view the world any differently than the administration at Amherst, I have a bridge to sell you. My oldest son was admitted to a certain NESCAC school, which I won't name here (not Amherst), and we walked out of the admitted students presentation halfway through it and got in the car and left. We are an exceedingly moderate family, but this was insufferable.

In the wake of what is happening right now, nothing will surprise me. A new world will emerge from these ashes, and a lot of things we took for granted will be questioned, a lot of changes will take place.

I think there will be plenty of truth in this.

[MA Lax Fan]

Great post!

[44WeWantMore]

ED commitments are easier to get out of than you think. Seen it a million times as a college coach myself.

It's all about the reasons. Health, mental well being. Those will rarely if ever be challenged by admin.

Even if the student said they were not feeling comfortable about the current situation on the Amherst campus.

You think Amherst wants to relive this event in the media with a disgruntled prospective student?

And do you think the Amherst admin really cares about losing a decent incoming freshman lacrosse prospect after the way it intentionally hamstrung it's own lax program for the next few years?

Honestly, and I'm not trying to tick anyone off here, I wouldn't be shocked if lacrosse just isn't a part of the NESCAC in 10 years. The combination of the economic impact of the coronavirus - which will obviously be significant, even in the NESCAC - with administrations and professors in those schools who are increasingly "progressive" may eventually spell the end of lacrosse in the NESCAC. If a few dominoes fall, who knows.

If you believe that the administrations at other NESCAC schools view the world any differently than the administration at Amherst, I have a bridge to sell you. My oldest son was admitted to a certain NESCAC school, which I won't name here (not Amherst), and we walked out of the admitted students presentation halfway through it and got in the car and left. We are an exceedingly moderate family, but this was insufferable.

In the wake of what is happening right now, nothing will surprise me. A new world will emerge from these ashes, and a lot of things we took for granted will be questioned, a lot of changes will take place.

It is not just the NESCAC. Recall the Gang of 88 at Duke. It was not surprising that some proportion of the faculty privately thought that way, or even that they knew they could publicly admit it with no repercussions. What was surprising was no public rebuttal. If any member of the faculty actually disagreed, nobody, not a single tenured professor felt safe doing so publicly. If tenured faculty cannot speak openly, what hope do students have?

[Unknown Participant]

ED commitments are easier to get out of than you think. Seen it a million times as a college coach myself.

It's all about the reasons. Health, mental well being. Those will rarely if ever be challenged by admin.

Even if the student said they were not feeling comfortable about the current situation on the Amherst campus.

You think Amherst wants to relive this event in the media with a disgruntled prospective student?

And do you think the Amherst admin really cares about losing a decent incoming freshman lacrosse prospect after the way it intentionally hamstrung it's own lax program for the next few years?

Honestly, and I'm not trying to tick anyone off here, I wouldn't be shocked if lacrosse just isn't a part of the NESCAC in 10 years. The combination of the economic impact of the coronavirus - which will obviously be significant, even in the NESCAC - with administrations and professors in those schools who are increasingly "progressive" may eventually spell the end of lacrosse in the NESCAC. If a few dominoes fall, who knows.

If you believe that the administrations at other NESCAC schools view the world any differently than the administration at Amherst, I have a bridge to sell you. My oldest son was admitted to a certain NESCAC school, which I won't name here (not Amherst), and we walked out of the admitted students presentation halfway through it and got in the car and left. We are an exceedingly moderate family, but this was insufferable.

In the wake of what is happening right now, nothing will surprise me. A new world will emerge from these ashes, and a lot of things we took for granted will be questioned, a lot of changes will take place.

I just would not be too sure about that. Much of the fundraising success at my school over the last 20 years is a direct result of sports in general and lacrosse in particular (as I have been told by a former teammate involved in capital raising). His job entails, other than calling potential donors, going to every athletic event on the calendar to clasp hands, etc. I also understand (but I could be wrong) that athlete alums give back to their schools on a much more regular basis than non-athletes. I give much more to my undergrad college than my law school (actually infinitely more because I haven't given a cent to my law school). This is sort of ironic because I was not a great undergraduate student, but I busted my ass in law school, which has served me well.

[Laxxal22]

As long as NESCAC diplomas are of value, and lacrosse players & families continue to add to endowments at a greater rate than your general student, the uneasy dance between administration and athletics will continue.

In terms of lacrosse related stuff, the news of the fogo flip from Amherst intrigued me so I did a bit of deep dive on Tufts Sunday and yesterday. Tell me if I'm wrong here, but based on how they began 2020 and what they have returning, the Jumbos could be scary good in 2021. The senior class is loaded - big (both in number of impact players and in guys that are 6'2"ish/205ish) and talented - 3 guys who began their careers at D1 programs, and another 3-4 who could have a market if they look to pursue a D1 grad year. The juniors have some crafty playmakers and quick-twitch guys, lead by a truly special player and athlete in Bredahl quarterbacking the offense - I'm pretty sure every game highlight video of the 2020 season features him making a defender trip over his own feet. Some sophs had nice debuts in limited action and have impressive pre Tufts pedigrees. Specialists are a strength with a beastly faceoff tandem (nice #3 as well), two HM AAs returning at Lsm, and a solid goalie. Looking like a team with more talent than spots. 

I don't know enough about the other teams (thought it seems Amherst and Williams both lost a lot), and obviously games aren't played on paper, but this team looks tough to beat and I imagine will be very high up if not #1 in the 2021 national preseason poll.

[Laxxal22]

Colin Minicus of Amherst has entered the portal as a grad transfer per Ty Xanders. https://twitter.com/tyxanders/status/12 ... 8596352005

[ItsAlwaysSunny]

Honestly, and I'm not trying to tick anyone off here, I wouldn't be shocked if lacrosse just isn't a part of the NESCAC in 10 years. The combination of the economic impact of the coronavirus - which will obviously be significant, even in the NESCAC - with administrations and professors in those schools who are increasingly "progressive" may eventually spell the end of lacrosse in the NESCAC. If a few dominoes fall, who knows.

If you believe that the administrations at other NESCAC schools view the world any differently than the administration at Amherst, I have a bridge to sell you. My oldest son was admitted to a certain NESCAC school, which I won't name here (not Amherst), and we walked out of the admitted students presentation halfway through it and got in the car and left. We are an exceedingly moderate family, but this was insufferable.

In the wake of what is happening right now, nothing will surprise me. A new world will emerge from these ashes, and a lot of things we took for granted will be questioned, a lot of changes will take place.

I think this is a pretty unlikely scenario. Even shorter term than the benefit of athletes donating to schools after they graduate, many of the sports, ESPECIALLY lacrosse, provide a very nice supply of full-pay students to these elite colleges, while still allowing the schools to claim they are "need blind". Assuming the stats for womens lax are roughly similar to mens, lacrosse alone provides provides 80+ full pay students each year (or ~10% of all full pay students in the school). Add in full pay students from some of the other sports that have high %s (tennis, soccer, field hockey, etc), and it means that a huge portion of the full pay students are athletes, that help make possible the high levels of need-based fin aid awarded to the general student population.

Using stats from Amherst, for instance, ~38% of student body are athletes, or 700 total. Of these athletes, only 4% of them are from "low income" (Amherst's definition) families (vs 23% for all students). This "low income" is further broken down as 6% of male athletes (driven by football being a higher %) vs 2% female athletes (and 10% other gender.....j/k). If you then assume that 75% of the athletes are full pay (ie 20% of the athletes are not considered "low income" but still get some fin aid, the same as the overall student body, which is very conservative). Using the 75% estimate for athletes, that means that 525 of the athletes are full-pay students. Across the whole student body, 43%, or 800 students do not receive any financial aid. That means that CONSERVATIVELY 525 of 800 (65%) of all full-pay students come from the athletic pool. To eliminate these athletes, especially those from a sport like Lax than has an inordinately high % of full pay, would be a fundamental change to a NESCAC admissions process and financial aid awards.

So while some people in the NESCAC administrations dont like the athletic impact on their schools, it is still viewed it as a necessary evil that allows them to accomplish the other (often liberal) goals they try to meet for their schools, without lowering the perceived exclusiveness of admission for these institutions.

[jerseyman]

Honestly, and I'm not trying to tick anyone off here, I wouldn't be shocked if lacrosse just isn't a part of the NESCAC in 10 years. The combination of the economic impact of the coronavirus - which will obviously be significant, even in the NESCAC - with administrations and professors in those schools who are increasingly "progressive" may eventually spell the end of lacrosse in the NESCAC. If a few dominoes fall, who knows.

If you believe that the administrations at other NESCAC schools view the world any differently than the administration at Amherst, I have a bridge to sell you. My oldest son was admitted to a certain NESCAC school, which I won't name here (not Amherst), and we walked out of the admitted students presentation halfway through it and got in the car and left. We are an exceedingly moderate family, but this was insufferable.

In the wake of what is happening right now, nothing will surprise me. A new world will emerge from these ashes, and a lot of things we took for granted will be questioned, a lot of changes will take place.

I think this is a pretty unlikely scenario. Even shorter term than the benefit of athletes donating to schools after they graduate, many of the sports, ESPECIALLY lacrosse, provide a very nice supply of full-pay students to these elite colleges, while still allowing the schools to claim they are "need blind". Assuming the stats for womens lax are roughly similar to mens, lacrosse alone provides provides 80+ full pay students each year (or ~10% of all full pay students in the school). Add in full pay students from some of the other sports that have high %s (tennis, soccer, field hockey, etc), and it means that a huge portion of the full pay students are athletes, that help make possible the high levels of need-based fin aid awarded to the general student population.

Using stats from Amherst, for instance, ~38% of student body are athletes, or 700 total. Of these athletes, only 4% of them are from "low income" (Amherst's definition) families (vs 23% for all students). This "low income" is further broken down as 6% of male athletes (driven by football being a higher %) vs 2% female athletes (and 10% other gender.....j/k). If you then assume that 75% of the athletes are full pay (ie 20% of the athletes are not considered "low income" but still get some fin aid, the same as the overall student body, which is very conservative). Using the 75% estimate for athletes, that means that 525 of the athletes are full-pay students. Across the whole student body, 43%, or 800 students do not receive any financial aid. That means that CONSERVATIVELY 525 of 800 (65%) of all full-pay students come from the athletic pool. To eliminate these athletes, especially those from a sport like Lax than has an inordinately high % of full pay, would be a fundamental change to a NESCAC admissions process and financial aid awards.

So while some people in the NESCAC administrations dont like the athletic impact on their schools, it is still viewed it as a necessary evil that allows them to accomplish the other (often liberal) goals they try to meet for their schools, without lowering the perceived exclusiveness of admission for these institutions.

I agree with this post 100%. In order to dole out financial aid to bring historically low-income and underrepresented kids to campus, you need to attract as many full-pay kids as possible. And let’s face it, any SLAC men’s and women’s lacrosse team is almost entirely full-pay. Now, add to the mix the fact that many full-pay foreign students will likely not be matriculating over the next few years (due to COVID, primarily), and you can see that any reports of the demise of lacrosse or any other sport in the NESCAC, Centennial, or anywhere else are greatly exaggerated.

[ISL Laxin']

The news the lacrosse world needed today. Jack Allard's health is improving and he is off the ventilator.

"He should be fully off the ventilator some time this week, and hopefully shortly after will return home to NJ to continue his physical therapy."

https://quickstickblog.com/2020/04/15/j ... improving/

[Laxxal22]

Great to see that update on Allard. What an incredibly intense bout he's had with the virus. Hope the recovery if fast and full.

[tech37]

Great news...get well Allard!

[Laxxal22]

Bredahl named Inside Lacrosse DIII Breakout Player of the Year. Nice write up and a highlight reel that I'm sure multiple defenders wish did not exist. https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ufts/56298

[oldlaxjunkie]

The news the lacrosse world needed today. Jack Allard's health is improving and he is off the ventilator.

"He should be fully off the ventilator some time this week, and hopefully shortly after will return home to NJ to continue his physical therapy."

https://quickstickblog.com/2020/04/15/j ... improving/

definitely much needed good news, stay strong Jallard! You will beat this

[oldlaw]

Could not ask for better news in these tough times.

Congrats and speedy full recovery