Recruiting: No. 1 Junior Joey Spallina (Mount Sinai, N.Y.) Narrows List to Five Programs
...
Loyola: “The thing that initially really jumped out to me about Loyola was their plan for me and their focus on winning and player development. I’ve really loved how great their staff has been — Coach Toomey, Van and Dwan have all been very professional and fun to talk to…. An aspect that I’ve loved is them just kind of pitching “The Pat Spencer Experience” and explaining his time and role at Loyola, explaining how teams would try and cover him or face guard him, but even when they did he’d still have seven or eight points a game…. On my visit, I loved that it was a small campus and school overall, but it didn’t feel as small as I thought it would. I really liked how Ridley [Athletic Complex] was completely separate from the campus, and I know their students get really pumped to attend their games so that’s awesome too."
Maryland: "When it comes to Maryland, Coach Tills is the best and the tradition of the program is huge. I love their attention to detail and the people involved in the program, it’s definitely a winning formula….. I went there last week and the campus was awesome, plus the lacrosse program’s moving into the old football facility right now at the stadium, so that was pretty cool to see. Also, the potential to play with Jack [Schirtzer] is obviously a pretty cool thought to me since I grew up playing with him."
North Carolina: “Their staff’s energy made a big impression on me, definitely the first thing I really noticed when talking. Every call with them was fun but also really intense, focused and informative… Coach Breschi was the first on their staff to call me on September 1st, he was so high energy and it was just a really fun conversation. And then KU [assistant Kevin Unterstein], I’ve known him since I was seven years old since he played for my dad with the Lizards, he’s the man too. Coach Metzbower is great, he’s obviously really smart and I love how he runs the offense there … When I was down on [Dorrance] Field, I really liked how the stands are right on top of you since there was no track or big open area. I also liked how stadiums were right in the middle of the campus, there’s definitely a lot to do around there and that’s a big part of it.”
Syracuse: “From the time I started playing lacrosse, my dream was to play at ‘Cuse and wear No. 22 and carry on the tradition there, which I know is a huge part of things up at Syracuse. Also, I like the staff’s experience a lot — in particular, Coach [Pat] March has been awesome with me, he went through their game film with me and mapped out what they see me doing… The campus was great, I loved the vibe around there and that lacrosse matters so much, but also that there’s good basketball and football.”
Virginia: “UVA’s goals and expectations of the program both on and off the field were what stood out the most to me. They’ve really been changing the culture there and I absolutely love that staff, especially Coach Kirwan. We’re both huge New York Giants fans, so we’ve had conversations focused on them and I’ve liked how he has kept it light that way… We talked a lot about their offense and it’s a system I really like — I think it’d allow me to do a number of things for them and handle the ball a lot. Coach Kirwan was breaking down their game film with me and explaining where I would be and other guys would be, that was really intriguing… Also, the town [of Charlottesville] is really nice and obviously Klockner is a sick stadium, the facilities are insane and everything was great."