Yale 2019

[JAFO]

IL's 2020's - # 13 Charlie Weitzel Uncommitted, gotta imagine his big brother is suggesting New Haven as a good landing spot.
https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ings/53041

Happened to be driving by Reese the other day so I poked my head in to see how the new turf looks. It's even better in person. Can't wait to see the ND scrimmage, lets hope they run some of those heating coils under the stands for those early season games. lol

[LaxDog]

The Bulldogs will have the best faceoff unit in the country with TD Ierlan transferring from Albany and Joe Neuman coming in has a freshman from Salisbury (CT). That duo will be deadly.

This!
+1

Possession should be on Yale's side this year. Nice to have a young and old to hopefull set the table for success for years to come.

[FannOLax]

Ierlan and Neuman, both Yale newcomers, could indeed make a terrific FO duo... if Shay uses them that way. Last year it was Conor Mackie pretty much all the way, or until the 4th quarter when the opposing team was hopelessly behind. I love the idea of a true duo. The rest of the FO unit will also have a new look, following the graduations of first-line FO wing Warner and second-line wing Alessi. Mooney is very experienced in the FO wing role, and it will be interesting to see who else plays there.

[The Orfling]

Ierlan and Neuman, both Yale newcomers, could indeed make a terrific FO duo... if Shay uses them that way. Last year it was Conor Mackie pretty much all the way, or until the 4th quarter when the opposing team was hopelessly behind. I love the idea of a true duo. The rest of the FO unit will also have a new look, following the graduations of first-line FO wing Warner and second-line wing Alessi. Mooney is very experienced in the FO wing role, and it will be interesting to see who else plays there.

Excellent point about the importance of the entire unit. Re: the issue of whether Coach Shay would use Neuman and Ierlan as a duo, there is precedent: in 2015, as a freshman, Conor Mackie shared a meaningful amount of face-off duties with Jonathan Reese, and in 2016 Reese and Mackie basically split the FO opportunities. So I think that if Coach Shay feels he has two FO men that can both achieve a lot of success he can be open to a duo, or at least a regular rotation with the more experienced player still taking the lion's share of the face-offs.

But it's no easy transition to the college game: Maryland's Justin Shockey was the most dominant high school face-off man I've seen, and although he competed well he did not dominate right off the bat. (It's possible for a first-year to dominate at the X -- Baptiste was an elite FO man from the start -- but not necessarily something you can count on.) So I think this is a great situation for Neuman -- an opportunity to achieve success (not least by competing against the best in practice) but not overwhelming pressure to do it overnight.

[calourie]

Orfling has an interesting post on the Brown thread posing questions about the effect of having the biggest roster we have seen at Yale recently, and perhaps even ever. The Bulldogs winning the National Championship last year likely changes the complexion of things for lots of people, as it definitely has for me. What to expect as an encore is certainly a mystery for me, and I for one would assume for the staff and team as well. I'm not sure that having 51 on the roster as opposed to the five of ten fewer that have been on board for the past three or four years will in itself impact the likelyhood of good team chemistry developing for the upcoming season, but perhaps the fight for playing time will effect the percentage of under used participants sticking with the program at the same high rate we've become accustomed to. I suppose we will just have to wait and see. In the meantime this years teams will be dealing with a wealth of talent which we can only hope will go a long way to mitigate the loss of the ten seniors who graduated including Ben Reeves, Yale's most decorated lacrosse player ever. Lots of yearly goals to shoot for with a team that on paper looks like it should once again be a force in the Ivy League, ILT and hopefully beyond.

[calourie]

Just saw on the IL recruiting page that Will Weitzel's little brother Charlie ( IL #13 rising junior) has committed to Yale. If he plays in any way like his brother he will be another in a long line of stellar Shay recruited defensemen which (according to IL) now also includes IL #3 junior Jack Stuzin. The pipeline certainly looks promising.

[FannOLax]

Speaking of Will Weitzel and the defense, it will be interesting to see if he moves into a starting defenseman role in fall ball. Hopefully Aidan Hynes's knee will be recovered enough for him to join Chris Fake in the starting D. Mooney has been a starting FO wing forever (well, starting in 2016, his freshman year), so I'd expect him to continue as LSM. I'm wondering how a permanent shot clock will affect midfield rotations. Two very challenging fall-ball games coming soon!

[cuseman4133]

Don't get caught up with IL rankings.

Welcome to the freshmen. Appreciate Yale University (its a special place), follow the great coaching, embrace the team culture, study hard, work hard, and play hard. Everything will fall into place.

Personally I don't like the IL "rankings." It's more of an early list of who to watch from juniors in HS and up. Who would've thought Dylan Molloy would be one of the best players in his class? Plus, they're going into a year with different rules. Take their "rankings" with a grain of salt.

[calourie]

Shay, Baxter and Stimmel seem to be able to coach up whomever they recruit into a formidably coherent force regardless of IL high school ranking, but followers of lacrosse do know that when a team lands top 100 IL rated prospects that the player has at least enough noteworthy skills to catch the eyes of Ty Xanders and other pundits who direct their attention towards a considerable amount of high school talent. To rate them numerically 1-100 is obviously a hit or miss endeavor, but someone on an old laxpower post did make a convincing analysis that concluded that the top 25 on IL's "Top Incoming College Freshmen" lists ended up having at least somewhat newsworthy college careers at a greater than 80% rate, whereas the remainder of the list tended to be considerably more hit or miss. A few of those further down the lists such as Dylan Malloy or Ben Reeves ended up surpassing the performances of all above them, but also many fell out of the newsworthy discussion entirely. As far as IL rating up and coming high school juniors, those lists often change radically year to year, and I agree with Cusemaxer that the evaluation numbers attendant with those lists of younger players bear looking at with a sense of them dealing with boys still trying to become men and all the variability that that entails. Nonetheless I still applaud the welcoming of the younger Weitzel and Stuzin to the Yale program, and expect Baxter and Shay to integrate the 2 into their future defensive system quite effectively.

[FannOLax]

Well, however you view IL's ratings, some incoming Yale incoming attackmen are rated: Matt Brandeau, Baltimore Boys Latin #4; Brady McDermott, Brighton NY #23; and Thomas Bragg, Cazenovia NY #37. It's, ummmm, interesting to see the "blue-collar" description applied to someone other than Yale: no doubt that Landon School product and Johns Hopkins first-year Joey Epstein isn't merely hard-working, but destined to operate and unload a forklift.
https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... kmen/53068

[Mid-Lax]

I tend to think IL does the high schoolers, in and out of the list, a disservice by putting into a strict numerical ranking. IL does this at a very early high school age. These projections, accurate or not, tend to stick well into the first year of college. Perhaps a broader list with 5 star, 4 star, and 3 star recruits would be a better, fairer, and more forgiving in approach.

As for Yale. through the maturity of the Shay area, I have seen the Elis achieve much more than teams with highly touted recruiting classes. In many cases, many of the Yale players rarely made the rankings. So, I don't worry about these lists nor about Yale's ability to compete. What I look for is the jelling into the teamwork and blue collar culture we've come to recognize.

[Typical Lax Dad]

I tend to think IL does the high schoolers, in and out of the list, a disservice by putting into a strict numerical ranking. IL does this at a very early high school age. These projections, accurate or not, tend to stick well into the first year of college. Perhaps a broader list with 5 star, 4 star, and 3 star recruits would be a better, fairer, and more forgiving in approach.

As for Yale. through the maturity of the Shay area, I have seen the Elis achieve much more than teams with highly touted recruiting classes. In many cases, many of the Yale players rarely made the rankings. So, I don't worry about these lists nor about Yale's ability to compete. What I look for is the jelling into the teamwork and blue collar culture we've come to recognize.

May as well put the top 100 names in alphabetical order or by conference. I don't like the numerical ranking. The last #1 that played like #1 was Lyle Thompson.

[DaneFan]

So true TLD

Not only that, but I would say the delta between the 50th guy and maybe the 200th guy has really narrowed and the wildcard is among those guys who puts in the work and continues to develop.

[The Orfling]

Just saw on the IL recruiting page that Will Weitzel's little brother Charlie ( IL #13 rising junior) has committed to Yale. If he plays in any way like his brother he will be another in a long line of stellar Shay recruited defensemen which (according to IL) now also includes IL #3 junior Jack Stuzin. The pipeline certainly looks promising.

That is good news about Charlie Weitzel -- he seems to have had a breakout summer. I've always liked how Will Weitzel plays -- steady, focused, smart. Charlie and Will's dad, Paul Weitzel, was a tight end on the Yale 89 Ivy championship football team -- one of the more unlikely Ivy Championships for Yale football (they ran a wishbone for a quarterback they begged to come back from the baseball program).

I've seen Jack Stuzin play for Gilman a couple of times. Great defender -- really good footwork, loves to compete for groundballs, good on and off ball. Not hard to project him as a top flight collegiate defender.

Spurred by calourie's post, I checked out the IL recruiting page and saw that another highly rated 2020 who has just committed is another Yale lacrosse sibling-to-be: Kevin Kuttin, younger brother of Yale first-year Sean Kuttin, both of Chaminade (source of many great Shay-era Yale lacrosse players).

[MDlaxfan76]

Just saw on the IL recruiting page that Will Weitzel's little brother Charlie ( IL #13 rising junior) has committed to Yale. If he plays in any way like his brother he will be another in a long line of stellar Shay recruited defensemen which (according to IL) now also includes IL #3 junior Jack Stuzin. The pipeline certainly looks promising.

That is good news about Charlie Weitzel -- he seems to have had a breakout summer. I've always liked how Will Weitzel plays -- steady, focused, smart. Charlie and Will's dad, Paul Weitzel, was a tight end on the Yale 89 Ivy championship football team -- one of the more unlikely Ivy Championships for Yale football (they ran a wishbone for a quarterback they begged to come back from the baseball program).

I've seen Jack Stuzin play for Gilman a couple of times. Great defender -- really good footwork, loves to compete for groundballs, good on and off ball. Not hard to project him as a top flight collegiate defender.

Spurred by calourie's post, I checked out the IL recruiting page and saw that another highly rated 2020 who has just committed is another Yale lacrosse sibling-to-be: Kevin Kuttin, younger brother of Yale first-year Sean Kuttin, both of Chaminade (source of many great Shay-era Yale lacrosse players).

Stuzin is indeed first rate. He's mostly been used as an LSM due to his speed, but he projects to be capable of playing an opponent's top player, wherever. Good off ball as well, heads up.

[JAFO]

Here is a link to IL's top 100 freshman 2014.
Ben Reeves listed at #77.
There are many well known names on that list as well as a few did he play lacrosse this year???

The lists are a best guess, guys peak at different times, and sometimes, even for the Yale staff, guys don't pan out as expected. I'm just glad that the Yale guys are getting more ink (respect) than they used to.

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ings/29706

[Mid-Lax]

JAFO I barely know half those guys...

Take a look at this as far as the 2014 (2013, 2012, 2011) recruiting class ranking:

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... sses/29708
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/inside-la ... 04689.html

INSIDE LACROSSE'S RECRUITING CLASS RANKINGS: 2011-2014
RANK____2014 ________2013_______2012___________2011
1.___Johns Hopkins__Maryland____North Carolina___Maryland
2.___Notre Dame____Syracuse____Virginia_________North Carolina
3.___Duke_________North Carolina_Duke__________Harvard
4.___Maryland_____Virginia_______Harvard________Virginia
5.___North Carolina_Duke________Johns Hopkins___Johns Hopkins
6.___Villanova_____Johns Hopkins_Maryland_______Syracuse
7.___Virginia_______Harvard_____Penn State______Duke
8.___Denver_______Notre Dame__Notre Dame_____Notre Dame
9.___Harvard______Penn State___Syracuse________Cornell
10.__Princeton_____Princeton____Princeton_______Massachusetts
11.__Penn State____Denver_____Pennsylvania_____Pennsylvania
12.__Pennsylvania__Cornell_____Fairfield_________Princeton
13.__Bucknell______Yale_______Brown___________Navy
14.__Towson_______Towson____Denver__________Army
15.__Yale_________Georgetown_Loyola__________Towson
16.__Ohio State____Pennsylvania_Ohio State______Hofstra
17.__Syracuse______Villanova___Georgetown_____Villanova
18.__Loyola________Michigan___Navy____________Albany
19.__Michigan______Hofstra____Michigan________ Georgetown
20.__Georgetown___Brown_____Hobart__________Denver

By the 2014 ranking I should have been pleased if Yale finished 2017 14th or better in the country. Final four Albany was not on the 2014 list. ND and Hopkins did not make the 2018 final four. North Carolina did not have a good 2018. Harvard, Princeton, Penn all ranked ahead of Yale and Cornell. Big Red nowhere to be found in 2014 list (in fairness, their best recent talent is on the younger side). Across the four years of recruiting classes: Yale ranked no higher than 13 and not present in the 2012 and 2011 class rankings. Year after year, the list is generally composed of the same schools so it's hitting the two-three exceptions that's the real challenge.

I remember when Loyola won the National Championship back in 2012. At the beginning of the year, they weren't even ranked in the top 20. They had a great set of seniors and juniors too. I searched for the corresponding 2009 Top 20 recruiting class ranking and it is no longer up (did find a press releases from a some schools touting their great recruiting classes}.

In fact, for any given year, I can predict the top 10 (okay, 11) class (for free):

Denver
Duke
Harvard
John Hopkins
Maryland
Notre Dame
Penn State
Princeton or Cornell (maybe Penn, too)
Syracuse
Virginia

then subtract two and add two from: Albany, Army, Georgetown, Massachusetts, Navy, Penn, Towson, Villanova, and Yale.

there you have it, the Top 10. If you include all these schools in a broader ranking, there's your Top 20.

Back to my original point, I don't worry about IL's Top 100 ranking of players or Top 20 recruiting classes. I pay attention mainly to Coach Shay's comments about the players and team progress, who they play in fall ball and in scrimmages, early season games, then see how the team develops and gels.

[Dunker]

Here is a link to IL's top 100 freshman 2014.
Ben Reeves listed at #77.
There are many well known names on that list as well as a few did he play lacrosse this year???

The lists are a best guess, guys peak at different times, and sometimes, even for the Yale staff, guys don't pan out as expected. I'm just glad that the Yale guys are getting more ink (respect) than they used to.

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ings/29706

#77 Reeves #78 Baptiste One truth there, for both led their teams to a NC

[10stone5]

Here is a link to IL's top 100 freshman 2014.
Ben Reeves listed at #77.
There are many well known names on that list as well as a few did he play lacrosse this year???
The lists are a best guess, guys peak at different times, and sometimes, even for the Yale staff, guys don't pan out as expected. I'm just glad that the Yale guys are getting more ink (respect) than they used to.
https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ings/29706

#77 Reeves #78 Baptiste One truth there, for both led their teams to a NC

Another interesting piece to this.
Reeves was a verbal commit to Hobart.
Baptiste committed to Franklin & Marshall in Lancaster PA.

Reeves finished up with 585 points at Palmyra Macedon NY.

[DaneFan]

Hate to hijack the Yale thread, but looking at those lists makes the ranking hoopla even more silly. The story of Ben Reeve's physical development at Yale is incredible. I think the story was his vertical jump when he got on campus was something like 17 inches and he doubled it the next year.

Now that Yale has TD, this is somewhat relevant, but TD didn't get any love until late and still didn't have big time options and Trevor came out of no where when Denver did as good as job as anybody at finding hidden gems. The top two face off guys in recent history (maybe the best two in college history) don't get selected as UA AA's?????