New England West 2022

[ausus]

Loomis is easily losing by 10. Wick will be even better next season. Wick 23s and 24s are outrageous

This callout seems entirely unnecessary. No one will dispute that Wick is a deeper team - they've consistently been one of the best teams in NE for over a decade. To say that Loomis will easily lose by 10 after a very competitive game against Salisbury and win over TP, is unlikely - and just in poor taste.

I too am looking forward to a more balanced and competitive league - and am hopeful that Loomis, Choate, and Hotchkiss are on the right path to achieving that. They should have no problem attracting the talent - they are some of the best schools in the country. Sometimes one sport is deprioritized for another (for whatever reason)... but it would seem lacrosse is back at the top of that list for many programs.

[PrimeTime21]

Loomis is easily losing by 10. Wick will be even better next season. Wick 23s and 24s are outrageous

This callout seems entirely unnecessary. No one will dispute that Wick is a deeper team - they've consistently been one of the best teams in NE for over a decade. To say that Loomis will easily lose by 10 after a very competitive game against Salisbury and win over TP, is unlikely - and just in poor taste.

I too am looking forward to a more balanced and competitive league - and am hopeful that Loomis, Choate, and Hotchkiss are on the right path to achieving that. They should have no problem attracting the talent - they are some of the best schools in the country. Sometimes one sport is deprioritized for another (for whatever reason)... but it would seem lacrosse is back at the top of that list for many programs.

It's not a "callout." It's just the overwhelming probability. Wick will win 80%+ of faceoffs, and they have probably 8 D1 quality dpoles. The depth and quality of the SSDMs rolling out is also preposterous. It's cool Loomis has a nice attackman allegedly. Ask Taft how that works out. The league should disband anyway for lax purposes. Founder's league schools, and Wick, Salisbury and DA aren't even playing the same game. When the Founders schools ducked a true postseason, it's open season. Kent, Westy, Loomis, Taft, TP, Choate just aren't competitive for whatever reason. Kent is really funny because their hockey team is pretty quality.

[smoova]

Loomis is easily losing by 10. Wick will be even better next season. Wick 23s and 24s are outrageous

This callout seems entirely unnecessary. No one will dispute that Wick is a deeper team - they've consistently been one of the best teams in NE for over a decade. To say that Loomis will easily lose by 10 after a very competitive game against Salisbury and win over TP, is unlikely - and just in poor taste.

I too am looking forward to a more balanced and competitive league - and am hopeful that Loomis, Choate, and Hotchkiss are on the right path to achieving that. They should have no problem attracting the talent - they are some of the best schools in the country. Sometimes one sport is deprioritized for another (for whatever reason)... but it would seem lacrosse is back at the top of that list for many programs.

It's not a "callout." It's just the overwhelming probability. Wick will win 80%+ of faceoffs, and they have probably 8 D1 quality dpoles. The depth and quality of the SSDMs rolling out is also preposterous. It's cool Loomis has a nice attackman allegedly. Ask Taft how that works out. The league should disband anyway for lax purposes. Founder's league schools, and Wick, Salisbury and DA aren't even playing the same game. When the Founders schools ducked a true postseason, it's open season. Kent, Westy, Loomis, Taft, TP, Choate just aren't competitive for whatever reason. Kent is really funny because their hockey team is pretty quality.

Username checks out.

[ausus]

Loomis is easily losing by 10. Wick will be even better next season. Wick 23s and 24s are outrageous

This callout seems entirely unnecessary. No one will dispute that Wick is a deeper team - they've consistently been one of the best teams in NE for over a decade. To say that Loomis will easily lose by 10 after a very competitive game against Salisbury and win over TP, is unlikely - and just in poor taste.

I too am looking forward to a more balanced and competitive league - and am hopeful that Loomis, Choate, and Hotchkiss are on the right path to achieving that. They should have no problem attracting the talent - they are some of the best schools in the country. Sometimes one sport is deprioritized for another (for whatever reason)... but it would seem lacrosse is back at the top of that list for many programs.

It's not a "callout." It's just the overwhelming probability. Wick will win 80%+ of faceoffs, and they have probably 8 D1 quality dpoles. The depth and quality of the SSDMs rolling out is also preposterous. It's cool Loomis has a nice attackman allegedly. Ask Taft how that works out. The league should disband anyway for lax purposes. Founder's league schools, and Wick, Salisbury and DA aren't even playing the same game. When the Founders schools ducked a true postseason, it's open season. Kent, Westy, Loomis, Taft, TP, Choate just aren't competitive for whatever reason. Kent is really funny because their hockey team is pretty quality.

Sorry - stuck on your statement about disbanding an entire league for lax purposes. Also preposterous...

[pcowlax]

Yes, let's disband the league. That's the ticket. While Wick, Deerfield and Salisbury have certainly dominated over the last 10 years, AOF, Taft and to a slightly lesser extent TP have been very competitive with them and put out some serious talent (see Taft romping through the High School Showcase). Loomis and Hotchkiss have not been what they were in the 90s and 2000s, hopefully they will become more competitive but it's not like they are losing 20-1. Westy is a solid, midpack team, likely always will be. Choate was so heavily focused on football for years that there was probably little wiggle room to get lax athletes into the school. That has at least started to change and I expect the lax team will improve. Berkshire will likely always be near the bottom on the league but does not embarrass themselves. The real issue in term of competition is, and has been for a long time, Kent and NMH. Neither school puts the resources into lax to compete at this level and would, in my opinion, be better served playing a full West-2 schedule (and they don't often ever play each other due to the travel distance!). If they had to be replaced, Millbrook, while also likely to lose all their games, would usually be more competitive.

[PrimeTime21]

The league shouldn't disband entirely. It's still useful for basketball, hockey, squash whatever. But for lacrosse, the top teams should leave. There already has been a soft secession with the Prep Nationals joint with L'ville.

[NEWestFan]

I don't think Wick, DA or Salisbury would vote to leave. Too much tradition, shared values and experience. Experiences which players carry on to their College, Working and Parental years. This forum, generally, is a good example of that shared past.

The Prep Nationals was purely a response to the creation of a FL tourney at the expense of a broader NEWest one.

I hope that this will be corrected sooner than later.

[Laxxal22]

The league shouldn't disband entirely. It's still useful for basketball, hockey, squash whatever. But for lacrosse, the top teams should leave. There already has been a soft secession with the Prep Nationals joint with L'ville.

I realize there's an element of schtick to your account, but what if they announce they're leaving and the FL teams say, "Fine, none of us are ever scheduling you again."? While these schools and parents have the budgets to fund truly national schedules, that would pretty much eliminate mid-week games. Not sure the best of the best would be enticed to enroll for 8-9 game spring seasons. At best it'd be a cut off your nose to spite your face maneuver.

[PrimeTime21]

The league shouldn't disband entirely. It's still useful for basketball, hockey, squash whatever. But for lacrosse, the top teams should leave. There already has been a soft secession with the Prep Nationals joint with L'ville.

I realize there's an element of schtick to your account, but what if they announce they're leaving and the FL teams say, "Fine, none of us are ever scheduling you again."? While these schools and parents have the budgets to fund truly national schedules, that would pretty much eliminate mid-week games. Not sure the best of the best would be enticed to enroll for 8-9 game spring seasons. At best it'd be a cut off your nose to spite your face maneuver.

There's better games locally with Darien, NC, Ridgefield, Yorktown, Fairfield Prep, Iona, Bronxville for midweek tilts. Would be zero loss.

[NEWestFan]

PT21... let me take you back to Fri Feb 21, 2020 8:45 pm when you wrote:

"If this isn't the place for keeping it light and fun I don't know what is. My comments are only 97% serious, the rest in banter"

My guess is that this is probably still the case and that you are likely enjoying ruffling some new feathers.

[PrimeTime21]

Valid. Lax is clearly not real life. That said, point still stands. Choate and whoever wouldn't finish better than 5th in the FCIAC. Fight me

[3rdPersonPlural]

I, for one, enjoy Primetime's current persona.

And I find his musings provocative. I keep waiting for someone from New York to point out that that State prohibits their public schools from playing schools that accept PGs, so it's basically Fairfield county teams (many very good ones!), ISL and Jersey preps, and perhaps a road trip to CA, CO, or FL to replace the lagging NEWest teams on the schedule slots. Not a promising result.

Now to the important stuff:

Taft has grown their profile in just a few years, from an upper-midpack NEWest squad to a serious contender by doing that High School Showcase every year and (dammit!) winning it. IIRC (and someone will point it out if I don't) Taft was the 3rd best team in the NEWest last year, losing soundly to 'wick and Deerfield, and then beat all the top I-95 corridor teams the following month. Now the experts here rank them just behind the 'wick Juggernaut.

Any color on the Rhinos? They graduated like a dozen D1 recruits, some of whom are already playing serious minutes, and I was worried that they'd slip back. I know they still have that great goalie, but they seem to be putting up points and playing good D and.....are they still THAT good?

[PrimeTime21]

I, for one, enjoy Primetime's current persona.

And I find his musings provocative. I keep waiting for someone from New York to point out that that State prohibits their public schools from playing schools that accept PGs, so it's basically Fairfield county teams (many very good ones!), ISL and Jersey preps, and perhaps a road trip to CA, CO, or FL to replace the lagging NEWest teams on the schedule slots. Not a promising result.

Now to the important stuff:

Taft has grown their profile in just a few years, from an upper-midpack NEWest squad to a serious contender by doing that High School Showcase every year and (dammit!) winning it. IIRC (and someone will point it out if I don't) Taft was the 3rd best team in the NEWest last year, losing soundly to 'wick and Deerfield, and then beat all the top I-95 corridor teams the following month. Now the experts here rank them just behind the 'wick Juggernaut.

Any color on the Rhinos? They graduated like a dozen D1 recruits, some of whom are already playing serious minutes, and I was worried that they'd slip back. I know they still have that great goalie, but they seem to be putting up points and playing good D and.....are they still THAT good?

Roster still aligned terribly. To win in this league, you need beastly poles and SSDM. Taft, as usual, is a step behind. Taft does have a '24 Attackman that is nice. But Taft is always an also-ran. As a school they can't win cross-admits to Wick or DA. Salisbury will fall off very soon due to their mass importation of Florida players, although 'Bury's Lefty Iroquois guy can really play.

Demography is destiny. While DA and 'Bury can go national and international (not really, only to Canada), if you can't lock down the fancy schmancy NYC suburbs, it's going to be a struggle. Wick has a stranglehold on Fairfield and Westchester (and, cough, beyond), so the other teams need to be praying for a public school renaissance or GCDS actually not being a pushover (won't happen).

[WoodStick]

If you ever think that Deerfield is going to drop games against Choate you are completely ignorant. Never going to happen.

[Laxxal22]

I appreciate PT's posts as well. He stirs the pot and also seemingly has his finger on the pulse of the current state of West 1.

I agree it will be hard to break what looks like Brunswick's increasingly strong grip as the top team in New England. If you look at other hotbeds there's always more than one private school competing for top talent. St. Anthony's has to deal with Chaminade, Haverford with Malvern Prep, Baltimore and DMV have a bunch of strong schools. If you're in the CONNY area and don't want to do boarding school, Brunswick really is the option for a top flight private school program.

[b1w7o9y7h]

In terms of traditional rivalries and the "Ivy League of Prep Schools" we shouldn't forget this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Schools_Association

Agree that DA/Choate will never ever ever not be a full on Fall/Winter/Spring all-encompassing rivalry. And for DA I'd be shocked if Andover, Exeter, Hotchkiss (all sports) and Lawrenceville / NMH (selective sports) ever changed, either. For DA and St. Pauls, there has always been distance and scheduling slots at issue as only Saturday games possible. Exeter takes precedence in terms of athletics.

Between Founders, West1, and Eight Schools, there are a lot of different interests and histories at play. Too bad the year end playoff lax-o-rama couldn't be a joining of the Founders and Prep Nationals like we all thought it should be.

In terms of Taft, many youngsters here forget that for 3 years they ran the table in West1, never losing a game. As good a team as existed in the country. 1999-2001 irrc. Their first loss after that stretch was to DA and the ascendency of Coach Davis' era. Hotchkiss was also beastly, and in the mix year in and year out when running the table rarely occurred.

[b1w7o9y7h]

Duplicate

[ausus]

In addition to the Eight Schools Association (Choate, DA, Hotchkiss, LVille, NMH, PA, PE, SP), the Ten Schools Admissions Organization existed first with many of the same school minus NMH, and including Loomis, Taft, Hill School...

I'm all for competing against teams outside the prep circuit if that's what one school wants to do, though I'm not convinced they need to look beyond their peers for "stronger" competition - in most situations (there are teams above the rest or far below), it's a coin toss and one team could better the other on that day but the results would differ the next. I think FL schools would benefit adding more Mid-Atlantic Prep, ISL, NE North teams to their schedule. From that type of scheduling, I would love to see a true playoff develop.

Now to change direction of the winds...my predictions for the weekend (winners in bold):

TP v Gunn
LA v Kent
Salisbury v Berkshire (Game of Weekend)
PA v Taft
Loomis v Wick
Choate v Kent
Hotchkiss v Millbrook
DA v Westy
AOF v NMH
Kent v Pomfret

Looking forward to the results of the Salisbury v Berkshire, Loomis v Wick, and DA v Westy games...

[Dawgie]

13-6 wick beginning the fourth. Loomis has won maybe one or two face offs. The story though is Brunswick’s ride/ Loomis atrocious clear. Around half a dozen goals have come from botched clears. Loomis doesn’t have a dmid confident enough to take it and run leaving poles hurling it up the field. Their three year starter and Stanford soccer commit, is injured/ possibly out for year. Wick shortys are legit. Wick looks strong but not unbeatable if a team has a little more talent across the field.

[Dawgie]

17-6 wick. Opened up big time at end.

15-5 Taft over Andover

12-5 Deerfield over Westy. I’m not a fan of westys uniforms. A poor Towson knockoff.

Any other scores/ color?