Hobart 2024

[FMUBart]

Hard to predict these things. 1 year ago the chalk was that Hobert’s D would have to carry the water until the O found its footing. The D disappointed and the O was better than expected. Hobart loses a couple of really good guys on D. Christiansen and Synnott not easily replaced

Disagree, you basically said so yourself in your comment.

[Farfromgeneva]

Hard to predict these things. 1 year ago the chalk was that Hobert’s D would have to carry the water until the O found its footing. The D disappointed and the O was better than expected. Hobart loses a couple of really good guys on D. Christiansen and Synnott not easily replaced

Disagree, you basically said so yourself in your comment.

Firth is every bit as good as Christiansen. Health and SSDM as discussed were the big issues. Along with high volatility in cage.

[Laxbuck]

I think it’s always difficult, not impossible, to replace multi year starters. The St. Joe’s guys thought Christiansen was tough to go against

[Farfromgeneva]

I think it’s always difficult, not impossible, to replace multi year starters. The St. Joe’s guys thought Christiansen was tough to go against

He was but if you ask about Firth you’ll hear the same. And we had guys before Christiansen. Mueller, Willman, Delpha, Moore, Andreen, Regan, Rosello, McCarthy, Hager, etc. There’s always 1-2 really strong close D starters in the team. Sometimes the third is young/inexperienced or a needs more something. He wasn’t the issue, other than being hurt a little last year missed one or more games completely. Health, goalie and really having 5’9” 175LB SSDMs having to man your 6’2” 215LB kids. Basically he goalie issues since Covid still trying to resolve.

[Laxbuck]

I agree the SSDM’s have been undersized and that is tough to overcome. Maybe more so now in the A-10

[Farfromgeneva]

I agree the SSDM’s have been undersized and that is tough to overcome. Maybe more so now in the A-10

Eh, specific to SJU having larger offensive players it’s a problem but not a huge one given most games last few years have been pretty close. Richmond has some size not a ton. UMass depends on iteration of the team under Cannella-seen them in the ECAC days when they were beasts, smaller now. HPU wasn’t very big when I saw that game. Arguably there was more size on Bryant/LIU/SJU than SJU/Richmond/UMass/HPU. It’s just a problem in general in the game these days.

[Laxgunea]

The team getting lots of play in the Geneva box this fall.

[Bartfromboston]

Anyone catch any early practices? How to the freshman look? I heard its a solid class

[oldbartman]

With practice now in full swing, there are a number of questions as always. Though this year seems to have a few more. Lets start on the back end. The goalie situation is still a giant? Neither Wilson or Sotiropoulos were above 50%. Both are back along with Liam Daly and I'm sure they have been working hard this summer. We also have 2FY goalies. Faiola, an AA out of NY section 5 whom I saw in the 2022 NYS championship game. Without him, the game would have been a slaughter. The other is a legacy, Trevor Fox, son of the the late Sean Fox. He backstopped an undefeated Holderness team as well as a solid 3D New England club. Next up is who is stepping into Christiansen (a 5 year starter) and Synott (1st team all A-10) shoes? Jackson Galiani showed some solid play in limited time. Who's the next man up? Matt Turner and possibly Michael Bennett?

SSDM has been a tough spot for the Statesmen. Wimer returns, but could be a 2way player which the coaching staff would like to see more of from all of our middies. 2 of the FYs, Campbell and Schleicher, could be seeing time there. Also returning are Stevens, Race and Dino. On the offensive side John Jude Considine, John Herlihy and Chad Bach will lead the 1st midfield. Herlihy will likely play a role similar to Derrek Madonna's, while Bach could really have a big season. We've seen glimpses. Hope he can put it together for his last year. David Peterkin may be the see time on the 1st line. He played Jr. A box this summer and hopefully worked on his shooting as he has shown some flashes on O. Delaney, Cardinali, Gullace and Greenburg should all be in the mix for the 2nd offensive midfield line.

Adam Shea returns at the dot. He was injured the entire season, yet still managed a 51.4% win rate. When healthy, he is one of the best out there. Shaifer is returning from season ending injury and Schofield got some real experience spelling Shea. FY Valent was another section V AA and was more of a FOSO.

The attack seems to be a strength going into this year. Hope I didn't just jinx us. Barthelme is returning after having a breakout season once he was (finally) healthy. Anthony Datellas is the leading returning scorer. If he can stay healthy, he could put up some big #s. Greene and Delano should fill out the rest of the 1st line. Greene seemed to be more effective coming out of the box and getting a mismatch. Ward and Rosa were solid on man-up and gives us different look all game long. Snellenburg made some real progress 2 FYs could compete for time at attack. Chris Patterson (our first IL 4star recruit ever and NY section 1 AA) and Anthony Stillwell a top 8 scorer in the tough ISL. Both come with some hype.

What may be an even bigger question than all of the above is what do we have coming off of season long injuries? Evnin, Begina, Brown and Belle-Walker are some that come to mind. Forgive me for not naming the rest of the roster. Hopefully a few make the leap to the next level and can make meaningful contributions to the results in '24.

[Farfromgeneva]

New lacrosse podcast out. Almost finished. One thing I’d note is we had a kid from Missouri before named Paul Reinjtes who even started a little in that rough stretch post D3 move/Kerwick/TW era. So Danny Campbell isn’t there first from the state-https://hwsathletics.com/sports/mens-la ... ntjes/2297

[Farfromgeneva]

OOC looking good. No Lehigh I guess but

Opens home vs Gate
Albany ( think away)
Cuse at home
@ Michigan
tues game vs Gate
Cornell
Think that’s what I heard.

Basically Albany and Michigan replace Lehigh and Robert Morris. Arguably an upgrade unless Marr/Albany are on some downward trajectory.

Michigan game there is going to be brutal. Probably tougher than Syracuse or Cornell games this year.

[FL-GO]

Enjoyed the podcast. The FY class sounds like it has a lot of impact players right out of the gate.

It was also nice to hear Coach finally take responsibility for last season's struggles. It always frustrated me how every week he deflected any responsibilities from the game plan/coaching side and seemed to put the blame for the losses on the players. Maybe someone else mentioned that to him so he's more aware of it now, but what he said today was exactly what a HC needs to put out there.

Regardless, based on the pod and this class he's clearly busting his ass recruiting, fund-raising and pushing for an international trip really shows why he must be a really popular coach at HWS.

Hope it's a productive and healthy fall ball season. I know from a football perspective having brand new turf at the Boz is going well and is long overdue. Hoping we see no more non-contact knee and other injuries like we've seen in prior years because of that old turf.

[FMUBart]

Great listening to the podcast and hearing Raymond talk about "big, strong & fast" in his recruiting efforts...

[man:down]

sounds like there is more of an edge this fall than in the past - from both the coaches and the players. Not sure if any of the 5th years are in good shape but the rest of the squad showed up looking great.

[Farfromgeneva]

Alum and former lacrosse (M) and football (WR) player Scott Yoder made news last weekend as Football HC down at shenendoah college in VA playing a girl at a non kicker position. He was always a good guy.

https://d3football.com/seasons/2023/con ... 09241u18q0

[oldbartman]

Awfully quiet here.... Any news on the '25 recruitment front? Or practice for that matter?

[man:down]

picking up pieces here and there. Sounds like middie is thinner this year than in the past so look for Herlihy coming out of the box this year and maybe Delano getting some runs there as well - maybe even Datellas (hopefully Greene too). There is a freshman attack making a big impact - dropped a few in the net in the first inter-squad last weekend.

[oldbartman]

We finally got our first '25 commit, Slade Engstrom, Att., from the Berkshire School in MA. Welcome to the family Slade. Hope you have a few more classmates coming soon.

[Bartfromboston]

Patterson (FR) is the x attackman which we never had. I suspect he will see the field quite a bit, might start. Stillwell (FR) is more of a slasher, can come out of the box. Looks like two different games but I saw them both score a few. And both made some nice passes. The offense looks very strong.

[Farfromgeneva]

Never had? I’m excited for him but maybe Jaime Kirk or Cam Stone come to mind in the last 15yrs.

But we have needed a guy at the X since storm left pretty much. Though Poillon Dan a different type of offense where it was less valuable to have. Thought it would be either Barthelme or Ward last few years because they both can pass well and are very tall. Evnin supposedly ha that skill set as well. But the core returning offensive players don’t have that. I was thinking about various attack sets and none have that dynamic passing and cutting style. Mis and match among:

Dattellas
Herlihy (midfield/attack)
Barthelme
Rosa
Ward
Greene
Delano

Not a lot of off ball movement or cutting from that group and they have their abilities but none seem like prototypical attack except maybe Ward and Delano. Love that group but any mix if you picture it in your head has success that looks different.