DU has grown to rely on California talent as a backbone to supplement the Canadian stars and Colorado home-growns, as well as the gems from around the country who are often overlooked by hotbed schools. In short, DU would not be competitive at the D-I level without the growth of lacrosse in California.
It will be interesting to see if DU can continue getting the top kids from California in the coming years. Utah's new program gives Cali kids a closer option, and the rest of the country is also wanting to harvest talent there, too.
Denver 2019
Re: Denver 2019
Agreed. There is also a small group of midwest talent that is often not focused on as much. The players include Danny Logan, Jack Hannah, Matt Neufeldt, and Johnny Marrocco. Some of the talent also comes from Culver Military Academy in Indiana (Ethan Walker, Alex Simmons, Matt Neufeldt via UMD, and William Clayton).
Next year's class is similar, but there are no incoming players from Canada. Not sure if that is a good thing
JJ Sillstrop A 2019 La Costa Canyon (Calif.)
Quinn Marquez M 2019 San Ramon Valley (Calif.)
Reed Babcock A 2019 Regis Jesuit (Colo.)
Jack Thompson G 2019 Rock Canyon (Colo.)
TK Hammond M 2019 Highlands Ranch (Colo.)
Malik Sparrow LSM 2019 Cherokee Trail (Colo.)
Abram Aidan D 2019 Dawson School (Colo.)
Alec Stathakis F/O 2019 Culver (Ind.)
Andrew DiFrancesco A 2019 Minnetonka (Minn.)
Jack DiBenedetto D 2019 Nichols School (New York)
Jake Edinger M 2019 Tully School (New York)
Shane Osborne A 2019 La Salle (Penn.)
AJ Mercurio D 2019 Damonte Ranch (Nev.)
Next year's class is similar, but there are no incoming players from Canada. Not sure if that is a good thing
JJ Sillstrop A 2019 La Costa Canyon (Calif.)
Quinn Marquez M 2019 San Ramon Valley (Calif.)
Reed Babcock A 2019 Regis Jesuit (Colo.)
Jack Thompson G 2019 Rock Canyon (Colo.)
TK Hammond M 2019 Highlands Ranch (Colo.)
Malik Sparrow LSM 2019 Cherokee Trail (Colo.)
Abram Aidan D 2019 Dawson School (Colo.)
Alec Stathakis F/O 2019 Culver (Ind.)
Andrew DiFrancesco A 2019 Minnetonka (Minn.)
Jack DiBenedetto D 2019 Nichols School (New York)
Jake Edinger M 2019 Tully School (New York)
Shane Osborne A 2019 La Salle (Penn.)
AJ Mercurio D 2019 Damonte Ranch (Nev.)
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Puck Swami
- Posts: 206
- Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2019 4:32 pm
Re: Denver 2019
My guess is that DU is being very strategic about which Canadians it wants, and which ones they are willing to wait on. Why?
What I've heard over the years is that when you recruit Canadians, you often need to offer more scholarship money to get them, since many Canadian families don't save big money for college they way US families do from the time kids are small. This is because Canadian universities cost far less than US schools do, and most Canadian parents aren't counting on sending their kid to a US school when the kids are small. Lacrosse in the USA only becomes a viable option for these kids when they are mid-teenagers, and by then, many need money if they are going to come to a private school like DU.
Accordingly, DU has often put a good chunk of its scholarship money into high-skill Canadian players( and a few high-end Americans), and fills out its roster with full-pay, merit aid (given to strong academics) or traditional non-athletic aid (loans, etc.) to US players. With only 12.6 scholarships to give out (or divide) and 50+ player rosters, DU as a university is likely very happy about all those full-pay players...
What I've heard over the years is that when you recruit Canadians, you often need to offer more scholarship money to get them, since many Canadian families don't save big money for college they way US families do from the time kids are small. This is because Canadian universities cost far less than US schools do, and most Canadian parents aren't counting on sending their kid to a US school when the kids are small. Lacrosse in the USA only becomes a viable option for these kids when they are mid-teenagers, and by then, many need money if they are going to come to a private school like DU.
Accordingly, DU has often put a good chunk of its scholarship money into high-skill Canadian players( and a few high-end Americans), and fills out its roster with full-pay, merit aid (given to strong academics) or traditional non-athletic aid (loans, etc.) to US players. With only 12.6 scholarships to give out (or divide) and 50+ player rosters, DU as a university is likely very happy about all those full-pay players...
Re: Denver 2019
Thoughts as I sit in Barton awaiting the start of Georgetown-Providence:
1. DU has underachieved so far this year. In season’s past their at-large resume was such that they could afford to stumble in the Big East tourney. That’s of course not the case this year. Gonna have to bring our best effort two games in a row (hopefully).
2. Although they haven’t always played up to their potential, this bunch has battled hard to the end in every contest. I like that spirit.
3. Tierney is one of the best ever, and Brown and Orsen are great coaches in their own right. I believe they’ll have the Pios ready.
4. Going to French in goal and switching up the offensive midfield lines are game-changers. I definitely like our chances to win the BE and get into the big dance better than I did a few weeks ago.
5. Go DU!
1. DU has underachieved so far this year. In season’s past their at-large resume was such that they could afford to stumble in the Big East tourney. That’s of course not the case this year. Gonna have to bring our best effort two games in a row (hopefully).
2. Although they haven’t always played up to their potential, this bunch has battled hard to the end in every contest. I like that spirit.
3. Tierney is one of the best ever, and Brown and Orsen are great coaches in their own right. I believe they’ll have the Pios ready.
4. Going to French in goal and switching up the offensive midfield lines are game-changers. I definitely like our chances to win the BE and get into the big dance better than I did a few weeks ago.
5. Go DU!
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Puck Swami
- Posts: 206
- Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2019 4:32 pm
Re: Denver 2019
Optimism is creeping back after tonight's revenge win vs. Villanova
DU was very efficient tonight on its shots, and the offensive ball movement was a pleasure to watch. The Pioneers were able to score inside, outside, with alley dodges and with precision -- this is the kind of confident, balanced offensive attack that can make the Pioneers a very tough out in the tourney play. It's clear that DU has been working on getting more rhythm on offense, and that work in practice is starting to pay off. It couldn't arrive at a better time.
Walker, French, Jackson, Sullivan, Hannah, Simmons, Curtis and McKone looked much more in-synch with each other tonight.
DU is also much more confident on clears now with Cole French in the net, and that allows the offense to flow much easier than when clearing. Danny Logan and Kyle Smith have figured out the clearing patterns and that makes DU much more dangerous than they were when they struggling to get the ball past midfield earlier in the season.
Cole French wasn't amazing tonight, but he was serviceable, and the Pios need 50% saves or better to be competitive.
Even though the Pios really struggled at the face-off x tonight, the middies often provided good wing play and the DU defense rarely allowed Villanova much room, save for a bad spell in the second half when the Pios took their foot off the gas for a while. Villanova's offense must be really hard to prepare for - it looks like a scramble much of the time, with as the 'Cats seem to rely on a bunch of good athletes freelancing, rather than on set offensive patterns, as the Pios do. That must make any defensive coach nervous in trying to set a defensive plan, but the Pios took care of business and got the job done. DU obviously wanted to rest a few regulars with a big lead in the second half and a title game coming up on Saturday, but we quickly saw the DU regulars return when Nova crept back in the game from a 15-6 deficit. As DU only has up to 5 more games left, all against top 20 opponents, we likely won't see the reserves any more...
DU was very efficient tonight on its shots, and the offensive ball movement was a pleasure to watch. The Pioneers were able to score inside, outside, with alley dodges and with precision -- this is the kind of confident, balanced offensive attack that can make the Pioneers a very tough out in the tourney play. It's clear that DU has been working on getting more rhythm on offense, and that work in practice is starting to pay off. It couldn't arrive at a better time.
Walker, French, Jackson, Sullivan, Hannah, Simmons, Curtis and McKone looked much more in-synch with each other tonight.
DU is also much more confident on clears now with Cole French in the net, and that allows the offense to flow much easier than when clearing. Danny Logan and Kyle Smith have figured out the clearing patterns and that makes DU much more dangerous than they were when they struggling to get the ball past midfield earlier in the season.
Cole French wasn't amazing tonight, but he was serviceable, and the Pios need 50% saves or better to be competitive.
Even though the Pios really struggled at the face-off x tonight, the middies often provided good wing play and the DU defense rarely allowed Villanova much room, save for a bad spell in the second half when the Pios took their foot off the gas for a while. Villanova's offense must be really hard to prepare for - it looks like a scramble much of the time, with as the 'Cats seem to rely on a bunch of good athletes freelancing, rather than on set offensive patterns, as the Pios do. That must make any defensive coach nervous in trying to set a defensive plan, but the Pios took care of business and got the job done. DU obviously wanted to rest a few regulars with a big lead in the second half and a title game coming up on Saturday, but we quickly saw the DU regulars return when Nova crept back in the game from a 15-6 deficit. As DU only has up to 5 more games left, all against top 20 opponents, we likely won't see the reserves any more...
Re: Denver 2019
Puck Swami - Could not have said it better. It was Denver's best first half of the year. The crowd and atmosphere was great. Only down side was the second half. But, the game was over by half time.
Looking forward to Saturday. We need another statement win.
Looking forward to Saturday. We need another statement win.
Re: Denver 2019
Totally agree with Puck Swami and DU-fan: The first half was the best of the year by far. Vast improvement in shot selection, ball movement, off-ball movement, and really every offensive area.
IMHO, Matt Neufeldt was the player of the game. His stellar wing play was responsible for many of our faceoff wins, and his work on D was equally as impressive. He played like a guy who wasn’t ready for his college career to be over. Hope the whole team can bring that kind of intensity again on Saturday.
IMHO, Matt Neufeldt was the player of the game. His stellar wing play was responsible for many of our faceoff wins, and his work on D was equally as impressive. He played like a guy who wasn’t ready for his college career to be over. Hope the whole team can bring that kind of intensity again on Saturday.
Re: Denver 2019
You can see what a difference not having Neufeldt on the field this year has meant to the Terps.darkhaha wrote: ↑Fri May 03, 2019 11:37 am
IMHO, Matt Neufeldt was the player of the game. His stellar wing play was responsible for many of our faceoff wins, and his work on D was equally as impressive. He played like a guy who wasn’t ready for his college career to be over. Hope the whole team can bring that kind of intensity again on Saturday.
Re: Denver 2019
I agree 100% on Neuffy, reminded me of Sean Mayle tearing up the GB's and turning them into offense. Have a question for those who follow DU more closely. I was interested that the first change as the game looked in hand was to replace Blair with Marrocco on attack. Blair had 2 goals, one unassisted, the other a doorstepper from Walker, and an assist, a nice GB and drew a good penalty too. In the third Marrocco took his place, did fine, so just wondering. A: Did the staff want to see what Marrocco could do with the starters in case a change is needed on attack - B: Is Marrocco going to be an important piece next season and this was the last chance to guarantee him time in a game this year - C: something else.
Re: Denver 2019
Neuffy is our superstar along with Logan. Defensive middies get no publicity. My take: We caught Nova off guard last night as we returned to the old DU offensive scheme: Not much dodging, plenty of passes and assists, Canadian style goals.. We had been trying to beat people one on one for six weeks because our passing was so sloppy early in the season. Tierney let us run the vanilla offense until it mattered. No way he would attack Nova like we attacked Marquette.
DU Fan- No, having no Canadians in next year's recruiting class is not a good thing.
As they say in hockey, Danny Logan sure logs a lot of ice time. Only Jeremy Noble was ever on the field more.
Go Pios
DU Fan- No, having no Canadians in next year's recruiting class is not a good thing.
As they say in hockey, Danny Logan sure logs a lot of ice time. Only Jeremy Noble was ever on the field more.
Go Pios
Re: Denver 2019
to Denver14
Coaching staff seems comfortable inserting Morocco when game is still in doubt. He should get Max Planning type of playing time in his career, maybe more.. Important part of future. He's only a frosh, so don't worry about Johnny.
Coaching staff seems comfortable inserting Morocco when game is still in doubt. He should get Max Planning type of playing time in his career, maybe more.. Important part of future. He's only a frosh, so don't worry about Johnny.
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Puck Swami
- Posts: 206
- Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2019 4:32 pm
Re: Denver 2019
Today was a tough ending to a tough season of relative underachievement for Pioneer fans.
I am afraid that DU is in period of backsliding from a final four regular (2017) to an NCAA tourney team (2018) to an non-NCAA tourney team (2019) for the first time since Tierney arrived in 2009. For us DU fans who have taken such a high level of performance almost for granted during the Tierney era, it's hard to watch the slippage. But it's real.
There are lot of reasons that DU is slipping - the biggest one is likely parity around the sport. Too many good players in the national talent pool (booming youth and HS lax around the country and not enough slots for them to play (NCAA D-I men's growth is stagnating) means other good teams can access to better players and become great teams. As other teams get better, someone needs to slip, and that is the Pioneers this year.
The second piece of the slide is likely player development - DU has no all-American level players this year, after many years with multiple AAs. Guys we might have expected to be nationally dominant players such as Ethan Walker and Colton Jackson had very good seasons, but not great seasons. That kind of plateauing of the best players results in more losses, too.
The third reason is a lack of emotional readiness to start games. I don't know if this is coaching issue or a player issue (or both), but there were a number of games this year where DU got punched in the mouth by opponents early in games, and weren't able to respond until much later, when it was often too late. The time spend climbing out of big holes left DU with less in the tank late in games. Today's game with Georgetown was emblematic of that issue. Princeton and Notre Dame were a couple more like that...
A fourth reason is shooting accuracy. DU used to be a national leader in shooting, but not anymore. It's amazing how many opposing goalies have great games against the Pios - too many DU shots don't go in the net, and 35+ pipes this season don't help, either. I'll look up the numbers soon, but my guess is that shooting accuracy has dropped substantially from past levels, and the poor man-up unit this year also suffered as a result.
A fifth reason is goaltending. DU hasn't really had great goaltending since Ryan Laplante left DU. Perhaps having Trevor Baptiste for four years of face-off dominance covered for the goaltending deficiencies, but this year it was more glaring. Georgetown had 7 goals on its first seven shots today, and that is untenable for any team that has playoff aspirations.
Add it all up, and you get a 5-loss season. Not catastrophic, but a slide. This summer should provide lots of time for the coaches to ponder these realities, and try to fix them.
I am afraid that DU is in period of backsliding from a final four regular (2017) to an NCAA tourney team (2018) to an non-NCAA tourney team (2019) for the first time since Tierney arrived in 2009. For us DU fans who have taken such a high level of performance almost for granted during the Tierney era, it's hard to watch the slippage. But it's real.
There are lot of reasons that DU is slipping - the biggest one is likely parity around the sport. Too many good players in the national talent pool (booming youth and HS lax around the country and not enough slots for them to play (NCAA D-I men's growth is stagnating) means other good teams can access to better players and become great teams. As other teams get better, someone needs to slip, and that is the Pioneers this year.
The second piece of the slide is likely player development - DU has no all-American level players this year, after many years with multiple AAs. Guys we might have expected to be nationally dominant players such as Ethan Walker and Colton Jackson had very good seasons, but not great seasons. That kind of plateauing of the best players results in more losses, too.
The third reason is a lack of emotional readiness to start games. I don't know if this is coaching issue or a player issue (or both), but there were a number of games this year where DU got punched in the mouth by opponents early in games, and weren't able to respond until much later, when it was often too late. The time spend climbing out of big holes left DU with less in the tank late in games. Today's game with Georgetown was emblematic of that issue. Princeton and Notre Dame were a couple more like that...
A fourth reason is shooting accuracy. DU used to be a national leader in shooting, but not anymore. It's amazing how many opposing goalies have great games against the Pios - too many DU shots don't go in the net, and 35+ pipes this season don't help, either. I'll look up the numbers soon, but my guess is that shooting accuracy has dropped substantially from past levels, and the poor man-up unit this year also suffered as a result.
A fifth reason is goaltending. DU hasn't really had great goaltending since Ryan Laplante left DU. Perhaps having Trevor Baptiste for four years of face-off dominance covered for the goaltending deficiencies, but this year it was more glaring. Georgetown had 7 goals on its first seven shots today, and that is untenable for any team that has playoff aspirations.
Add it all up, and you get a 5-loss season. Not catastrophic, but a slide. This summer should provide lots of time for the coaches to ponder these realities, and try to fix them.
Re: Denver 2019
Denver looked terrible today, both on offense and defense. they looked great yesterday vs nova but, honestly, nova wasn't all that. fools gold. Denver's got a lot of work to do over the summer.
Re: Denver 2019
Winning takes a lot of things to go right. One is a team chemistry, which requires a few kinds of leaders who sometimes are not in the stat book, but create the bond that by the end of a season has a team looking like it cannot fail. This flows from some alchemy every coach would like to bottle, but none can truly manufacture. The best they can do is recruit the right people and then create the situation where they can make it happen. For DU this year, the chemistry never got mixed right. The second element, a subset of chemistry, is having players on the field with sometimes freakish skills and lacrosse work ethics who take the reins when things go wrong. Noble. Berg. LaPlante. Mayle. Connor C. Law. Baptiste. Holst. Burgdorf. It helps to have more than one of these on the field. We did not have those players this year, although Neuffy did his best at times. Of course you need a goalie who rises to the task from the first shot in a game, and steals goals when they are most needed, and even when they're not. A goalie everyone trusts. Aside from something more simple, like match ups, we did not have those pieces this year. Hope they emerge next season. Starting with chemistry class.
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Puck Swami
- Posts: 206
- Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2019 4:32 pm
Re: Denver 2019
Great point about team chemistry. We fans can see results on the field, and the stats on the page, and make some easy conclusions about what needs to get fixed. And those concerns are often valid. For example, when your goalies can't make a single stop in the opponents' first seven shots on goal of a lacrosse game, your odds to win go way down. And when your team takes 45 shots in a game and only buries 9, it's not rocket science that shooting accuracy needs work.
But team chemistry is is built in places that the fan really doesn't see. In practice. In the locker room. On road trips and how the players spend time bonding off the field. With 50+ guys on a roster and only 20 or 25 of them playing in games regularly, the possibility for the largest chemistry destroyer is likely playing time resentment, and it's close cousin, the coaching or teammate resentment is a handmaiden to playing time resentment. Every player on the DU team was a star somewhere before coming here, with people always telling them how special they are for 10 years or more. So many egos to manage...the ability for those players to suddenly accept (and embrace) different roster roles cannot be underestimated.
What we can see on the field is a DU team that didn't look comfortable much of the time this year. The coaches I'm sure will spend a lot of time trying to fix the chemistry issues as well as the technical ones. That's what they get paid to do. Missing the NCAA tournament is a big wake up call, and I have no doubts that Coach T and the staff will do everything in their power to get things right...
But team chemistry is is built in places that the fan really doesn't see. In practice. In the locker room. On road trips and how the players spend time bonding off the field. With 50+ guys on a roster and only 20 or 25 of them playing in games regularly, the possibility for the largest chemistry destroyer is likely playing time resentment, and it's close cousin, the coaching or teammate resentment is a handmaiden to playing time resentment. Every player on the DU team was a star somewhere before coming here, with people always telling them how special they are for 10 years or more. So many egos to manage...the ability for those players to suddenly accept (and embrace) different roster roles cannot be underestimated.
What we can see on the field is a DU team that didn't look comfortable much of the time this year. The coaches I'm sure will spend a lot of time trying to fix the chemistry issues as well as the technical ones. That's what they get paid to do. Missing the NCAA tournament is a big wake up call, and I have no doubts that Coach T and the staff will do everything in their power to get things right...
Re: Denver 2019
It is always rough dealing with a season ending loss.
After spending some time reflecting on what went wrong and if anything could have been done to change the outcome, we need to focus on next year.
The two biggest areas that DU needs to work on:
Find a new goalie - Cole French looked great at times. Jack Thompson joins the team with great promise. With Alex Ready gone, it is wide open. Josh Matte, TJ Wright and Kaleb Stroman are all in the mix.
Rebuild the defense - Colin Squires is our only returning starter. It is not clear if Denver will look to Chris Sullivan, Mac Tezak, Dante Bravo, Nate Williams, Charlie Winsor, or Colby Moore. A starter could come from next year's freshman: Abram Aidan, Malik Sparrow, Jack DiBenedetto, or AJ Mercurio.
The offense needs work, but we have good talent coming in and return the core of our attack and midis. New attack and midi's joining the team look promising.
JJ Sillstrop A 2019 La Costa Canyon (Calif.)
Shane Osborne A 2019 La Salle (Penn.)
Andrew DiFrancesco A 2019 Minnetonka (Minn.)
Quinn Marquez M 2019 San Ramon Valley (Calif.)
Reed Babcock A 2019 Regis Jesuit (Colo.)
TK Hammond M 2019 Highlands Ranch (Colo.)
Alec Stathakis F/O 2019 Culver (Ind.)
Jake Edinger M 2019 Tully School (New York)
The outgoing freshman class was one of our best classes for talent. I think the future is still bright for DU.
After spending some time reflecting on what went wrong and if anything could have been done to change the outcome, we need to focus on next year.
The two biggest areas that DU needs to work on:
Find a new goalie - Cole French looked great at times. Jack Thompson joins the team with great promise. With Alex Ready gone, it is wide open. Josh Matte, TJ Wright and Kaleb Stroman are all in the mix.
Rebuild the defense - Colin Squires is our only returning starter. It is not clear if Denver will look to Chris Sullivan, Mac Tezak, Dante Bravo, Nate Williams, Charlie Winsor, or Colby Moore. A starter could come from next year's freshman: Abram Aidan, Malik Sparrow, Jack DiBenedetto, or AJ Mercurio.
The offense needs work, but we have good talent coming in and return the core of our attack and midis. New attack and midi's joining the team look promising.
JJ Sillstrop A 2019 La Costa Canyon (Calif.)
Shane Osborne A 2019 La Salle (Penn.)
Andrew DiFrancesco A 2019 Minnetonka (Minn.)
Quinn Marquez M 2019 San Ramon Valley (Calif.)
Reed Babcock A 2019 Regis Jesuit (Colo.)
TK Hammond M 2019 Highlands Ranch (Colo.)
Alec Stathakis F/O 2019 Culver (Ind.)
Jake Edinger M 2019 Tully School (New York)
The outgoing freshman class was one of our best classes for talent. I think the future is still bright for DU.
Re: Denver 2019
I got to watch Marquez Friday.
Traditional two way.
All depends on how quickly these types of players, in this case CA, adapt to the Tierney system. Obviously, they don’t all adapt as quickly as Adamson or French. One system I’ve seen at other schools, take the kid with raw talent and play him at defensive midfield and if he improved his offensive skills to a point, move him to offense or to two way middie.
There’s will be a good pipeline of talent at SRV (NCal) for the foreseeable future, they continue to crank them out.
Re: Denver 2019
Very disappointing end to a promising season. We don't know what happens with the kids chemistry issues. Tierney built a team to win a NC or at least come damn close this year. Senior loaded defense and enough on offense to get job done. That's his bread and butter. Now it's re-build time on defense. The following may have all contributed to our no tournament appearance this year:
1. Dylan Johnson injury. Everyone has injuries, but you need to forget about them. Parents at Princeton game said kids lost their mojo and focus for ND game. We slowly got it back, spurred by the great play of Neufeldt and Logan perhaps.
2. We won a lot of games because our defense didn't allow many shots on goal. Sub-par goal tending was our real Achilles heal. We won numerous games because teams did not get many shots on goal. French and the new kid coming in will be fine for the next 4 seasons.
3. Down goes Geis. Talk about another ACL injury during practice . Frosh and sophs did step up, but Geis was so easy to get the ball to with his 6'4" frame and he could finish inside and outside. He was having a great year.
4. Not mentioning names. We should have had a great senior middie playing this year, but he's apparently no longer in school. 2 kids who didn't play in 18 were not on the team this year. Both were very highly rated, both top 40 and I believe 1 was top 10. That totals 5 really good players we didn't have for the stretch run. No team can be prepared for those unexpected loses and still expect to have a great year.
Thus, we probably got as much out of this year's teams as could be expected. Lax isn't like hockey where kids can come in a year early if roster spots open up. Tierney will figure out a way to get us back in the hunt next year.
1. Dylan Johnson injury. Everyone has injuries, but you need to forget about them. Parents at Princeton game said kids lost their mojo and focus for ND game. We slowly got it back, spurred by the great play of Neufeldt and Logan perhaps.
2. We won a lot of games because our defense didn't allow many shots on goal. Sub-par goal tending was our real Achilles heal. We won numerous games because teams did not get many shots on goal. French and the new kid coming in will be fine for the next 4 seasons.
3. Down goes Geis. Talk about another ACL injury during practice . Frosh and sophs did step up, but Geis was so easy to get the ball to with his 6'4" frame and he could finish inside and outside. He was having a great year.
4. Not mentioning names. We should have had a great senior middie playing this year, but he's apparently no longer in school. 2 kids who didn't play in 18 were not on the team this year. Both were very highly rated, both top 40 and I believe 1 was top 10. That totals 5 really good players we didn't have for the stretch run. No team can be prepared for those unexpected loses and still expect to have a great year.
Thus, we probably got as much out of this year's teams as could be expected. Lax isn't like hockey where kids can come in a year early if roster spots open up. Tierney will figure out a way to get us back in the hunt next year.