THE 2019 Hopkins Lacrosse Fallout Shelter (44, we want more!)

[HopFan16]

Future Jays in the MIAA semifinal tonight:

Ryan Evans, 2020 middie (Boys Latin) — Joe Cowan's grandson i'm pretty sure
Ian Krampf, 2019 attack (St. Mary's)
Dom Pietramala ???, 2023 attack (Boys Latin)

Brendan Grimes, 2020 attack (Boys Latin) has been out all year with an injury. Does that increase the chances he takes a PG year?

Also Hunter Moreland's little brother, a giant of a FOGO. Think he's a sophomore?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl9qsGzzCd4

Also, LSN is airing the National Prep tournament later this week. Can see the following:

Culver: Brett Handsor (2019 middie), Johnny Cohen (2019 attack), Cam Chauvette (2020 attack)
Hill School: Blake Rodgers (2019 LSM/D)
Hun School: Jack Ruddy (2019 LSM/D)
Academy New Church: Hunter Jaronski (2019 D)
IMG: Jack Burnett (2020 attack?)

http://victoryeventseries.com/national-prep/

[Chitown]

I have heard from so many sources that The Johns Hopkins University can't compete in Lacrosse any more (See the recent New York Times article re lacrosse is the fastest growing sport). Sure lacrosse is growing, because its base was so tiny .

If lacrosse is growing, that is a good thing for JHU and other high academic institutions who have played this sport for a long time. WE have a much bigger base of players from which to choose. If high school students prefer Ohio State, Michigan, North Carolina, Penn State, etc. Fine. Lacrosse is a small non-revenue producing sport. There is no real livelihood to be obtained in professional lacrosse. You want to be a coach? Fine, do that.


Hopkins really doesn't compete against many Universities for prospective students. It is an intense academic atmosphere. If you graduate, most people assume that you are "smart" (whatever that means). And you can prove people wrong that you really aren't "smart". But you do get that assumption that you are smart.


People argue that Hopkins can't compete for lacrosse players because (1) Baltimore is dangerous, (1) Hopkins is not a "Party School" and (3) the academics are strenuous and you have to study (isn't that what college is all about?).


I don't get it. Lets look at some other schools playing lacrosse:


1. Duke. Why does Duke even have a lacrosse team today? It had a horrendous national scandal. The President and Administration cancelled it lacrosse season, the Coach was let go, approx. 100 faculty members published in newspapers a "declaration" condemning the members of the Duke lacrosse team, Duke students protested and marched across its campus to "take back the night" from the Duke lacrosse players, and a number of Duke lacrosse players transferred to other colleges.

Why in God's name would any parent let their son (lacrosse player) attend Duke? No real scholarship money. It has strenuous academics. It is not a "party school". Durham is in Tobacco Road and not a terribly attractive place to go to school. Duke hires Coach Danowski (I now think he is truly an extraordinary man) who does not have a fabulous coaching record and is not a famous former player. Coach Danowski turns it around. That tells me that any lacrosse program can be turned around.


2. Yale. Yale is a famous "party school" (NOT). in a small very dangerous city, New Haven. Yale's Admin and Faculty are notoriously PC (no Halloween Parties at Yale) and yet Yale armed its Campus Police with real guns and real ammo years ago. You understand how dangerous New Haven and the Yale campus must be for that PC Admin & Faculty to OK campus police with real guns and authorize them to shoot people. Yale is also academically strenuous. That means homework. I don't know Coach Shay's background, but I am pretty sure that he is not a former famous college lacrosse player and I am pretty sure that he is not a Yale alumnus. I do understand that Yale alumni have funded an $8 million fund to aid Yale lacrosse. With all these negatives, Yale has been pretty successful in lacrosse recently. Their players are "big boys". the result of no ER and recruiting players who are post-puberty.


3. Univ. of Pa. Another famous party school located in a great safe neighborhood in scenic Philadelphia Penn also has strenuous academics. I have no idea what is the background of the Penn coach. But he appears to be doing a good job. The Penn team also has a lot of "big boys" recruited late.


What do I conclude from all of this? JHU should be better. WE have a lot to offer, including a wonderful tradition in this little non-revenue producing sport. We offer a Degree that will be beneficial your entire life. And it is not difficult to see that there is a great loyalty and pride in Johns Hopkins University and Hopkins Lacrosse from former players and Hopkins lacrosse fans.


I don't accept any excuses. We can do a lot better.

[HopFan16]

No argument about Duke or Yale's success, but Penn? I'd pump the brakes on that. This is the Quakers' first quarterfinal appearance in 30 years and just the third time they've made the NCAA tournament this decade. Obviously, they are having a great season, but let's see if they can sustain it.

A better comparison might be Virginia, who after parting ways with their longtime, historic head coach after a period of relative disappointment, were back in the top 10 all year long and are now in the quarterfinals, and for my money look like the best team on its side of the bracket. We'll see if they win this weekend—and if they can keep this up for more than just a year—but Tiffany certainly has that program in a better state today than when he took it over. Granted he's doing it with a decent amount of Starsia's recruits.

Krampf finished with 2 and 2 as St. Mary's laid the smackdown on BL and will now face Calvert Hall and coach Tinney in the championship. The Lakers were a very young team this year and to my eye badly missed Grimes on offense. Hunter Moreland's brother is one of the tallest FOGOs I have ever seen. Ryan Evans looks like he can play both ways. He plays on the wings, runs middie on offense, and frequently runs back on D. On another note, I've confirmed that Chauvette isn't coming till 2020.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

No argument about Duke or Yale's success, but Penn? I'd pump the brakes on that. This is the Quakers' first quarterfinal appearance in 30 years and just the third time they've made the NCAA tournament this decade. Obviously, they are having a great season, but let's see if they can sustain it.

A better comparison might be Virginia, who after parting ways with their longtime, historic head coach after a period of relative disappointment, were back in the top 10 all year long and are now in the quarterfinals, and for my money look like the best team on its side of the bracket. We'll see if they win this weekend—and if they can keep this up for more than just a year—but Tiffany certainly has that program in a better state today than when he took it over. Granted he's doing it with a decent amount of Starsia's recruits.

Krampf finished with 2 and 2 as St. Mary's laid the smackdown on BL and will now face Calvert Hall and coach Tinney in the championship. The Lakers were a very young team this year and to my eye badly missed Grimes on offense. Hunter Moreland's brother is one of the tallest FOGOs I have ever seen. Ryan Evans looks like he can play both ways. He plays on the wings, runs middie on offense, and frequently runs back on D. On another note, I've confirmed that Chauvette isn't coming till 2020.

“who after parting ways with their longtime, historic head coach after a period of relative disappointment”

Uh... interesting way to describe multiple loss of lives and lack of institutional control.

[HopFan16]

“who after parting ways with their longtime, historic head coach after a period of relative disappointment”...

I mean, yeah, but is that why he was fired? They let him continue running the program for years after those things happened. The straw that broke the camel's back, in terms of his job, was that the team had four bad years in a row on the field. It shouldn't have been the case, but it was. They missed the tournament two of those four years and in the other two years got blown out at home by...us. That's why they got rid of him. Anyway, the point was that Tiffany has seemingly put the team on a better path relatively quickly.

[steel_hop]

Tech question: does anyone know how to insert either an excel spreadsheet with a chart into the Reply box? I have an excel spreadsheet with a very demonstrative chart that shows the trends of how bad the program is. It is set up as total wins per senior class under Petro. I think it is more presentable that what I am going to list below:

For Senior Class
Year Wins Win %

• 2001 38 .716

• 2002 40 .754

• 2003 43 .781

• 2004 47 .824

• 2005 55 .901

• 2006 52 .852

• 2007 51 .822

• 2008 49 .765

• 2009 43 .682

• 2010 41 .640

• 2011 41 .650

• 2012 42 .677

• 2013 41 .672

• 2014 45 .725

• 2015 43 .671

• 2016 39 .619

• 2017 38 .593

• 2018 39 .600

• 2019 36 .571

I'd have to imagine that the .571 winning percentage for a class has to be the lowest ever at Hopkins.

To argue anything other than the program is in deep trouble under the current staff is ignoring reality. Whether this moves the administration to make a move I have no idea. My feeling is that it is Wednesday and we haven't heard anything my guess is that the Hopkins administration is willing to let the lax program reach a new low in 2020 because they have no idea that if you want to play with the big boys in sports, you need to make big boy decisions. Sometimes that means canning your alumni coach.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Tech question: does anyone know how to insert either an excel spreadsheet with a chart into the Reply box? I have an excel spreadsheet with a very demonstrative chart that shows the trends of how bad the program is. It is set up as total wins per senior class under Petro. I think it is more presentable that what I am going to list below:

For Senior Class
Year Wins Win %

• 2001 38 .716

• 2002 40 .754

• 2003 43 .781

• 2004 47 .824

• 2005 55 .901

• 2006 52 .852

• 2007 51 .822

• 2008 49 .765

• 2009 43 .682

• 2010 41 .640

• 2011 41 .650

• 2012 42 .677

• 2013 41 .672

• 2014 45 .725

• 2015 43 .671

• 2016 39 .619

• 2017 38 .593

• 2018 39 .600

• 2019 36 .571

I'd have to imagine that the .571 winning percentage for a class has to be the lowest ever at Hopkins.

To argue anything other than the program is in deep trouble under the current staff is ignoring reality. Whether this moves the administration to make a move I have no idea. My feeling is that it is Wednesday and we haven't heard anything my guess is that the Hopkins administration is willing to let the lax program reach a new low in 2020 because they have no idea that if you want to play with the big boys in sports, you need to make big boy decisions. Sometimes that means canning your alumni coach.

You could screenshot it and post the picture.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Remember: Homewood Field is hosting the wlax D1 Final Four semis and championship games.

You are not going to hear a single peep out of Hopkins until after Memorial Day. No gray or white smoke from the chimney.

They are not going to cause a distraction prior to nor during their hosting of wlax.

After that?

[notentitled]

You might want to get a hobby. I thought PSU football fans were insane.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

You might want to get a hobby. I thought PSU football fans were insane.

PSU is a cult of enablers.

[reLAX]

I have heard from so many sources that The Johns Hopkins University can't compete in Lacrosse any more (See the recent New York Times article re lacrosse is the fastest growing sport). Sure lacrosse is growing, because its base was so tiny .

If lacrosse is growing, that is a good thing for JHU and other high academic institutions who have played this sport for a long time. WE have a much bigger base of players from which to choose. If high school students prefer Ohio State, Michigan, North Carolina, Penn State, etc. Fine. Lacrosse is a small non-revenue producing sport. There is no real livelihood to be obtained in professional lacrosse. You want to be a coach? Fine, do that.


Hopkins really doesn't compete against many Universities for prospective students. It is an intense academic atmosphere. If you graduate, most people assume that you are "smart" (whatever that means). And you can prove people wrong that you really aren't "smart". But you do get that assumption that you are smart.


People argue that Hopkins can't compete for lacrosse players because (1) Baltimore is dangerous, (1) Hopkins is not a "Party School" and (3) the academics are strenuous and you have to study (isn't that what college is all about?).


I don't get it. Lets look at some other schools playing lacrosse:


1. Duke. Why does Duke even have a lacrosse team today? It had a horrendous national scandal. The President and Administration cancelled it lacrosse season, the Coach was let go, approx. 100 faculty members published in newspapers a "declaration" condemning the members of the Duke lacrosse team, Duke students protested and marched across its campus to "take back the night" from the Duke lacrosse players, and a number of Duke lacrosse players transferred to other colleges.

Why in God's name would any parent let their son (lacrosse player) attend Duke? No real scholarship money. It has strenuous academics. It is not a "party school". Durham is in Tobacco Road and not a terribly attractive place to go to school. Duke hires Coach Danowski (I now think he is truly an extraordinary man) who does not have a fabulous coaching record and is not a famous former player. Coach Danowski turns it around. That tells me that any lacrosse program can be turned around.


2. Yale. Yale is a famous "party school" (NOT). in a small very dangerous city, New Haven. Yale's Admin and Faculty are notoriously PC (no Halloween Parties at Yale) and yet Yale armed its Campus Police with real guns and real ammo years ago. You understand how dangerous New Haven and the Yale campus must be for that PC Admin & Faculty to OK campus police with real guns and authorize them to shoot people. Yale is also academically strenuous. That means homework. I don't know Coach Shay's background, but I am pretty sure that he is not a former famous college lacrosse player and I am pretty sure that he is not a Yale alumnus. I do understand that Yale alumni have funded an $8 million fund to aid Yale lacrosse. With all these negatives, Yale has been pretty successful in lacrosse recently. Their players are "big boys". the result of no ER and recruiting players who are post-puberty.


3. Univ. of Pa. Another famous party school located in a great safe neighborhood in scenic Philadelphia Penn also has strenuous academics. I have no idea what is the background of the Penn coach. But he appears to be doing a good job. The Penn team also has a lot of "big boys" recruited late.


What do I conclude from all of this? JHU should be better. WE have a lot to offer, including a wonderful tradition in this little non-revenue producing sport. We offer a Degree that will be beneficial your entire life. And it is not difficult to see that there is a great loyalty and pride in Johns Hopkins University and Hopkins Lacrosse from former players and Hopkins lacrosse fans.


I don't accept any excuses. We can do a lot better.

.


I am the FARTHEST thing from a Duke fan. In any sport. However the case of the duke lacrosse team “horrendous scandal” was horrendous in the fact that there was political abuse of power involved. Those boys were all cleared. They had their whole lives turned upside down for many years. Coach Pressler stood by his team. Trusted them, and he was the scapegoat for the Duke administration when they couldn’t back peddle. That was a horrible tune, but those boys fought back and regained their good standing. Yes they were at a party. Yes it got out of hand. But that is nothing new or different than any other college kid. Athlete or not. I will always be saddened by this whole tragedy that resulted in disbarment of the the DA. And a devastating suicide of a police officer involved in the initial investigation.

The virgins situation, again devastating, which was proven to be TRUE, Sid not lead to the release of their coach. That is not for me to judge.

[reLAX]

I have heard from so many sources that The Johns Hopkins University can't compete in Lacrosse any more (See the recent New York Times article re lacrosse is the fastest growing sport). Sure lacrosse is growing, because its base was so tiny .

If lacrosse is growing, that is a good thing for JHU and other high academic institutions who have played this sport for a long time. WE have a much bigger base of players from which to choose. If high school students prefer Ohio State, Michigan, North Carolina, Penn State, etc. Fine. Lacrosse is a small non-revenue producing sport. There is no real livelihood to be obtained in professional lacrosse. You want to be a coach? Fine, do that.


Hopkins really doesn't compete against many Universities for prospective students. It is an intense academic atmosphere. If you graduate, most people assume that you are "smart" (whatever that means). And you can prove people wrong that you really aren't "smart". But you do get that assumption that you are smart.


People argue that Hopkins can't compete for lacrosse players because (1) Baltimore is dangerous, (1) Hopkins is not a "Party School" and (3) the academics are strenuous and you have to study (isn't that what college is all about?).


I don't get it. Lets look at some other schools playing lacrosse:


1. Duke. Why does Duke even have a lacrosse team today? It had a horrendous national scandal. The President and Administration cancelled it lacrosse season, the Coach was let go, approx. 100 faculty members published in newspapers a "declaration" condemning the members of the Duke lacrosse team, Duke students protested and marched across its campus to "take back the night" from the Duke lacrosse players, and a number of Duke lacrosse players transferred to other colleges.

Why in God's name would any parent let their son (lacrosse player) attend Duke? No real scholarship money. It has strenuous academics. It is not a "party school". Durham is in Tobacco Road and not a terribly attractive place to go to school. Duke hires Coach Danowski (I now think he is truly an extraordinary man) who does not have a fabulous coaching record and is not a famous former player. Coach Danowski turns it around. That tells me that any lacrosse program can be turned around.


2. Yale. Yale is a famous "party school" (NOT). in a small very dangerous city, New Haven. Yale's Admin and Faculty are notoriously PC (no Halloween Parties at Yale) and yet Yale armed its Campus Police with real guns and real ammo years ago. You understand how dangerous New Haven and the Yale campus must be for that PC Admin & Faculty to OK campus police with real guns and authorize them to shoot people. Yale is also academically strenuous. That means homework. I don't know Coach Shay's background, but I am pretty sure that he is not a former famous college lacrosse player and I am pretty sure that he is not a Yale alumnus. I do understand that Yale alumni have funded an $8 million fund to aid Yale lacrosse. With all these negatives, Yale has been pretty successful in lacrosse recently. Their players are "big boys". the result of no ER and recruiting players who are post-puberty.


3. Univ. of Pa. Another famous party school located in a great safe neighborhood in scenic Philadelphia Penn also has strenuous academics. I have no idea what is the background of the Penn coach. But he appears to be doing a good job. The Penn team also has a lot of "big boys" recruited late.


What do I conclude from all of this? JHU should be better. WE have a lot to offer, including a wonderful tradition in this little non-revenue producing sport. We offer a Degree that will be beneficial your entire life. And it is not difficult to see that there is a great loyalty and pride in Johns Hopkins University and Hopkins Lacrosse from former players and Hopkins lacrosse fans.


I don't accept any excuses. We can do a lot better.

.


I am the FARTHEST thing from a Duke fan. In any sport. However the case of the duke lacrosse team “horrendous scandal” was horrendous in the fact that there was political abuse of power involved. Those boys were all cleared. They had their whole lives turned upside down for many years. Coach Pressler stood by his team. Trusted them, and he was the scapegoat for the Duke administration when they couldn’t back peddle. That was a horrible tune, but those boys fought back and regained their good standing. Yes they were at a party. Yes it got out of hand. But that is nothing new or different than any other college kid. Athlete or not. I will always be saddened by this whole tragedy that resulted in disbarment of the the DA. And a devastating suicide of a police officer involved in the initial investigation.

The virginia situation, again devastating, which was proven to be TRUE, Did not lead to the release of their coach. That is not for me to judge.

[admin]

“who after parting ways with their longtime, historic head coach after a period of relative disappointment”...

Tweeeeet! 1 Minute (2 Day) Penalty. Unsportsmanlike Conduct. Penalty will be over on Friday at 11 AM EST.

Wombat repeatedly speaking to two tragedies unnecessarily and with no regard for the people who have been effected by these tragedies. These are sensitive subjects for many people and it's safe to say that many of these people are likely to spend some time within our forums. And even if they don't, it's inappropriate.

Tweeeet! Play on!

[admin]

Tech question: does anyone know how to insert either an excel spreadsheet with a chart into the Reply box? I have an excel spreadsheet with a very demonstrative chart that shows the trends of how bad the program is.

Steel, send it to us via e-mail (matt at fanlax.com) and I'll create a post within the website.

[Hopper1]

Seems like there is a lot of confusion on recruit decision making, and how hopkins is viewed by prospective students. The issue is that Hopkins sits in an awkward position, no man's land, where it won't get top flight talent from either of the two big groupings of recruits:

If you're a smart, driven student athlete that wants to get a great job after school and have a great career, you're going to look at a pretty large group of schools, including Hopkins. The entire Ivy League, UVA, UNC, Duke, ND... they're all great schools with great lax programs.

If you're not the most academically adept student and you're more interested in having a well rounded college experience, there are a ton of schools that can provide that too. Hopkins isn't one of them.

Normally, you would hope that Hopkins could get top flight talent based on it's academic reputation, but unfortunately that's not the case. If you're a really good lax player and student, why would you go to hopkins over Ivy League or even Duke? They're more academically prestigious and they also have great lax programs (you could almost argue the same thing for ND and UVA, who both have terrific academic reputations). So if hopkins can't get top recruits based on academics, it can only hope to get them via it's storied lax history. But is that history really enough to sway someone (Morrill?) away from an ivy league education? Evidence would say no.

So what happens? The quality of recruits slowly declines as the lacrosse program loses luster. It's a self fueling fire, and we've been watching it unfold for the better part of 15 years.

[youthathletics]

Tech question: does anyone know how to insert either an excel spreadsheet with a chart into the Reply box? I have an excel spreadsheet with a very demonstrative chart that shows the trends of how bad the program is.

Steel, send it to us via e-mail (matt at fanlax.com) and I'll create a post within the website.

This is how I do it:

1 - On a PC not MAC click Start, Search, then type Snipping Tool.
2 - Right click on the program and hold down the button and drag on your desktop, select create shortcut here.
3 - Then drag it to your toolbar on the bottom of screen for easy access.
4 - With your spreadsheet open to the view you want to capture
5 - click the SNipping Tool Icon. Once opened, hold the left mouse button down to capture the image
6 - Save the image to your desktop with a name
7 - I then use a free photo upload site like imgur.com
8 - Select your file and upload it.
9 - Once uploaded click the little down arrow in the middle of page next to the word copy and select "Get Share Links"
10- There is a bbcode format, click copy.
11 - Then in the body of your post just right click and select past.
12 - Done.

[Wheels]

Some of the navel gazing in this thread has gone about as deep as navel gazing can go. The Hopkins team you saw against ND is the same team you saw for most of the season. The Maryland games were fools gold in a sense. Hop matches up on defense so well with Maryland, and had Garnsey not played, Hop's defense would have matched up a whole lot better against ND. Much like the Terps don't have dodgers outside of Bernhardt and Fairman, ND didn't have any dodgers outside of Gleason and Costabile until Garnsey came back. So Hop's SSDM issues came back and the corresponding breakdowns behind them. It wasn't like Hop held up well defensively against PSU, either, but Hop's offense nearly pulled off a monumental upset.

All of this talk about Baltimore holding Hop lacrosse back is, my opinion, nonsense. Great school. Great campus. Close to several other colleges and universities. Being the kings on campus, regardless of student attendance at games, is a good selling point. The lax facilities are really nice. Johns Hopkins lacrosse is still the Alabama or Notre Dame of football, still the Kentucky or Kansas of basketball.

Yes, there are more D1 teams and many schools invest heavily now in the sport, but Hopkins lacrosse is still Hopkins lacrosse. IMO, I do think Petro's coaching style has worn thin and become a detriment overall...but he's still able to pull recruits like Epstein. I've said before on here that Benson's offense was terrible slow to adapt to the shot clock era to the point of stubbornness. Look at what happened when he finally inverted Williams?! If there aren't any staff changes in this offseason, well, you might set your expectations accordingly.

[HopFan16]

Seems like there is a lot of confusion on recruit decision making, and how hopkins is viewed by prospective students. The issue is that Hopkins sits in an awkward position, no man's land, where it won't get top flight talent from either of the two big groupings of recruits:

If you're a smart, driven student athlete that wants to get a great job after school and have a great career, you're going to look at a pretty large group of schools, including Hopkins. The entire Ivy League, UVA, UNC, Duke, ND... they're all great schools with great lax programs.

If you're not the most academically adept student and you're more interested in having a well rounded college experience, there are a ton of schools that can provide that too. Hopkins isn't one of them.

Normally, you would hope that Hopkins could get top flight talent based on it's academic reputation, but unfortunately that's not the case. If you're a really good lax player and student, why would you go to hopkins over Ivy League or even Duke? They're more academically prestigious and they also have great lax programs (you could almost argue the same thing for ND and UVA, who both have terrific academic reputations). So if hopkins can't get top recruits based on academics, it can only hope to get them via it's storied lax history. But is that history really enough to sway someone (Morrill?) away from an ivy league education? Evidence would say no.

So what happens? The quality of recruits slowly declines as the lacrosse program loses luster. It's a self fueling fire, and we've been watching it unfold for the better part of 15 years.

These are challenges that are not going away. Many kids have and will continue to pick the Ivies and ACC schools over Hopkins. But it's not like Hopkins has no advantages of its own.

1. I maintain that Baltimore is more of a plus than it is a minus. Being in the center of the lacrosse world, close to where many of the best recruits grew up, matters to a lot of people. Right in the middle of Philly and DC. Several other colleges nearby.

2. The history and tradition will always matter. It's why the Yankees can still bring in big-time free agents. The feeling of being part of something much bigger than yourself appeals to a lot of recruits. Playing your home games on Homewood Field is pretty special.

3. Lacrosse matters at Hopkins as much as this niche sport can matter. This thread, as completely asinine as it is sometimes, is evidence of that. Alums and fans are passionate and knowledgable. There's a large community of former players, coaches, fans, and friends to take advantage of. People care about the players. Can you say the same at every ACC or Ivy? At Duke or UNC, lacrosse players get swallowed up by all the basketball hype.

4. Hopkins is on TV a lot (and has an athletic department that prioritizes getting the team on ESPN)

5. They just built a huge monument to the lacrosse program on the side of Homewood Field—yes other teams are catching up in this area but the Cordish Center is a pretty darn impressive building. If I'm a recruit, or the parent of a recruit, and I get a tour of this lacrosse-specific student-athlete center, I'm walking away pretty impressed.

6. Paul Rabil, Kyle Harrison, Ryan Brown, Joel Tinney, Tucker Durkin, etc. continue to be great ambassadors of both the program and the sport in general. Kids want to put on the same uniform as these guys

7. Crab cakes

8. Beautiful campus—I know first-hand you CANNOT say the same for all of the competition

9. Homecoming is in the spring, for lacrosse.

10. Great, historic rivalries with multiple teams

11. Year in and year out the Jays play one of the most competitive schedules in the country.

12. If you have a good game, they'll throw you a banana

There are others but those are just off the top of my head. The recruiting landscape is MUCH DIFFERENT than it used to be, and Hopkins obviously is not going to get all the kids it wants. There are drawbacks. There are things Duke, UVA, Yale, etc. can boast that we can't. But there are still plenty of things unique to the program that will keep it competitive for many years. Whether the coaching staff will take advantage of that is another question entirely.

[44WeWantMore]

[Homer]

Normally, you would hope that Hopkins could get top flight talent based on it's academic reputation, but unfortunately that's not the case. If you're a really good lax player and student, why would you go to hopkins over Ivy League or even Duke? They're more academically prestigious and they also have great lax programs (you could almost argue the same thing for ND and UVA, who both have terrific academic reputations). So if hopkins can't get top recruits based on academics, it can only hope to get them via it's storied lax history. But is that history really enough to sway someone (Morrill?) away from an ivy league education? Evidence would say no.

Nice first post -- this is a more nuanced and to me persuasive take on recruiting than a lot of what's been said on here. IMO if you're pre-med, or interested in getting into certain specific STEM fields or academia generally, a Hopkins background is going to compare favorably with at least several of the Ivies. But just thinking about the generic value of the degree for getting into most careers the average recruit might be considering, then the competition is probably more realistically (among mlax schools) Notre Dame, Georgetown, UVA.

Doesn't mean Hopkins can't still win recruiting battles some of the time, but around the margins it's definitely getting tougher than it used to be. As has been said on here by others, they're going to have to start getting smarter about who they're targeting and when and why.