New England West 2021

[Ddw1]

Based on what I saw last Spring, Taft should be very much in contention. They have a great offense — really move the ball crisply, and have a great core group of very talented(lots of major D1 commits) 2020’s and 2021’s.

As a general matter, the NE West 1 should be awesome this year: with Salisbury, Brunswick, and Deerfield coming off great 2019 seasons, fully loaded with talent(lots of major D1 commits), and seasoned personnel; and Choate probably has great size and really good talent again.

From what I hear, AOF has some really good returning 20’s and 21’s (who have committed to major D1 programs), and new PG’s and 21’s who will bolster their offense, one all conference defensive returning starter, a Bates commit with great size and agility, and another new 21 recruit with great size and range to help replace the two really good starters on defense from last Spring. Not sure about Westie, although they traditionally have fine talent, and are dangerous as I think that they upset Taft last year. Hotchkiss and Berkshire are always solid as well.

Should be a great season!!

[Ddw1]

Apologies, forgot about Trinity Pawling who will also probably be VERY much in the mix.

[3rdPersonPlural]

Based on what I saw last Spring, Taft should be very much in contention. They have a great offense — really move the ball crisply, and have a great core group of very talented(lots of major D1 commits) 2020’s and 2021’s.

Should be a great season!!

I'm delighted to see another Big Red (I guess we're Rhinos, now...) appreciator here. Taft will indeed have a great squad, but beating 'wick and that green team and the scarlet knights is an endeavor of national significance. Not easy. You gotta field real talent just to keep up with these guys.

[Ddw1]

Agreed! Recruiting in Western New England Division 1 is very intense. At some point, coaching and the hunger of the players will be the differentiating factor as Salisbury, Brunswick, and Deerfield are loaded; Taft, Trinity Pawling, Choate, and AOF are definitely very close in terms of recruitment efforts; and like I noted before, Westminster, Hotchkiss and Berkshire cannot BE underestimated.

[luvlaxlife]

It's amazing to me that any public school can finish in the top 10 or 15 given the talent level, recruiting ability, and seemingly more recent higher appeal for top level lacrosse players to attend prep/private schools. It is a testament to the public school programs that remain strong year after year using only the hand they are dealt. Not a judgement against prep/private, that offers a great alternative, just props to the pubs.

[PrimeTime21]

It's amazing to me that any public school can finish in the top 10 or 15 given the talent level, recruiting ability, and seemingly more recent higher appeal for top level lacrosse players to attend prep/private schools. It is a testament to the public school programs that remain strong year after year using only the hand they are dealt. Not a judgement against prep/private, that offers a great alternative, just props to the pubs.

All Publics have fallen off. Even Darien ain’t what it was. Before about 2005, the FCIAC was a better league than New England. Then everything changed.

Scholarships, “aid,” and club connects have changed the game. When guys from Rockland County and Jersey of all places are getting into DA, you know some $ is changing hands.

[random observer]

It's amazing to me that any public school can finish in the top 10 or 15 given the talent level, recruiting ability, and seemingly more recent higher appeal for top level lacrosse players to attend prep/private schools. It is a testament to the public school programs that remain strong year after year using only the hand they are dealt. Not a judgement against prep/private, that offers a great alternative, just props to the pubs.

All Publics have fallen off. Even Darien ain’t what it was. Before about 2005, the FCIAC was a better league than New England. Then everything changed.

Scholarships, “aid,” and club connects have changed the game. When guys from Rockland County and Jersey of all places are getting into DA, you know some $ is changing hands.

While I agree with your premise that the balance of power keeps shifting further and further towards NEW-1 and other privates, Darien is still Darien -- it's the other programs like New Canaan, Wilton, and especially Greenwich that have fallen off. From 2014-2018 Darien went 111-4, and anyone with a passing knowledge of the program had known for at least a couple of years that 2019 was going to be one of their weakest years in some time. Even then, they finished nationally ranked and were competitive in every game with one of the best OOC schedules around.

[Laxxal22]

All Publics have fallen off. Even Darien ain’t what it was. Before about 2005, the FCIAC was a better league than New England. Then everything changed.

Scholarships, “aid,” and club connects have changed the game. When guys from Rockland County and Jersey of all places are getting into DA, you know some $ is changing hands.

While I agree that public schools are losing more players to a wider range of private schools, the rest of your post is bull. Darien didn't really become dominant until 2005, and West 1 was already loaded in the late 90s/early 2000s (I believe Taft were mythical national champs in that time frame) and in no way, shape, or form was it considered lesser competition with weaker players.

[Laxxal22]

Though I'd rather see them play lacrosse against each other, two big ISL v. West 1 match ups in NEPSAC bowl games this weekend. 

Bill Glennon Bowl - Milton Academy (8-0) vs. Deerfield Academy (7-2). Actually, for Milton's sake I'd rather not see these two in a lacrosse game.

Todd Marble Bowl - Governors "Govs" Academy (7-1) vs. Brunswick School (7-2)

Avon Old Farms (8-0) hosts Suffield Academy (8-0) in the Kevin Driscoll Bowl, which appears to be the most elite of the bowl games.

Justin Greene (Attackman heading to Union) is a having a nice year for Milton at DB, but their star is a Michigan-bound RB/LB. The Govs squad is loaded with lacrosse players including QB Shane O'Leary - a spectacular middle and athlete heading to UMass. Will be a favorite for AA & league POY heading into lacrosse season. 

Any West 1 lacrosse players having standout seasons for these squads?

[b1w7o9y7h]

I was half shocked to see DA beat Choate in football last Saturday. Yippee. It's been a lean 7-8 years against the Wild Bores, which included their unprecedented 5 year undefeated streak. Good day last Saturday with DA and Dartmouth both getting it done. Anyone know if DA v. Milton is streaming somewhere?

[DrGooseman]

DA has a number of PGs, Srs and Jrs who are significant contributors on the football team and headed off to play lax in college. I understand the Milton game WILL be streamed, but no specifics available just yet.

[Laxxal22]

List of all of the NEPSAC streams. https://www.nepsac.org/page/3339?cache=false

DA - MA is listed. Brunswick - Govs is not at the moment, but Brunswick streams just about everything so I'm sure they'll figure it out.

[Laxxal22]

Brunswick - Govs football game will be streamed tomorrow at 1: https://events.locallive.tv/events/guest/33630

[pcowlax]

Wick wins 19-12

[pcowlax]

Suffield over AOF 29-22, basically for the de facto NEPSAC championship. Always rooting for WEST-1 but son of a good friend was playing for Suffield so happy for him. After not losing for I think 5 years. Choate graduated something like 20/22 starters and lost 3 games this year. All were to top teams, I suspect they will be back in the mix next year.

[Laxxal22]

Griffin Schutz with four TDs as Deerfield beats Milton 26-23. So he looks pretty decent at football as well

Caught a little of the stream of Avon - Suffield while in a Lyft. That's some big boy football. Might have been the camera position, but it looked more like a college game than high school to me.

[Michigan-Left]

Like all the football talk this past fall. I think Avon is on a run similar to Choate a few years ago, I just don’t see many in the Erickson League that can reload like them.

Look forward to any hockey updates as we move through the season, thought Trinity Pawling held their own in the Christmas Classic, Kent looks very good.

Nasty, looks like McGrath’s on RT-22 has closed was always a good spot for a beer.

Cheers to the Holidays!

GO Blue

[3rdPersonPlural]

Like all the football talk this past fall. I think Avon is on a run similar to Choate a few years ago, I just don’t see many in the Erickson League that can reload like them.

Look forward to any hockey updates as we move through the season, thought Trinity Pawling held their own in the Christmas Classic, Kent looks very good.

Nasty, looks like McGrath’s on RT-22 has closed was always a good spot for a beer.

Cheers to the Holidays!

GO Blue

I noticed that NEWestII Suffield Academy has the top rated Prep team in the state. https://www.maxpreps.com/division/ps/6M ... psac-a.htm.
Back in my day they were a wrestling powerhouse, but Suffield is a smaller school. You need 25 real ballers to put together a football team........

[3rdPersonPlural]

So I googled around and found some info about New England Prep School Class A football (sorry for the diversion....)

Back when I played, it was the 220 pound kids who played Tackle. Everyone played both ways. Game films was a series of '4 yards and a cloud of dust' if we won, and '2 yards and a cloud of dust' when we lost. Nobody had a quarterback who could sting a 30 yard 9 route and nobody had a wideout who could catch that pass. I remember Loomis (I think) brought in some kid named Ike Bogosian who could run like a deer but was six one and weighed 220 pounds. He ended up at Syracuse, I think. Choate was know for having football PGs, but none of them ever became Pros or anything.

Now it looks like New England Prep School Football is serious football! Suffield is ranked by MaxPreps at about 1100. In lacrosse an 1100 ranking means that you have one or 2 players in your program who want to keep playing lacrosse once they get to college.

In Football, if you are ranked around 1100 you're ranked with programs that have year-round weight room and workout requirements, One or two kids every year are going to play in a Power 5 program, and half of your starting 25 are getting football schollies somewhere. Your program has fans and boosters and only the local Waffle House stays open when you have a home game.

When did Prep Football become this serious?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo

[pcowlax]

Between 5-10 years 3PP. Led by dominance of Choate. St. Thomas Moore has always been an athletic/qualifying academy and still had numerous P5 players every year. Others though have launched arms race. This includes schools not often prep powers in other sports such as Suffield and Cheshire Academy. AOF is loaded, last year their QB went to Clemson for christ sakes, that was not the level of play back in the day. This year was the first year Choate lost a game in something like 6 years after graduating something like 20/22 starters, I expect they will be back next year. Even smaler day schools like St. Luke's and King are putting out D1 football players. Certainly, some of these kids (many of them at the boarding schools) are not from CT but if you just look at the number of D1 players graduating from schools located in CT it is astonishing. Suffield this year had at least kids go to Miami, Penn St., Arkansas, Syracuse