New England West 2021

[MA Lax Fan]

I agree. The numbers of elite players at the prep schools is insane.

I don’t know how a HS, with 200 - 300 boys, can have a D1 loaded, football team, hockey team, lacrosse team, basketball team, etc...,

At many boarding schools the international population is exploding which reduces the numbers of kids who can typically contribute on these elite teams making the level of success that much more impressive imho.

Side thought:
I wonder how the dynamics work on campus when you have armies of 19yo, D1 bound, alpha males mixed in w/ a growing international population (primarily from China)?

[PrimeTime21]

Northern football outside of Ohio and the NJ Catholic league is a pillow fight.

You know how I know your D1 football team stinks? You take players from New England.

Back to the subject of athletics in general, taking international guys is good business ($$$$$) but bad for the W/L record. Guys from China and Korea won’t probably run on your First Midfield unless you’re Kent or NMH.

The only time it is acceptable to recruit internationals for spots is for Hockey (and even that is debatable with the NTDP and CHL taking the very best guys). Kimball Union has an absolute monster coming from the GTHL. Dude will probably be the number 1 pick in the O-Show.

[Laxxal22]

Clemson stinks at football?

[pcowlax]

Prime time showing his age here. If you were recruiting Deerfield football players in the 70s it was a pretty good sign you weren’t a top flight college program. Those days have long passed. The key is that the football programs have started to behave like the lax programs. Salisbury lax is a national power not because of the hotbed of northwest CT lax but because it is a boarding school with a national program. There actually are a lot more actual CT natives playing big boy (Big Ten, SEC, etc) football but that is not why some of these schools like Suffield are now big time. It’s because they are pulling stud boarders from around the country. Between recruited boarders, holdbacks and PGs, the best of these prep school teams would trounce the vast majority of high school football teams across the country.

[PrimeTime21]

Prime time showing his age here. If you were recruiting Deerfield football players in the 70s it was a pretty good sign you weren’t a top flight college program. Those days have long passed. The key is that the football programs have started to behave like the lax programs. Salisbury lax is a national power not because of the hotbed of northwest CT lax but because it is a boarding school with a national program. There actually are a lot more actual CT natives playing big boy (Big Ten, SEC, etc) football but that is not why some of these schools like Suffield are now big time. It’s because they are pulling stud boarders from around the country. Between recruited boarders, holdbacks and PGs, the best of these prep school teams would trounce the vast majority of high school football teams across the country.

Choate, AOF, Suffield wouldn’t be .500 in Gwinnett or DeKalb County ball. Cmon man. These prep schools still have way too much sunshine on defense.

If they played a team like SFA a truly nationally elite squad they’d forfeit at halftime like the MIAA guys did. True, Wilkins was good. But the league top to bottom is suspect as all get out.

[pcowlax]

I certainly never said they could compete with SFA and beating the vast majority of teams does not mean they would be competing for a state title in big school divisions in CA, FL, TX, GA, etc. However, when you have 5-8 D1 and 15-20 overall college players at a time on your high school team you are whipping most high schools across america. Not to mention across the much lamented age discrepancy we hear so much about on these boards between prep schools and public. In lax its unfair because West-1 teams have a bunch of 20 year old running around beating up on the poor pre-pubescent 15 year olds playing at publics but in football its not going to be an issue because hey, what do size and physical maturity matter in football?

[Michigan-Left]

3PP…so true back in the day and if there was a pass it usually fell incomplete, lots of option and QB keepers as I recall, nothing like that video you posted.

I was there when they handed the ball all day long to Mo Vaughn and Trinity Pawling finally ended a 20 game losing streak (ouch to type that) to Hotchkiss.

New England players are making a move to D1, check out Austrian Robinson a TP alum won the Chucky Mullins Award at Ole Miss this past fall, also Ray Davis from Temple in today’s Bowl game.

Go Blue…beat Bama

[Mike75]

25 years ago Taft ran the wishbone exclusively and Lawrenceville ran the single wing Most everyone else ran their offense through a two back set of some sort with the QB under center and the passing game tended to run through the TE (if you had one who could catch). Definitely not on the cutting edge of football strategy, but to be fair, none of the public high schools were running spread offenses at that time either. But prepping for the single wing every year was a PITA, and Lawrenceville had some good athletes to run it. Always the toughest game of the year.

And most of the kids were heading to the Ivies, Patriot league or NESCAC to play in college. That was the selling point to PGs at the time - get your SATs and grades up, have a good fall on the gridiron and maybe some of those reach schools become attainable. And my recollection was that the best "football players" tended to play something else in college, usually lax, hockey or baseball. D I-A football was generally not in the cards.

[NEWestFan]

I think PT21 might be surprised to see.....
Here are all of the Atlantic/NE Prep/HS kids on Michigan's Roster alone:

NO. NAME POS. YR. HOMETOWN / HIGH SCHOOL
6 Cornelius Johnson WR Fr. Greenwich, Conn. / Brunswick School
7 Tarik Black WR Jr. Hamden, Conn. / Cheshire Academy
13 Charles Thomas LB Fr. Atlanta, Ga. / St. Thomas More
18 George Caratan P So. Pacific Palisades, Calif. / St. Thomas More
18 Luiji Vilain DL Jr. Ottawa, Ontario / Episcopal (Va.)
19 Mike Sainristil WR Fr. Everett, Mass. / Everett
20 Brad Hawkins DB Jr. Camden, N.J. / Suffield Academy (Conn.)
27 Hunter Reynolds DB Jr. South Orange, N.J. / Choate Rosemary Hall
42 Ben Mason DL Jr. Newtown, Conn. / Newtown
49 Lucas Andrighetto RB So. Mountain View, Calif. / St. Francis
54 Kraig Correll OL So. Easton, Pa. / Blair Academy
67 Jess Speight DL Jr. Richmond, Va. / The Collegiate School
70 Jack Stewart OL Fr. New Canaan, Conn. / New Canaan
71 David Ojabo DL Fr. Aberdeen, Scotland / Blair Academy
71 Andrew Stueber OL Jr. Darien, Conn. / Darien
72 Stephen Spanellis OL Sr. Baltimore, Md. / Gilman School
75 Jon Runyan OL Gr. Moorestown, N.J. / St. Joseph's Prep
86 Luke Schoonmaker TE So. Hamden, Conn. / Hamden Hall

[Typical Lax Dad]

I think PT21 might be surprised to see.....
Here are all of the Atlantic/NE Prep/HS kids on Michigan's Roster alone:

NO. NAME POS. YR. HOMETOWN / HIGH SCHOOL
6 Cornelius Johnson WR Fr. Greenwich, Conn. / Brunswick School
7 Tarik Black WR Jr. Hamden, Conn. / Cheshire Academy
13 Charles Thomas LB Fr. Atlanta, Ga. / St. Thomas More
18 George Caratan P So. Pacific Palisades, Calif. / St. Thomas More
18 Luiji Vilain DL Jr. Ottawa, Ontario / Episcopal (Va.)
19 Mike Sainristil WR Fr. Everett, Mass. / Everett
20 Brad Hawkins DB Jr. Camden, N.J. / Suffield Academy (Conn.)
27 Hunter Reynolds DB Jr. South Orange, N.J. / Choate Rosemary Hall
42 Ben Mason DL Jr. Newtown, Conn. / Newtown
49 Lucas Andrighetto RB So. Mountain View, Calif. / St. Francis
54 Kraig Correll OL So. Easton, Pa. / Blair Academy
67 Jess Speight DL Jr. Richmond, Va. / The Collegiate School
70 Jack Stewart OL Fr. New Canaan, Conn. / New Canaan
71 David Ojabo DL Fr. Aberdeen, Scotland / Blair Academy
71 Andrew Stueber OL Jr. Darien, Conn. / Darien
72 Stephen Spanellis OL Sr. Baltimore, Md. / Gilman School
75 Jon Runyan OL Gr. Moorestown, N.J. / St. Joseph's Prep
86 Luke Schoonmaker TE So. Hamden, Conn. / Hamden Hall

This is precisely why the University of _ichigan can’t beat The Ohio State University

[3rdPersonPlural]

I didn't know where to post this, but it's too amusing to ignore.

Hair is a fixture in lacrosse. Kids all want flow, which is evidenced by lettuce out the helmet. Cabbage. Kids at tournaments try to calculate who's who by scoping out the locks on the kids on the other teams.

Here's the secret. The kids with the expansive locks are hockey players moonlighting that spring as laxers. See below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teUO0Aw ... oXal1s8C1s

[grelch]

We're rounding the bend into spring. Any info on new players in NEW1?

[Oldbarndog]

Northern football outside of Ohio and the NJ Catholic league is a pillow fight.

You know how I know your D1 football team stinks? You take players from New England.

Back to the subject of athletics in general, taking international guys is good business ($$$$$) but bad for the W/L record. Guys from China and Korea won’t probably run on your First Midfield unless you’re Kent or NMH.

The only time it is acceptable to recruit internationals for spots is for Hockey (and even that is debatable with the NTDP and CHL taking the very best guys). Kimball Union has an absolute monster coming from the GTHL. Dude will probably be the number 1 pick in the O-Show.

NEPSAC soccer powers have been fielding teams loaded with international players for decades.

[Laxxal22]

We're rounding the bend into spring. Any info on new players in NEW1?

Saw this note from Ty Xanders a few weeks ago. I wonder if you still get hit up for donations for the rest of your life if you only do one semester of a PG year.

"—Originally expected to join Notre Dame's 2020 class next summer, former Lovett (Ga.) attackman Fulton Bayman is taking classes in South Bend and is listed on the Irish roster.

A four-star recruit who committed to a post-graduate year, Bayman spent the first semester at Deerfield Academy (Mass.) but elected to leave school after suffering his third ACL tear in as many years. He will rehab at Notre Dame and will effectively redshirt, according to one source."

[MA Lax Fan]

Wow! 3 ACL tears in 3 years is nuts and to still be a 4star recruit!!!

Having kids drop out mid way thru their PG year is happening more often now. Didn’t Avon just have a couple of them over past 2 years?

[RumorMill]

We're rounding the bend into spring. Any info on new players in NEW1?

Don't have much info on new players, but here's my early prediction on the NEW1 top 3.

1. Salisbury
2. AOF
3. Brunswick

1. Salisbury has reloaded as they always do with a long list of D1 commits, can't vote against them in the preseason.
2. AOF has the pieces to make a strong run this year (in my opinion). I think they have the ability to beat 'Wick (hence my #2) if they connect the dots. On paper they're strong at all the right spots with veteran FO, returning goalie and key pieces up the middle and at attack. Time will tell.
3. I don't have a lot of info on Brunswick aside from what I've read online, so anyone feel free to jump in here. I know their FOGO is very capable but don't know what their Goalie situation looks like.

Can't wait to get the season started!

[grelch]

Only school of those 3 I see that has any schedule info is Salisbury. They've got a partial schedule up. Looks like Andover and IMG are the ooc games so far.

[Ddw1]

Taft is loaded at attack and has a new LSM addition — Cornell commit. Deerfield also has a very good team with some elite attackmen. AOF’s schedule is up on Inside Lacrosse, and, in addition addition to the pieces in RumorMill’s post, have a defensive unit anchored by an All Founder’s League Colgate commit, and a 6’3 220 lbs Bates commit who a number of NESCAC coaches were very high on.

Should be a very competitive and exciting season!

[Laxxal22]

One under the radar Deerfield PG that will be interesting to watch is Jake Higgins from Hingham MA. He was Bostonlax.net Division 1 second team all-state at attack, but he's at Deerfield primarily for hockey which he will continue with at Holy Cross (his brother is an lsm for Bucknell). He was a two-sport captain for two very strong programs and played in a lot of big games (state championship in lax, Super 8 tourney in hockey). I don't think he drops 60 points in West 1 this spring, but he could be a real nice 3rd/4th attack or add some juice to the 2nd midfield. The type of standout role player (if that term makes sense) you tend to find on elite teams.

[PIAAlaxdad]

Only school of those 3 I see that has any schedule info is Salisbury. They've got a partial schedule up. Looks like Andover and IMG are the ooc games so far.

I saw that Brunswick is playing Haverford at the Katie Samson lacrosse festival in April.