Even now. Benson took up boxing to improve his footwork. Tough kid. I believe he went to work for the Secret Service sfter graduation. Might be wrong. His mom and the Harrisons sat in the seats in front of us for 4 years. For four years when Benson was clearing his mother would yell out to pass the ball. In the VA playoff game in 2005 Benson is clearing the ball in OT and his mom is yelling out “Shoot Benson Shoot” He scores. He and Kyle were the best defensive middies i have seen when they were on D on the field together.coda wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 10:38 amBenson Erwin listed at 6'1" 200jhu06 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 10:27 amThere were games with the 2010-2013 Durkin crew where the size on tv really really stood out. There was one game-maybe Ranagan against umbc where he just bull dodged a umbc ssdm or middie and his shoulder broke the kids stick in half. Size is nice but too many of Petro's later defensemen like kelly/enright struggled mightily in particular against the sankey/bitter 2 man game.coda wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 9:48 amI think it is positional. Early in this thread I talked about some recruits and said better players, than recruits. I think when it comes to defense and middies, you want "physical specimens" (in lacrosse terms). That is the preference and most likely path to success. Like all things recruiting related that holds true in the aggregate, but not at the individual level. I think attack is a bit different, much more variety there.Sagittarius A* wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 9:37 amI think after the success of Navy teams in the 60's, Chic and Scott concluded you needed bigger players to win. So you had a lot of size on defense and midfields like the 78-80 teams, and again in the mid 80's with Petro, Dressel, Kru, Mitchell etc. You had some smaller players like DeTo, who was about ~6', probably would have played football at Penn State if he'd gotten much bigger though. Smaller players saw the field, but the superstars were usually bigger players. Lacrosse is definitely less size determinative than football or basketball, but size can't be discounted in the sport for most roles. It would be nice to see superstars again, whatever size or shape they come in.coda wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 9:13 am
I know it is true. Heard it from Hopkins and Cuse players. He covets tall defensemen. He has coached for 30+ years, so it wont be hard to find some exceptions. Nobody said it was indefensible, people just tend to want to take any statement on the internet and make it an argument.
Don't know what happened to the inflatable Pierce Bassett Blue Jay they had at homecoming 15 years ago but loved that.
I would argue 3 of the most important moments/players of the Petro era-Benson Erwin/Jake Byrne/Schwartzmann were under 6'0.
HF16 mentioned there are some quality ssdms coming in/already on the roster who were recruited as freshmen. We saw Kilrain supplant Stuebner so it's not like the UMBC kid is sharpied into anything.
Bryne 5'11 and 195 at attack
Schwartzmann listed 6'1 220.
not single one of them would be considered small at the time.
Size of players seems to be a visual issue with a couple of fans.
