Lacrosse recruits

An update on a Cornell men's lacrosse recruit:

Chris Ritchie, a senior attackman at Mount Sinai HS on Long Island, is on a pace to break Liam Banks' (Syracuse) all-time Suffolk County scoring record this season. Here are his scoring totals so far this year (goals-assists):

3/25: 3-6
3/28: 5-3
4/6: 1-9 (yes, 9 assists)
4/9: 2-4
4/10: 1-4
4/12: 6-1
4/18: 2-4
4/20: 3-2

It should be noted that high school scorekeeping should never be trusted, especially when it comes to assists. Even so, that's a crapload of feeds.

From Newsday, 4/13:

"Former Stony Brook School and Ward Melville star Liam Banks' Suffolk record for career points (374) likely will fall...as Mount Sinai senior attackman Chris Ritchie needs 39 more to pass him. Ritchie has 45 points (18 goals, 27 assists) through the Mustangs' first six games after totaling 121 last season. Mount Sinai coach Jason Sanders, a Ward Melville alum, compared Ritchie to Banks, an attackman for Major League Lacrosse's New Jersey Pride. 'Liam knew the game inside and out, and he wasn't the most athletic player on the field but he was the best player,' Sanders said. 'Chris and Liam's styles are similar, but I think Chris is a little more athletic.'"

This guy can score too.

[www.baltimoresun.com]

Inside Lacrosse and Maryland-based Under Armour have conspired to create a new high school All America list. The men's team was just announced, and Cornell recruit Austin Boykin, a midfielder from St. Paul's in Baltimore (see CU7983's link above), is on it.

Although much more limited in scale than the traditional USILA high school All America team, the Under Armour list may be a more accurate measure of recruiting trends -- at least at the elite level. The USILA's list, which hasn't been released yet, is often distorted by bizarre regional quotas, quirks and inconsistent application of standards.

The team: [www.insidelacrosse.com]

The process: [www.insidelacrosse.com]

It's not hard to see why Georgetown and Johns Hopkins' recruiting classes are getting so much attention. Georgetown's class will likely look even better when the arrival of several former Duke recruits (including a couple of allegedly "undecided" guys on the list above) becomes public.

Nice to see the continued use of the "first annual" phrasing that is an impossibility (until the second annual team appears) and also hope the selection chair is recovering nicely from a hyper-extended elbow incurred patting himself on the back in the how-we-selected (in the face of great difficulty) sidebar.

About a half-dozen of the team are from upstate NY; I feared it would be all-LI and Dixie. Scope doesn't seem to extend to Canada. Like Cornell, Syracuse has just one selection.

What is the track record of HS All-Amereica teams four years later? If you pick 50 kids each year, odds are pretty good you've got many of the studs. But all of them?

Having nothing better to do, I downloaded and sorted by school the Inside Lacrosse Top 100 (I think they mean total, boys and girls) which amounts to 46 boys. Hopkins has 7, Virginia 5, Georgetown 4.

A - Thomas Muldoon	St. Albans DC	Brown
M - Austin Boykin	St. Paul's MD	Cornell
A - Ari Sussman	Loomis Chaffee CT	Dartmouth
D - Casey Hingtgen	La Costa Canyon CA	Dartmouth
M - Chas Dickenson	Highland Park TX	Denver 
M - John Dickenson	Highland Park TX	Denver 
D - Dillon Roy	Denver East CO	Denver 
A - Greg Casey	La Salle PA	Drexel
M - A Brancaccio	Georgetown Prep MD	Georgetown
D - Chris Nixon	Duxbury MA	Georgetown
A - Rick Mirabito	Chenango Forks NY	Georgetown 
G - Jack Davis	Glen Ridge NJ	Georgetown 
A - Chris Boland	Boys’ Latin MD	Johns Hopkins
A - Steve Boyle	Pinkerton NH	Johns Hopkins
A - Mike Kimmel	Loyola MD	Johns Hopkins
M - Max Chautin	Northport NY	Johns Hopkins
D - Sam DeVore	Ward Melville NY	Johns Hopkins
G - Mike Gvozden	Severna Park MD	Johns Hopkins
A - Michael Powers	Massapequa NY	Johns Hopkins 
M - Bryn Holmes	McDonogh MD	Maryland
G - Brian Phipps	Severn MD	Maryland
D - Brian Farrell	Boys’ Latin MD	Maryland 
D - Chris Scuderi	West Islip NY	Massachusetts
D - Jaren Woeppel	West Genesee NY	Navy
D - Michael Hirsch	Perkiomen Valley PA	Navy Prep
A - Kevin Federico	West Islip NY	North Carolina
M - Mike Burns	Shawnee NJ	North Carolina
M - Sean Burke	St. Anthony’s NY	North Carolina
A - Matt Ciambella	Orchard Park NY	Notre Dame
A - Will Yeatman	Rancho Bernardo CA	Notre Dame 
M - Jerome Thompson	LaFayette NY	Onondaga CC
M - Jeremy Thompson	LaFayette NY	Onondaga CC 
M - Chris Hogan	Ramapo NJ	Penn State 
M - Evan Royster	Westfield VA	Penn State football
D - Jeremy Hirsch	Georgetown Prep MD	Princeton
M - Paul Barnes	Haverford PA	Princeton 
G - Bill Olin	Horseheads NY	Rutgers
M - Max Bartig	Northport NY	Syracuse 
A - Craig Dowd	Northport NY	Undecided
A - Max Quinzani	Duxbury MA	Undecided
M - Scott Kocis	Huntington NY	Undecided
A - George Huguely	Landon MD	Virginia
M - Brian Carroll	Gilman MD	Virginia
D - Jon Borror	Haverford PA	Virginia
D - Ken Clausen	Hill School PA	Virginia
D - Ryan Nizolek	Daniel Hand CT	Virginia

Can we send a tutor down to Onondaga CC? Let lacrosse join the Cornell twins tradition.

More Austin Boykin honors (this time with a blurb too):

[www.baltimoresun.com]

A few end-of-season write-ups about Cornell recruit Chris Ritchie, attackman from Mt. Sinai (LI), who will soon be announced as a USILA high school All America for the second year in a row:

[www.riverheadnewsreview.com]

[www.newsday.com] (Ritchie's blurb is number 15 of 19)

Could a Cornell-bound attackman [Chris Ritchie] with 393 high school points wind up running midfield?

[www.riverheadnewsreview.com]
[q]"I'm going to play wherever they need me, whatever helps the team the most," he said. "Cornell is a great lacrosse team and I'm looking forward to playing and being a part of one big family."[/q]

Cornell recruit Ryan Hurley, an attackman from freaking Minnesota, was the leading scorer (five goals and two assists) in the recent National High School Senior Showcase near St. Louis. His West team lost both games in the four-team tournament, but it was a major test for a heavily recruited prospect who has a lot to prove on the national stage.

Two other future Cornellians played in the tournament: midfielder Pierce Derkac from Virginia (you'll recognize the last name because two of his brothers starred at Brown) and a recruit that completely flew under my radar, a defenseman called Courtney Baker from Washington, DC. Anyone know anything about the latter?

Googling "Courtney Baker" and lacrosse, I came up with two references
[www.washingtonpost.com]
[q]"We got some strong defensive performances," said St. Albans Coach Malcolm Lester, referring to seniors Courtney Baker and Michael Miller and junior Ian Crumley. "They played great all year. They're aggressive, steady and talented."[/q]

[staweb.sta.cathedral.org]
[q]Although Landon went on to win the game by one point, the Bulldogs sent a clear message to the Landon program as well as to the other teams they have played. ?This season was filled with flashes on brilliance,? said junior defenseman Courtney Baker. The Landon game was clearly one of those flashes. [/q]

A couple of players from his school, St. Albans [staweb.sta.cathedral.org], were on the Princeton team this year.

ugarte
Can we send a tutor down to Onondaga CC? Let lacrosse join the Cornell twins tradition.

Based on chatter on laxpower & the Syracuse boards they're Orange...if they can get in.

Not exactly a recruit, but there's a rumor emerging from the shit shack known as the Syracuse lacrosse forum (The Post Standard's site, syracuse.com) that Syracuse reserve goalie Jake Myers, a junior and former US Lacrosse boy's high school All America selection from California, is transferring to Cornell. Believe at your own risk.

Hillel Hoffmann
Not exactly a recruit, but there's a rumor emerging from the shit shack known as the Syracuse lacrosse forum (The Post Standard's site, syracuse.com) that Syracuse reserve goalie Jake Myers, a junior and former US Lacrosse boy's high school All America selection from California, is transferring to Cornell. Believe at your own risk.

That appears out of the blue -- though it may or may not be true.

SU just picked up a committment from the West Genny goalie (Galloway, who picked SU over Cornell among others), which gives them 4 goalies for next year. Given that Myers lost the starting job this year to a RF, maybe he will want to move somewhere. Myers played with Gradinger in HS. Cornell is pretty thin at goalie. Maybe?

Laxpower has Mat Martinez as heading to Cornell next year. Is Grossman coming back? Can Cornell really only have one goalie on the team?

ithacat
Can Cornell really only have one goalie on the team?

Risky, but hockey won a national championship with, effectively, just one.

ithacat
[The news about the Myers transfer] may or may not be true. ... Laxpower has Mat Martinez as heading to Cornell next year. Is Grossman coming back? Can Cornell really only have one goalie on the team?

Good news. It has been confirmed: Jake Myers, a junior, has transferred to Cornell from Syracuse. That's a relief -- the absence of a back-up goalie had been one of the few question marks for Cornell going into the 2007 season.

Mathew Martinez of Bâbylon High School is a solid recruit for Cornell. He might be the second or third best goalie on Long Island, behind brilliant Virginia-bound Adam Ghitelman of Cold Spring Harbor (who was a USL high school All America as a freaking sophomore). Martinez is a stocky guy, but he has a [reputation as a great stopper who's often hung out to dry because of Bâbylon's weaknesses elsewhere on the field. Here's what Newsday said about him when they compiled a list of 50 best players on Long Island prior to the 2006 season:

"Mat Martinez, Bâbylon, Jr., GK: Arguably the best goalie in Suffolk. Can single-handedly keep Panthers in games with his ability to see through screens and stop shots."

Cornell's recruiting on Long Island has rebounded. It's not like the mid-1970's glory years or anything, but it's still great to see.

[It's hilarious to see the auto-accent pop up on words like Bâbylon. Heeeeeeey Bâbylon!]

Hillel Hoffmann
Good news. It has been confirmed: Jake Myers, a junior, has transferred to Cornell from Syracuse. That's a relief -- the absence of a back-up goalie had been one of the few question marks for Cornell going into the 2007 season.

What are the rules on transfers in lax? Isn't he going to have to sit out a year because he is going from one D-I school to another?

ugarte

Hillel Hoffmann
Good news. It has been confirmed: Jake Myers, a junior, has transferred to Cornell from Syracuse. That's a relief -- the absence of a back-up goalie had been one of the few question marks for Cornell going into the 2007 season.

What are the rules on transfers in lax? Isn't he going to have to sit out a year because he is going from one D-I school to another?

I admit I'm fuzzy on this stuff, but I think he won't have to sit out if he got a release from Syracuse Athletics -- or if he lost his athletic scholarship.

Sitting out a year holds only in basketball and football. E.g. both Cornell and Syracuse fielded players who transferred from Virginia the year before.

Here's a link to last year's NCAA transfer guide.
[www.msubillings.edu]
Page 18. It says that going from a 4-year school to a 4-year school you sit out a year unless you meet one of the exemptions. The main exemption is for your first transfer. To use it, you can't be playing basketball in D1, football in D1-A, or men's ice hockey in D1; you must be in good academic standing and making progress toward a degree; you would have been considered eligible if you had stayed; and you must get a release from the first school saying they don't object to your receiving an exemption.

Pinch me. Cornell Athletics actually released information on lacrosse recruits and updated the roster in a prompt and orderly fashion.

No shit. I swear.

Check out the official men's lacrosse Web site for a coherent release on Cornell's incoming freshmen and transfer: [cornellbigred.cstv.com]. They even managed to post pictures of the frosh. And they did all that more than four months earlier than they did last year, when they lagged way behind the competition and put out a release full of mistakes and misspellings.

No surprises. All the recruits in laxpower.com's database are included.

It's a good class, but it can't touch last year's. That's no surprise either. The highlights, in my opinion, are Ritchie, Boykin, Myers, Hurley, and perhaps the two defensemen from New England. It would be nice to see a couple of good short-stick defensive midfielders emerge from this group of recruits as well -- otherwise gifted sophomore long-stick midfielder Matt Moyer may have to pick up a short stick in 2007, as he did a few times in 2006.

There are three mysterious and relatively unheralded Canadians, including two kids from Sean Greenhalgh's prep alma mater, Holy Cross. One of them, Joel McCready, is related to box lax legend "Buff" McCready and current NLL player Pat McCready.

One great name to see on the roster: Julian Levine, son of Jon Levine, the unsung third member of Cornell's "French Connection" attack unit on the 1976 national championship team. The lucky boy appears not to have inherited Jon's thick-rimmed glasses.

There's been some number-switching. Boykin took Boulukos' number.

Another welcome addition: another assistant coach. Eric Genova, listed as a "volunteer assistant coach," is Cornell's first-ever fourth member of the coaching staff. About time. Big-time teams like Johns Hopkins, Virginia, and Syracuse always seem to have armies of assistants crawling on the sideline like ants.

In October, Cornell's gonna play in a nearby a fall tournament, the Great Pumpkin Stick-Out in Syracuse. More on that later.

This will rank among the more useless posts in eLynah history (and that is saying a lot) but,,,

While walking around campus on Tuesday night I strolled past Schoellkopf and heard a practice going on. My wife and I stopped by and watched the lax team scrimmage for a little while. I have no idea who anyone is and can't really judge a practice. All I'll say is that it was a lot of fun.

ugarte
This will rank among the more useless posts in eLynah history (and that is saying a lot) but,,,

While walking around campus on Tuesday night I strolled past Schoellkopf and heard a practice going on. My wife and I stopped by and watched the lax team scrimmage for a little while. I have no idea who anyone is and can't really judge a practice. All I'll say is that it was a lot of fun.

And now for something even more useless...

I guess that means the lacrosse team won the Lacrosse Team v. Marching Band Tuesday night field feud?

Good thing Cornell keeps building over fields...

ugarte
My wife

I hadn't realized the happy occasion had already taken place. Mazel tov!

Chris '03

ugarte
This will rank among the more useless posts in eLynah history (and that is saying a lot) but,,,

While walking around campus on Tuesday night I strolled past Schoellkopf and heard a practice going on. My wife and I stopped by and watched the lax team scrimmage for a little while. I have no idea who anyone is and can't really judge a practice. All I'll say is that it was a lot of fun.

And now for something even more useless...

I guess that means the lacrosse team won the Lacrosse Team v. Marching Band Tuesday night field feud?

Good thing Cornell keeps building over fields...

Yep, they did. The band now has no Schollkopf field time. They do Tuesday nights on Alumni now.

jtwcornell91

ugarte
My wife

I hadn't realized the happy occasion had already taken place. Mazel tov!

Gracias.

An interesting incoming 2008 freshman recruit from Canada:

[www.guelphmercury.com]

OLA Junior A Rookie of the Year is a pretty big deal. So is leading your team in scoring with 20 goals and 37 assists in 21 games. I wish I could remember Sean Greenhalgh's Junior A stats, but I'd be willing to bet that Gamble's are comparable. This is someone to watch. Potentially a coup.

Hillel Hoffmann
An interesting incoming 2008 freshman recruit from Canada:

[www.guelphmercury.com]

OMG! A Canadian newspaper got it!

Ivy League schools don't offer athletic scholarships, but rather provide financial assistance based on an athlete's financial need. As a result Gamble says he'll be able to attend one of North America's most prestigious educational institutions for less than it would cost him to go to school in Canada.

Now how about they teach the hockey writers.

"It was a huge surprise," Gamble said. "No schools had contacted me and I wasn't expecting anything. I was assuming I'd be going to university in Canada."

If he's that good AND he's smart enough to get into a top school, then why the apparent lack of interest?

KenP

"It was a huge surprise," Gamble said. "No schools had contacted me and I wasn't expecting anything. I was assuming I'd be going to university in Canada."

If he's that good AND he's smart enough to get into a top school, then why the apparent lack of interest?

I wonder if Canadian laxers mostly have to reach out to US schools or express an interest in US colleges to their coaches. Perhaps Tambroni got tipped that Gamble was interested before other coaches even saw him as someone willing to study/play in the US. [/speculation]

Cornell has a long history of great Canadian lacrosse attackmen: Mike French, the all-time leading scorer ... I believe Alan Rimmer on the 1971 first-NCAA-playoffs (and title) team ... Sean Greenhalgh ... David Mitchell ... Matt Moulson (supposedly as good a lacrosse player as a hockey player) ... and there must be many others.

I hope the kid's parents at least believe the part about Cornell plus need-based aid costs less than a Canadian school.

I wonder how many we lose to the 21-year drinking age?

billhoward
I wonder how many we lose to the 21-year drinking age?

It's probably a bonus, because you have no buying responsibility. You get your older friends to get it for you.

Not that I know anything about that.

billhoward
Cornell has a long history of great Canadian lacrosse attackmen: Mike French, the all-time leading scorer ... I believe Alan Rimmer on the 1971 first-NCAA-playoffs (and title) team ... Sean Greenhalgh ... David Mitchell ... Matt Moulson (supposedly as good a lacrosse player as a hockey player) ... and there must be many others.

If you're gonna mention non-lacrosse-playing-at-Cornell hockey players, gotta include Joe N.

Harry Orr had a few goals as a middie on the '68 team, too.

Al DeFlorio

Harry Orr had a few goals as a middie on the '68 team, too.

Saw him play. That would be '67, rather than '68. Harry had a lethal sidearm/submarine whip-like shot. He was used basically as an EMO specialist.

jkahn

Al DeFlorio

Harry Orr had a few goals as a middie on the '68 team, too.

Saw him play. That would be '67, rather than '68. Harry had a lethal sidearm/submarine whip-like shot. He was used basically as an EMO specialist.

Actually, I meant '66, not '68. I wasn't there in '67, so can't speak to that.

Al DeFlorio

billhoward
Cornell has a long history of great Canadian lacrosse attackmen: Mike French, the all-time leading scorer ... I believe Alan Rimmer on the 1971 first-NCAA-playoffs (and title) team ... Sean Greenhalgh ... David Mitchell ... Matt Moulson (supposedly as good a lacrosse player as a hockey player) ... and there must be many others.

If you're gonna mention non-lacrosse-playing-at-Cornell hockey players, gotta include Joe N.

Harry Orr had a few goals as a middie on the '68 team, too.

We could probably assemble an all-time All-Cornell lacrosse team that never played field lacrosse at Cornell. (To us, it's lacrosse and box lacrosse; to Canadians, I believe's it lacrosse and field lacrosse.)