Redtwin

Congrats to Coach Kemp and McCallie. That's a great win. It doesn't get any easier with St. Andrews coming up. They'll be several goals better than McDonough. Keep up the good work.

I was under the impression that Grapski played lacrosse there, but I'm not very familiar with him.

MBA also has no control over the division in which it is required to compete. It is what it is.

Trinity: Lost 8-6. The guys said that they played horribly. Cold and tired after the bus trip. Had 30 turnovers. More turnovers than shots. Connor P had a hat trick and team stayed in the game until the end but could not rally. They said Trinity was hungry and energetic and celebrated like they had won the national championship after the game. Collegiate: Won 10-9. Another lackluster effort but had a 4 goal lead late in the 4th until Collegiate rallied. After a cold night, it was hot on Saturday in Louisville and the guys got gassed at the end. Again, Collegiate seemed really up for the game and knocking off MBA seemed to be a big potential feather in their caps. Carmel: 13-6 (I think) 3rd game in 2 1/2 days for MBA, but it was a rout in their favor. Clay A had 5-6 goals. Carmel was man-up the whole 4th period against the 2nd defense and scored 3 or 4 goals at the end to make it look closer than it was. Thanks for the info.

Hey now... I post on the lacrosse boards too.

Matt Rabil - McCallie - UNC Matthew McIntosh - MBA - UNC Adam Brooks - MBA - Ohio State Brad Coker - Farragut - UNC Jeff Lundstrom - MBA - Bucknell Craig Patterson - Webb - Navy Doug Grapski - Farragut - Lehigh Joey Patterson - Army Tom Jackson - McCallie - Penn Matt Turner - Centennial - VMI McCallie had someone play at Duke. MUS had someone play at VMI I believe.

MBA beat Carmel and Collegiate. Anyone have any info on their Trinity game?

I thought Austin Blackwell had one of the most impressive one minute performances I've seen in the final minute of the game. A couple of tips that kept alive offensive rebounds, a steal, and a bucket all in about 60 seconds.

Congrats to the Big Red! This senior class sure is impressive. Runners- Up in football, Cross Country Champs, Swimming Champs, Basketball Champs, and the highest number of National Merit finalists in the state. Nice work.

Some updates: McCallie starts off where they left off last year by winning both of their games in Atlanta. Ravenwood drops both of thiers in Atlanta. Surprised to see MBA lose by 2 to Trinity. Haven't heard any of their scores. Baylor won big.

Good luck to Ravenwood and McCallie. Those two GA teams have started off hot.

I believe Billy May ended up playing football and basketball at Penn. Just some others: Enoch Bunch - Father Ryan class of 2000 played at Marshall Omari Booker - MBA class of 1998 also at Belmont

MBA will be streaming the game if you can't make it. http://www.montgomerybell.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=135230&rc=0

Former MBA standout Chris Cahill was named the Centennial Conference Offfensive Player of the Week this week after he scored a combined 5 goasl and 5 assists in 2 wins for the Gettysburg Bullets. Former MBA attackman Kile Garrett was named Deep South Conference Player of the Week after he notched a goal in the Mars Hill Lions first game. Former Ravenwood midfielder Phillip Burke has also notched a goalf for Mars Hill. Former McCallie attackman Scott Hughes is no longer with the Air Force Falcons. Houston's Ben Cullen is still there. Former McCallie Midfielder James Cupo has been facing off for the Presbyterian Blue Hose.

Thanks. I guess they moved it.

Thanks. Where are the camps and tournaments held? Do the players just sign up for them or do they have to be invited? If they have to be invited, how do they get invitations? Sorry for all the questions, but I have a young nephew who is interested in playing in college. The better showcase camps have typically been the TOP205 and Peak 200 in Baltimore. They're "invitation only" but I believe the website have places where you can submit some kind of resume or a coach/official can nominate them. After that, they do have to be selected which is certainly not a gimmie. You can also get some good exposure if you can get on a travel team going to the tournament in Vail or on a team going to Champ Camp. I believe there are a couple of TN all-star teams but don't know much about them. There is a camp at Limestone College called the Divie Top 150 which usually gets coaches from some of the smaller southern DII and DIII schools. They also take an all-star team from the camp to Champ Camp so that's an option. I hope that helps.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly agree that this team has tons of potential. That first midline is going to be fierce and you're right, Charpentier's ability to drive from X is certainly something MBA lacked at points last year. The first D midline also did a great job getting the ball up and down the field and Bracy was strong on face-offs. Goalie play was good after a couple cheap ones. That being said, you could tell this was the first game with sloppy passing and bad angles being taken all game long. KY lacrosse is a significant step down from TN. St.X had a senior Middie/FOGO last year who signed at Denver and pretty much carried them for the past three years. There wasn't an offensive player on the team today who was a threat to go left but they still seemed to have success dodging. The Big Red Defense will have to step up (and I'm sure they will) as the season moves on. It sounds like the McCallie scrimmage went well. I wouldn't put too much into that other than it was competitive. Coach Kemp has always cycled through a lot of players in early games so I would be willing to be he played the whole bench in a scrimmage. All in all, though, it was a good start. If the second line middies clean up the ball skills and the defense keeps coming together, this team could be pretty tough.

MBA beat Louisville St. X 10-6 in a pretty lackluster game at MBA. The Big Red had a few too many unforced turnovers and MBA had a hard time putting shots on net. X was pretty average. The game was very chippy. I thought MBA's keeper did a good job once he got settled and the man-down unit did a nice job. I believe MBA scrimmaged McCallie the night before, so they could have been a little tired. Nice to start the season off with a win against an out of state opponent. According to Laxpower, Centennial beat Ryan and Ensworth lost to Brentwood.

Lacrosse recruiting, regardless of your hometown, occurs primarily over the summer at showcase camps, school camps, and tournaments. Very few coaches are willing to come to TN because they can only look at one or two recruits, when the could go to several cities on the Atlantic coast and see a dozen in one game. I would guess that these guys played well over the summer. They probably sent the coaches some film as well.

Thanks for the correction and information Redtwin. Were most of these in recent (as in past 5) years for the DI schools? Were they walk-on, partial or full scholly for the most part? Interesting about the DII v. DIII comparison. I was not aware of that either. Just trying to learn more. For over a decade now, t's been pretty consistent that one or two guys going to play DI every couple of years. I think there have been as many as 4 or 5 that have gone in one year. A varsity lacrosse roster is usually going to carry about 44 guys or so, but the maximum number of scholarships available per team is 12.5, so most DI guys are on a partial scholarship or are a preferred recruit with a roster spot, but no money. Some guys do get full rides though. I've seen guys from the South get offered academic scholarships, and some have been offered divsersity scholarships from Northern schools because they are from so far away. There's not a lot of money in college lax though.

Atctually, there have been several TN lacrosse players who have played DI lacrosse at schools like UVA, Notre Dame, Delaware, Ohio State, Navy, Army, Towson, UNC, Bucknell, VMI, Bryant, Penn, Villanova, Air Force, and I think Lehigh and Duke to name a few. There are also several small Southeastern schools starting to adopt lacrosse as a varsity sport at the DI level like Mercer, Jacksonville, Presbyterian, Bellarmine, and I believe there have been TN players go to each of those schools. One interesting thing about lacrosse is that after DI, DIII is generally considered to be a better level of lacrosse than DII, and lots of the top DIII teams could beat the mid to lower level DI teams. Lots of really good TN players have chosen to go to DIII schools that may be a better all around fit like W&L, Hampden Sydney, Gettysburg, Denison, Salisbury, Middlebury, Lynchburg, Sewanee, Birmingham Southern, etc, which can still be very competitive lacrosse. For such a small lacrosse population TN has done a pretty good job of getting kids to the college level. I think it's a testament to the high levels of athleticism and coaching our state has to offer.

So your telling me there is a mom at private school who gets all worked up about something she has no real knowledge of and might not have seen first hand........get out of town!

I think the most important point you touched on is the lack of quality coaches available in TN, particulary in non-metropolitan areas. There's not a lot of knowledgable, experienced lacrosse players or coaches moving to rural Tenessee. If you look at the two most successful programs in the state, MUS and McCallie, they've had really good coaches stay at their respective schools for decades. MBA has finally put the right coaching staff together all the way through the program with excellent coaches in Harvey and Cooper, but there was a period where they were severely outcoached and it set the program back a bit. Ensworth, Ravenwood, Baylor, USN,and CBHS are just a few of the other programs around the state that have good coaches in place as well. I've coached in middle school and elementary school on a volunteer basis and officiated in middle school, but my career prohibits me being as involved as I would like. I'm not coaching this year, but hope to get back involved at the elementary level next year. I know of several other guys who would like to do the same, but when you've got to feed a family or pay a mortgage, volunteering unfortunately has to take a back seat to work. Part of the reason that Georgia's growth has outpaced Tennessee's by such a large margin, other than the fact that Atlanta has 5x as many people as Nashville or Memphis, is that a lot of Yankees who have played lacrosse get sent down there for work. For instance, Liam Banks, the former Syracuse All-American attackman is now living there.

I see your point. No one likes to get steam-rolled, and teams like MBA, MUS, and McCallie get more out of a good practice than pummeling a team like Franklin last year, but Franklin was competitive with MBA in 2008 and relatively competitive with Ravenwood in 2007. Teams like Farragut, Houston, CBHS,Ravenwood, and Webb who aren't perrennial powers have beaten the three teams that consistently dominate TN lacrosse. They may not win lots of state championships, but they can be competitive, and, as Ravenwood has proven, they can win a title. I'd be willing to bet that if Ryan, Webb, JP II, and Centennial, teams who have had programs for years, as well as newer schools with lots of resources like Baylor and Ensworth moved up in to Division 1, in any given year they'd go .500 give or take a few wins in Division 1, which wouldn't be bad. They could schedule out of state or Division II teams if they want to pad the win column. I bet Franklin goes .500 this year. I just think it would make TN lacrosse more competitive in general if we had more teams in Division I. Sort of rising tide raises all boats theory.

Barring something very extreme, like a program closing down, teams should never be allowed to move down from Division I to Division II. Just because you have a bad year or two, doesn't mean you should get to go down to what is really a developmental league for new teams. It's completely uncompetitive and in contrast to what high school athletics should be teaching teenagers. I like the idea of the DII champion moving up, but it should be a requirement. There could also be something like any team who wins 75% of their games over a three year period has to move up, or any team that plays in the state championship game for two consecutive years has to move up.