ESPNHS Lacrosse

ESPNHS announces the fourth wave of players to be added to the 2012 Warrior 40 roster, highlighted by players outside the traditional hotbed areas of lacrosse. The roster now has 19 players. The final 21 are scheduled to be announced in the coming weeks.

The Warrior 40 is a three-day competition that features the nation's top underclass high school lacrosse players. Players will receive coaching from Major League Lacrosse stars and participate in skills competitions and a final competition.

This year's competition takes place Aug. 13-15 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo.

Read More »

Each week during the 2012 season, ESPNHS Lacrosse will select a player from each of four regions as Player of the Week.

To submit a player for consideration fill out our submission form here. Please be sure to provide the player’s entire week's worth of performances. Athletes can earn Player of the Week honors just once during the 2012 regular season.

The following players are for the week of May 12 through 19.

East

Timmy Farrell, Jr., Gonzaga (Washington, D.C.), goalie
In the Purple Eagles’ 10-3 win over rival DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.), Farrell and his defense frustrated the Stags' offense all night. In the win, Farrell collected eight saves to help the Eagles collect their third-straight Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title and finish the season with a convincing win. Farrell was a rock between the pipes for the Eagles, helping them achieve a successful 20-win season and a Top 5 ranking in the POWERADE FAB 50.

Southeast

Patrick DiMento, Memphis University School (Memphis, Tenn.), attack
When the game was on the line, DiMento became the hero by scoring the game-winning goal with 11 seconds left in the Tennessee state championship on May 19. After trailing 11-8 with three minutes left, the Owls surged to a remarkable recovery to win 12-11 against Brentwood (Tenn.) behind DiMento’s four goals, including the eventual game winner.

West

Colin MacIlvennie, Soph., Eastside Catholic (Sammamish, Wash.), midfield
The future Maryland Terrapin had a huge game, collecting six points with four goals and two assists in a 12-5 quarterfinal win over Lake Tapps on May 18. Recently named First Team All-State by the Washington High School Boys Lacrosse Association, MacIlvennie was unstoppable at midfield by helping Eastside Catholic advance to the Division I Washington state semifinals.

Midwest

Chris Beith, Sr., Dublin Jerome (Dublin, Ohio), attack
As a veteran attackman, Beith did what he does best in Dublin Jerome’s 10-9 victory over rival Upper Arlington (Columbus, Ohio) on May 12. Beith scored four goals in the win helping keep Dublin Jerome undefeated on the season. With the state playoffs approaching the High Point recruit will look to repeat his recent success and help Dublin get another state title.

A facelift to the structure of the Tennessee Scholastic Lacrosse Association will make it so only one team is smiling at the end of the season.

Tennessee used to crown two champs -- a Division I winner and a Division II winner -- but beginning this spring only one victor will be able to call themselves the state’s best.

Goodbye, split divisions. Hello, State Champion Division.

“We felt like we needed to combine the two divisions to help the growth of the sport,” said Will Jenner, who is the TSLA vice president and Ravenwood (Brentwood, Tenn.) head coach. “The idea is to make teams work harder and still create a competitive balance.”

“

If you want to be the best, play the best. The players moving up from Division II will get better and the teams will get better because they will be playing better competition.

” -- Will Jenner, TSLA vice president and Ravenwood head coach

The new format will combine nine teams from the old Division I with 14 teams from the old Division II to form the State Championship Division.

The ten remaining teams from the old Division II, which includes four new programs, will compete in the Invitational Tournament Division. Those ten teams will not compete for a state title, only a tournament title.

“The ITD is more of a development league for new programs and teams who do not have the resources to compete with the rest of the state,” Jenner said. “This gives them a chance to develop and compete for a tournament title and then eventually move to the SCD.”

Coaches in the TSLA all voted on the new realignment after last season and 75 percent of the coaches were in favor of the switch.

“I think most coaches felt like a lot of the Division II teams were not challenging themselves and they were getting too complacent,” Jenner said. “They didn’t want to come play in Division I and we felt like that was hurting the development of the players.”

A big reason why some teams never wanted to leap to Division I is what Jenner calls the Power 3 schools– McCallie (Chattanooga, ten.), Memphis University School (Memphis, Tenn.) and Montgomery Bell Academy (Nashville, Tenn.). The trio of powerhouse programs have dominated the state during the last 15 years and are the clear favorites to compete for the state title this season.

"Some coaches that were against it, I felt like they didn’t want to move up just because they won’t have a great chance to win the state title,” Jenner said. “But I disagree with that thinking.”

Jenner added, “If you want to be the best, play the best. The players moving up from Division II will get better and the teams will get better because they will be playing better competition.”

Not every coach in the state is on board with the switch.

Just ask Webb (Knoxville, Tenn.) coach Rico Silvera.

“

I can run against Usain Bolt once a week and I will never make it to the Olympics.

” -- Webb coach Rico Silvera

He thinks the majority of the old Division II will not have a chance to compete with Division I’s best and that will hurt the growth of the sport.

“Everyone will be overwhelmed when they play them and it’s ridiculous when you are trying to build a program,” he said. “I can run against Usain Bolt once a week and I will never make it to the Olympics.”

But don’t expect Silvera and Webb, last year’s Division II runner-up, to just fall flat, he said.

“We will still go and compete and will elevate our game,” he said. “But for a lot of schools who are trying to climb the ladder, that ladder just got a lot more difficult to climb.”

Travel costs also factored into the decision for most of the programs involved. During the former format some teams were traveling up to seven hours for playoff games and even two to three hours for league games.

“Division I was really spread out and this helps us geographically,” Kemp said. “Travel was definitely an issue.”

Silvera agrees with some of the arguments for the new look league, but at the end of the day, he still thinks the sport will not grow like most expect.

“I really don’t think the majority of these high school programs will grow because of the large talent gap,” he said. “Participation will diminish. I will continue to say that until I am proven wrong.”

TSLA (Tennessee Scholastic Lacrosse Association) Division Alignment

ESPNHS continues its weekly feature, Around the Crease, which takes a look at players, teams and high school lacrosse news from around the country.

Record Setters

Our 2012 Season Previews have not started yet, but it is not too early to take a look at some coaches who could be reaching milestones this season.

Mike Messere should win his 750th career game this season. The West Genesee (Camillus, N.Y.) coach currently has 740 career wins and has been coaching since 1969.

Boys’ Latin (Baltimore, Md.) coach Bob Shriver looks to win his 450 career game. He is 438-128 in 32 years.

Brad Touma from Charlotte Country Day (Charlotte, N.C.) will try to win his 400th game this season. His current record is 385-109.

St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) coach Terry Crowley needs 14 wins to reach 300.

Jay Watts, Westminster (Atlanta, Ga.) girls' coach, is 16 wins away from his 250 career victory.

Ben Mrva, Hutchison (Memphis, Tenn.) girls' coach needs 12 wins to get his 100th career victory.

Steve Finnell from Garden City (Garden City, N.Y.) is 13 wins shy of 100.

Fort Mill (Fort Mill, S.C.) boys coach Jim Van Blarcom looks for his 50th career victory. His current record is 42-14.

ESPNHS will update as we discover more coaching milestones for the upcoming season. To submit coaching information, please have a head coach or assistant coach fill out our 2012 Season Preview form.

News And Notes

The 2012 high school season is just three weeks away from starting, but Florida got interesting this week with the return of the all-time leader in wins returning to the sideline.

ESPN 760 reported that Jeff Goldberg, who won 380 games and 14 state championships with St. Andrew’s (Boca Raton, Fla.) joined the coaching staff at St. Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.). Aquinas head coach Terry Crowley is No. 2 on Florida’s win list with 286.

Last week ESPNHS highlighted the Champion Challenge in which former ESPNHS No. 2 goalie Bridget Bianco was expected to see her first college action.

Bianco recorded nine saves in her college debut, an 18-1 loss to the US Women's National Team. The event was held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida, Jan. 27-29, 2012

What You Might Have Missed

Top Story: Having been the first team selected for the 2012 Under Armour Underclass All-Star Lacrosse Tournament, the West team has gained a number of views and is the most viewed story on ESPNHS for the second straight week.

The roster features 15 players from California, five from Colorado, two from Nevada and one each from Arizona and Washington.

The remainder of tryouts will be held starting in June, beginning June 2 with the South. For a complete listing of 2012 tryouts you can visit the Under Armour site here.

Top Boys’ Commitment: One advantage of our 2012 Season Preview form is picking up commitments that we were not aware of before. That is what happened when we received our information for Memphis University School (Memphis, Tenn.) junior Peyton Klawinski, who was selected as the No. 50 junior. The midfielder has chosen North Carolina.

Top Girls’ Commitment: Another Top 50 Junior has chosen her college destination. The No. 14 player in the ESPNHS Top 50 Junior list, Linda Attanasio from Garden City (Garden City, N.Y.), has verbally committed to play women's lacrosse for Dartmouth.

Looking Ahead

As ESPNHS gets ready to launch its 2012 Season Previews on Feb. 7 we spend this week discussing what it takes to get ranked in the POWERADE FAB 50 (Feb. 1) and what to expect during our previews (Feb. 3).

A complete look at what lies ahead can be found on our 2012 Season Preview Central home page.

Related Commitment Links: Most Recent Commits | Class of 2013 Boys | LaxPower Recruit Database

Memphis University School (Memphis, Tenn.) junior Peyton Klawinski is heading to North Carolina to play men's lacrosse.

Read More »