LaxTV Forums | A Forum About The MCLA

I'm sure this topic has been brought up before, but I was wondering which high school has produced the best USLIA players. Let the arguments begin. I'm going to be biased and say St. Ignatius, Bishop O'Dowd and Berkeley have produced the best talent

Going way out on a limb there, so hot.

You could put an all-star team together from those 3 high schools and I'd match them up with any team in the MDIA. They'd stand a pretty good chance of winning the championship, too.

nm.

You did post it in the Main Forum. As a moderator, shouldn't you know there's a rule about cross-posting???


By the way, that all-star team I mentioned from those high schools, they virtually did win the championship last year.

I agree with all three of your above picks (as hard as it is for me to admit, SI is clearly at the top) and would definitely toss in Torrey Pines and possibly La Costa Canyon.

What about Acalanes High School, more notably, the Acalanes Lacrosse Club that existed prior to lax becoming a CIF sport? They haven't done as much in recent years, but in 2001 (ranked #2 West of Mississippi, top 50 Nationally) and prior, they were a pretty dominant Bay Area program.

Here are just a few current players and very recent alumni, most of whom are starting or did start on WCLL teams or other varsity programs:

UCSB
Mike Towers
Matt Lynn
Brent Ringwood

Chico State:
Rob Meinbress (USLIA All-American)
Tyson Poor (HS All-American)
Whit Poor
Matt Bissel
Kyle Hughes
Peter Harris
Justin Klueger
Tom Szczepanski
Mike Szczepanski
Matt Krupp

UC Davis:
Eric Govan
Magnus Duborg (starting middie at DI Bucknell prior to transferring)

University of Arizona:
Brian Etheredge

Cal Poly SLO:
Mark Govan

Stanford
Nick Webb (captain of 2001 National Championship team, All-American)

UCLA
Stephan Howsepian
Drew Geisse

USC:
Myself

Oregon:
Peter Brush
Tyler Douglas
Greg Sommer

UMass (DI)
Lucio Mejia (HS All-American)

Lafayette (DI)
What's his name?! wow, too many concussions... (HS All-American at defense)

The list goes on and I know I'm missing several other players in the WCLL, USLIA, and NCAA, but that's my best attempt. I think it's a pretty solid group of players from one squad...

What you failed to mention is that Acalanes Lacrosse Club consisted of several high schools - all of Contra Costa and eastern Alameda counties, which is a huge suburban area with tens of thousands of students. That does not count as a school team. Those guys you mentioned went to alot of different high schools.
Berkeley and ODowd and SI were competing against that huge club with only players enrolled in their respective schools. I always thought this was unfair when it was occurring. After CIF came in, I was proved correct as the individual high schools that used to be a part of Acalanes Lacrosse Club were not competitive.
BTW, Lucio played most of his carreer at Skyline until it folded. He couldn't play for ODowd or Berkeley because he was not a student at those schools, he therefore played his Sr. year for Acalanes Lacrosse Club.
Also, Stanford did not win a national lacrosse championship in 2001 or any other year and there is no Nick Webb on the 2001 Stanford roster (I checked the MDIA tournament program for 2001).

Bluevelvet,

I never meant to mislead anyone about the fact that the Acalanes club consisted of a large suburban area of players, expecially since I differentiated it from the Acalanes HS team. It consisted of players almost exclusively from Acalanes and Miramonte high schools (it was about 70/30%, and only Mike Towers went to Campolindo). The only 2 players from Alameda county (and this was only in 2001, not before or after that) were Lucio (thanks for the bio on him though, I was aware of that as we played together our senior year), and a middie named Jordan who never saw game time (but played briefly at Sonoma).

I agree with your point that it was an advantage over other teams that only drew from one school, but I wonder just how much of an advantage it was when you look at a private school like SI.

I don't know the answer, but I'm curious to know how many lacrosse kids at SI were/are from cities outside of SF or at least 20 minutes away from the school? SF and the immediate surrounding cities is a rather large area (much larger than Lafayette and Orinda, which is where 95%+ of the players came from; SF and the surrounding areas have more than tens of thousands of potential students/players as you stated about our area) so how different is their recruiting area compared to that of the old Acalanes Club?

You're quite right about Stanford and their 2001 season, I stand corrected, they lost to CSU in OT in the St. Louis finals and were runners-up that year. I also believe that I was incorrect about Nick Webb being an All-American (I made my list primarily off of memory; you caught me though, I made a mistake), although he was captain of that team (thanks for doing the background check though, he's #8 on their roster and was one heck of a defenseman): http://www.stanford.edu/group/MensLax/players.htm

At the absolute very least, after you get technical and strip it down, when you look at a lot of the players from the Acalanes area, they have been a consistent part of the WCLL, USLIA, and even the NCAA to a much lesser degree which was my original point. Either way, I'm proud of my home and my former teammates so that's my shot out to them on this thread.

Moved to General Discussion

Sorry about that Brian, but Acalanes LC has been a pet peeve of mine for years. There are presently at least 11 high school teams from the area covered by the old Acalanes Lacrosse Club.
I think you have a point regarding SI and ODowd but the fact remains that all of their players, regardless of where they lived must be enrolled in those schools in order to play. Berkeley is a public school, with no recruiting, and had the same criteria regarding enrollment. Acalanes Lacrosse Club had players enrolled in many different schools, playing on the same team at the same time.
And I believe that you have confused the 2001 Stanford team that was easily defeated by CSU in the finals (no Nick Webb on the roster) with the 2002 Stanford team that lost to CSU in the quarter finals in OT.

TrojanLaxman5 wrote:Bluevelvet,

I agree with your point that it was an advantage over other teams that only drew from one school, but I wonder just how much of an advantage it was when you look at a private school like SI.

I don't know the answer, but I'm curious to know how many lacrosse kids at SI were/are from cities outside of SF or at least 20 minutes away from the school? SF and the immediate surrounding cities is a rather large area (much larger than Lafayette and Orinda, which is where 95%+ of the players came from; SF and the surrounding areas have more than tens of thousands of potential students/players as you stated about our area) so how different is their recruiting area compared to that of the old Acalanes Club?

There are kids at SI from as far away as Novato. That is like a 45 mile drive and time wise much more, given the GG Bridge in the morning. O'Dowd likewise draws from a huge area. White parents do not even consider sending their kids to Oakland's 6 awful Public High Schools save for maybe some will send them to Skyline. Some Berkeley parents who do not want to deal with all the PC nonsense that is Berkeley High, or all the Oakland and Richmond ghetto kids who shouldn't be there, will also send their kids to O'Dowd. The Moon twins were Berkeley residents but went to O'Dowd. I do not think any of the Oakland public high schools have a lacrosse team. Then you are looking primarily at three private schools: CPS, HR, and O'Dowd and O'Dowd is the lower cost choice(13k v approx. 20k) and the one with a serious Lacrosse program. Ok there is SM in Berkeley but again not for a kid really interested in Lax. For the same reason any Oakland kid who plays can claim that their local school does not compete in their sport and will be allowed to attend B High and many of Berkeley's players have been Oakland kids. Even some from Richmond, another place with awful public high schools with no lax team. So O'Dowd and B High are really the choice for a kid interested in playing hs lax, for a vast urban area that stretches from essentially San Leandro to Richmond... weren't there nearly as many MC alum on SB's team last year as from the three school's mentioned in this thread?

CATLAX MAN wrote:
By the way, that all-star team I mentioned from those high schools, they virtually did win the championship last year.

Berkeley, ODowd and SI players from UCSB:

Attack:
Hank Calkins SI 1st team MDIA all american
Luke Wilson SI 1st team MDIA all american
Jim Clark ODowd
Scott Erickson ODowd

Midfield:
Ben Schooler Berkeley 1st team MDIA all american & face off
Tom Smith Berkeley MDIA all american
Dave Ellis SI MDIA all american
Stefan Isaksen Berkeley
Nick Schooler Berkeley

Defensive Midfield;
Alex Wilson SI
Lief Sorensen Berkeley
Scott Holmes Berkeley

LSM:
Damon Conklin SI MDIA all american
Will Crowe ODowd all WCLL

Defense:
Tych Suter SI 1st team MDIA all american
Brendan Lucker Berkeley
Andrew Day Berkeley all WCLL

Goalie:
Ryan Brittain SI 1st team MDIA all american
Mike Wood ODowd

Others MDIA:
MJ Crickmore Berkeley 1st team MDIA all american & MDIA MVP Sonoma
Julian Coffman Berkeley MDIA all american Oregon
Pat Byrd ODowd MDIA all american CSU

Others D1:
Ben Horn SI Navy
Pete Ellis SI Md.
Drew Virk SI Md.
Sam Geller Berkeley Fairfield

These are all I can think of right now. I'm sure Catlaxman will some more.

strykr11 wrote:For the same reason any Oakland kid who plays can claim that their local school does not compete in their sport and will be allowed to attend B High and many of Berkeley's players have been Oakland kids. Even some from Richmond, another place with awful public high schools with no lax team. So O'Dowd and B High are really the choice for a kid interested in playing hs lax, for a vast urban area that stretches from essentially San Leandro to Richmond... weren't there nearly as many MC alum on SB's team last year as from the three school's mentioned in this thread?

I have never heard of a single player given an interdistrict transfer to Berkeley High in order to play lacrosse. If there was a player on Berkeley from outside the district (I am not aware of any), he was not there to play lacrosse but transferred for other reasons.
Further, almost no one plays lacrosse from the Oakland or Richmond public school systems.
Acalalanes, Palo Alto, Southern Marin lacrosse clubs had a distinct advantage over the varsity school teams, no doubt about it.
There were 2 Marin Catholic players on last years UCSB team, Will Patton and Greg Fish. 6 from SI, 7 from Berkeley and 6 from ODowd.

Bluevelvet wrote:I have never heard of a single player given an interdistrict transfer to Berkeley High in order to play lacrosse. If there was a player on Berkeley from outside the district (I am not aware of any), he was not there to play lacrosse but transferred for other reasons.

Well there are....How do you know the reasons any player from outside the district transferred?...Not having your sport at your local public high school is a valid reason for an interdistrict transfer at Berkeley High. Not only Lacrosse but also Crew, Modern Dance, wanting to take Latin(that is a favorite) or Swahili etc. It goes on and on...Any kid whose parent works for UC or LBL can enroll in B High by state law. Many don't even bother to do it officially but simply list a friend or relatives address as their own.

Bluevelvet
You forgot a few.

Tom Schultz-Berkeley
Nick Stratton-Odowd (transfered from W&L)
Elliot Carney-Odowd
Nic Azpiroz-Odowd
George Granelli-Odowd
Coach Tyler Kreitz-Cal(Odowd)

I think that is it. It is slowly becoming an Odowd dominated team. There hasn't been an SI or Berkeley player since Damon Conklin-Moragne and Nick Schooler. There have also been a lot of SD players.

CSU's Pat Bird (O'Dowd) will be one of the best middies in the MDIA over the next three years.