Missouri High School Lax

[CadetFoSho2]

Parkway North is a dynasty in the making.

A Dynasty in the Making...cmon son there nothing compared to schools like CBC, Rockhurst, DeSmet, and MICDS. North will never be a dynasty. They have no stand out players and they don't play well as a team...They are probably the worst team as of now compared to Lindbergh even though it's there 1st year

[SMSlax]

Obviously the North thing was a joke. However, it should be stated that the system isn't reflective of the players. For instance, a lot of North guys have had a major role in getting GRLC lax going.
KU-Mallin, SEMO-Fitzgerald, Mizzou-Schuh, Truman-Marcentel, SMS-about five guys from North. The team may be a perennial loser, but some of the kids that come out are dedicated and determined players. It should be noted that yes I came from P. North (which is why I'm probably one of the three people on earth that would know this).

Purple pride fo' life

[bste_lax]

KU-Mallin, SEMO-Fitzgerald, Mizzou-Schuh, Truman-Marcentel, SMS-about five guys from North. The team may be a perennial loser, but some of the kids that come out are dedicated and determined players.

Random note, Marcentel for Truman State was a workhorse. That kid was a beast who played basically the whole game at middie and never seemed to get tired. He is the reason Truman State made the CCLA Div. B playoffs 3 years ago.

[CadetFoSho2]

Obviously the North thing was a joke. However, it should be stated that the system isn't reflective of the players. For instance, a lot of North guys have had a major role in getting GRLC lax going.
KU-Mallin, SEMO-Fitzgerald, Mizzou-Schuh, Truman-Marcentel, SMS-about five guys from North. The team may be a perennial loser, but some of the kids that come out are dedicated and determined players. It should be noted that yes I came from P. North (which is why I'm probably one of the three people on earth that would know this).

Purple pride fo' life

If you're that determined and that good...Why go to North? I mean why not go somewhere where the team is half descent...and don't say because you didn't have the money because I know that you can finaicial aid and if you're that good...and wanna go somewhere and not SMS then get it and go somewhere good

[CadetFoSho2]

Random note, Marcentel for Truman State was a workhorse. That kid was a beast who played basically the whole game at middie and never seemed to get tired. He is the reason Truman State made the CCLA Div. B playoffs 3 years ago.[/quote]

If this guy is such a workhorse and is so good...how come I'm just hearing of him now honestly?[/quote] and Truman Folded so what now

[bste_lax]

If this guy is such a workhorse and is so good...how come I'm just hearing of him now honestly? and Truman Folded so what now

Probably because he graduated 2 years ago or so. He has been first team CCLA Div B. and then GRLC Div B.

[CDSLax8]

Cadetfosho, Where you play in college has little reflection on how good of a player you are or how good of a high school you came from. I went to MICDS and we rarely have players go on and play college ball but we are perennially a top 3 team in Missouri. I find it funny how you can judge a player because he went to North and matriculated at Truman State.

[mizzou dad]

You are starting to see the emergence of public high school teams as
more schools are starting to develop junior high programs .

This will only improve the sport in our state.

[pstirling]

Cadetfosho, there are many of us who had hardly heard of lacrosse when we were deciding where to go to high school. And for many of us, we didn't really get to choose what high school to go to. Not everyone in St. Louis is Catholic, you know. The Parkway and Rockwood School Districts are two of the better public school districts in the Midwest, so it's a matter of not paying a tuition when you don't have to.

From my experiences, I'll play with a Parkway North or Hazelwood Central kid anyday. They tend to have the best attitudes, are most willing to improve, and are most fun to be around. We may not win a lot, but we'll have a lot of fun, and that's what it's all about in my book.

In answer to the original post, I'll take MICDS. Great coaching and returning almost the entire Championship squad. North is a close second, though.

[TheLoo]

In answer to the original post, I'll take MICDS. Great coaching and returning almost the entire Championship squad. North is a close second, though.

You just showed how little you know. North? What a joke. Parkway and Rockwood some of the best in the midwest? whatever. Have you ever seen new trier or loyola play? DeSmet, CBC, MICDS, even Rockhurst..... Still a few dimonds in the ruff have come out of some of those schools. Especially Webster, Ladue, Kirkwood. But North rates up there with Fox and Eureka and Colombia and Shawnee Valley as pathetic hs programs.

[pstirling]

whoa, you show how small you're sense of humor is. I'm sorry I didn't use the rolling eyes emoticon, but I was being sarcastic about North coming in second. All of the "North is a dynasty" stuff has been sarcasm. Even those who went to North will agree that they have been way down the past few years. Just because the program is down doesn't mean that every player from that school is terrible.

As for the Parkway and Rockwood thing, I was talking academically, as far as public schools go. It was another reason why everyone remotely interested in lacrosse doesn't go to Desmet, CBC, or MICDS. You can get a good, free education at almost all of the St. Louis public schools.

Also, Columbia Hickman is a very solid program that got screwed out of playoffs last year, and Columbia Rockbridge will be a lot better with the new coaches they have, so I wouldn't group either of them in the pathetic program group.

[TheLoo]

how do you get screwed out of playoffs? If you win games you go.

[pstirling]

Columbia Hickman went 11-4 last year and that is a far better record than quite a few of the playoff teams. I'm still not sure exactly how they didn't make playoffs, but I think it might have come down to a 4th or 5th tiebreaker, like goals against or something even more insignificant. I know they have changed the rules for playoff eligibility this year, to avoid future problems like this.

[SMSlax]

I'm not completely sure where all the hostility is coming from about this. The remark about North as a dynasty is obviously a joke (for the second time). Pent up anger or stress is never good for your health guys.
As for the players that come from North or any other public school for that matter, I too would take a determined and hard working kid who loves the sport over the kid who got AA in high school and doesn't come to practice b/c he knows he's good. The name of your high school doesn't mean a thing to me. SMS has CBC, DeSmet, North, Glendale, Hickman and even Monett (a town of 35 who doesn't even have a team) but our guys don't care about that stuff. We don't need to boast about how awesome we might be, we don't need to make excuses for loses we are going to take. What we do is act like we've done this before, shut our mouths, man up and play.
As a matter of fact, P North made the playoffs my senior year with 16 guys and lost in the first round to MICDS by too many to count. Those guys played their heart out and walked off the field completely exhausted and I still hold that as one of the best games we've ever played.
Last, for that the guy who said I should have gone to a private school if I really cared about lax, that statement doesn't deserve a response for obvious reasons.

[davecopeland]

The last public school to win state was Kirkwood in 1995. The reasons for the dominance of private schools in the ensuing 9 years are, in my opinion, several. One, most of the private schools have youth programs who start playing at a younger age, and two, they get kids who were in youth programs at public schools, e.g. Kirkwood's youth program has kids that wind up going to DeSmet, SLUH, CBC. and Chaminade. The public schools that have been competitive (Lafayette, Kirkwood, several of the Parkway schools) have active youth programs, but lose kids every year to the private schools.

The third reason (I'm sure I'll get some flak for this!) is generally the level of coaching is better at the private schools than at the public school level. I say this as a public high coach. Admittedly, I don't know all the private school and public school coaches, but I know a number of them, and I believe this generalization holds up.