Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. Yale’s Jackson Morrill entered the NCAA transfer portal Wednesday, signaling the end of the line in New Haven for a transformational senior class that also includes TD Ierlan and Matt Gaudet. Inside Lacrosse first reported the news. US Lacrosse Magazine has independently confirmed the information.
Morrill, an All-American attackman and the school’s No. 2 all-time scorer behind Ben Reeves, informed Inside Lacrosse’s Ty Xanders that he made every effort to return to Yale but could not find a way back. Classmate Lucas Cotler also entered the transfer portal Wednesday.
Yale has joined Harvard and Princeton among Ivy League institutions saying they would not grant eligibility waivers to seniors who withdraw from the universities to preserve their undergraduate status, and the Ivy League itself has already declared that it would not alter its rules that prohibit graduate student-athletes from competing in the conference.
2. The IWLCA and IMLCA are among 18 coaches associations that signed an open letter to the NCAA Division I Council opposing a request by the Group of Five conference commissioners to relax the rule requiring Football Bowl Subdivision schools to field a minimum of 16 varsity athletic teams. A decision to do so would allow cash-strapped athletic departments to cut non-revenue sports like lacrosse while preserving their FBS status in light of the financial difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The commissioners of the AAC, Mountain West, MAC, Sun Belt and Conference USA sent a joint letter to NCAA commissioner Mark Emmert earlier this month seeking “temporary relief from several regulatory requirements for a period of up to four years.”
Cincinnati (AAC) and Old Dominion (Conference USA) have already cut men’s soccer and wrestling, respectively.
3. Jack Allard, whose bout with COVID-19 included 20 days in a medically induced coma and gained international attention, spoke about his experience with the disease in an exclusive interview with US Lacrosse Magazine.
Allard, a former two-time All-American attackman at Bates, singled out the overwhelming support of the lacrosse community as a reason for granting the interview.
“I always thought my next US Lacrosse Magazine interview would be about the D-III guy that went pro,” he said. “Instead, it’s about this insane virus going around.”
Allard’s case made national and international news because of the controversy surrounding the experimental drug remdesivir and also because the 26-year-old did not necessarily fit the profile of a high-risk coronavirus patient.
“That’s the moral of this whole thing: We need to listen to our scientists and our doctors when they give us warnings and give us guidance,” he said. “People my age think it’s not going to hit them and, if it does, it’s going to be a slight flu. That’s clearly not true. It took me to my knees.”
4. Dave Pietramala was the heart of the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team. In many ways, he left part of his heart at Homewood Field. But his competitive fire rages on and he’s ready to coach again.
5. World Lacrosse added Panama as its 66th member nation, the organization announced Wednesday. Membership in the sport’s international governing body has increased 240 percent since 2002. Ghana, Barbados and Lithuania also have come on board this year.
6. The WPLL isn’t going down without a fight. Despite the cancelation of the 2020 season, commissioner Michele DeJuliis told US Lacrosse Magazine, the league fully intends to be operational in 2021. DeJuliis also opened up about the struggle of professional women’s sports face in securing investors, but said the WPLL was well-positioned with the recent restructuring of the league.
7. It’s championship weekend in the Nike/US Lacrosse Magazine Virtual NCAA Tournament.
The women’s bracket pits No. 5 Syracuse against No. 1 North Carolina, with No. 2 Loyola taking on No. 3 Notre Dame.
In the men’s bracket, it’s No. 1 Syracuse vs. No. 4 Penn State and No. 2 Yale vs. No. 6 Virginia, the latter representing a virtual rematch of last year’s actual NCAA championship game.
Voting begins this afternoon on Twitter (@USLacrosseMag).
WHAT WE’RE READING
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Denison coach Amanda Daniels writes about balance and the never-ending quest to find it in the latest blog in the IWLCA’s “Behind the Whistle” series.
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Virginia will not increase scholarship budgets to accommodate seniors who return for a fifth year, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
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Whipsnakes midfielder Tim Rotanz, a former two-time All-American at Maryland, has retired from professional lacrosse.
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Peter Dearth’s return looms large for an underrated Syracuse defense, the Syracuse-Post Standard reports.
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A throwback post by Lacrosse Bucket, remembering the 1971 game between Johns Hopkins and Navy in front of 20,000 fans at the Astrodome in Houston.
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Pittsford (N.Y.) girls’ lacrosse star Kyra Lucey “can’t stop wondering what could have been” in a first-person article for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
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The COVID-19 shutdown is a blessing in disguise for injured collegians like West Chester’s Molly Reinhart, who will return in 2021 after losing her senior season originally due to a torn ACL.
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Penn Today’s retrospective on Gabby Rosenzweig’s record-setting career.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Why we love lacrosse, a #WallBallWednesday special.
Lacrosse is a sport for everyone #WallBallWednesday @SwaxLaxBall pic.twitter.com/WLHgq27KCY
— US Lacrosse (@USLacrosse) April 22, 2020
Was Zed Williams’ bounce-pass assist in a 2017 game against North Carolina intentional? Lacrosse fans are bored. They need some on-field controversy, for a change.
Throwback to the Zed Williams bounce pass heard round the world
— QuickStick (@quickstickblog) April 22, 2020
@UVAMensLax pic.twitter.com/T4WhcGbvZP
WHAT’S ON TAP
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The WCLA’s lost season.
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A story about the nine-and-a-half-hour bike trip two Philadelphia area girls’ lacrosse coaches made to visit each of their 31 players to play catch.