Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. Dom Starsia remembers his former recruit and transcendent Virignia player Doug Knight ahead of Knight’s induction into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Starsia had gone to Westminster School (Conn.) on a courtesy call for a recruit. There, he found a "wildly athletic, undersized, unorthodox and yet fearless" left-handed attackman — Doug Knight.
Starsia convinced Knight to come to his new school, Virginia, and the rest is history. Knight made a living off of diving across the goal to score and he made the most of his size en route to finishing his career atop the Cavaliers’ career scoring list.
2. NCAA semifinalist Wesleyan leads the Division III Men’s Way-Early Rankings for 2018. With a large contingent of offensive weapons returning for 2018, Wesleyan will be one of the most experienced teams in Division III next season.
Let’s not forget about Salisbury, which recently won its second straight Division III national championship. The Sea Gulls, ranked No. 2, will lose a lot from graduation, including seven of their top nine scorers, but they have some veterans in the midfield and on defense to help steady the ship in the back.
York, Cortland and RIT round out the top 5 in the Way-Early Rankings. Check out the rest of the top 10.
3. Brown lacrosse may not have had the 2017 season that it wanted, but its former players are stepping in the MLL so far. Most notably, 2016 Tewaaraton winner Dylan Molloy, who was drafted first overall by the Florida Launch this year. Molloy had three goals and an assist in the Launch's comeback win over the New York Lizards last weekend.
Molloy's lone assist came on the game-winning goal, when he fed it off to Brown classmate Alec Tullett for his first career goal. Chazz Woodson, another Brown product, had two goals this weekend in an impressive start to the season.
4. The NCAA Division I Council voted on Friday to approve a modification of wording to NCAA Bylaw 13.12.1.5 that will close the camps and clinic "loophole" that was inadvertently created when NCAA 2017-1 was adopted in April. As of yesterday, all recruiting contact by Division I coaches is prohibited until Sept. 1 of a recruit's junior year.
WHAT WE’RE READING
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From Michael Sowers, to Jeff Teat, to TD Ierlan, this year’s freshman class was among the best of all time. Inside Lacrosse ranks its top 35 freshmen from the 2017 season.
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As soon as the Michigan job opened up, two Baltimore area coaches were immediately linked to the position. Johns Hopkins’ Dave Pietramala said he’s staying with his program, and Towson coach Shawn Nadelen is doing the same.
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The Mercury News spoke with Kumi Walker, one of Twitter's general managers for live content, about his thoughts on how Twitter is employing live video. Yes, he drops a reference to a lacrosse game streamed on the platform this season.
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The Colorado Collegiate Box Lacrosse League had its inaugural draft last week, with Furman's Chad Kreuzer going first overall. Denver's Trevor Baptiste went 15th overall to the Fighting Bison.
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US Lacrosse announced that 2017 National Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee Don Zimmerman will serve as the Boys' Director for its inaugural Peak Performance Camp, which will run from Aug. 21-23 at US Lacrosse Headquarters in Sparks, Md.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
It's not every day you get to see two greats playing catch and making it look like they haven't lost a beat. Gary Gait, with a women's stick, and Casey Powell throw in some tricks for good measure. Enjoy and reminisce of the days when they ruled the lacrosse world.
Just a casual toss with Casey Powell and Gary Gait... pic.twitter.com/Un6qg5YSxN
— The Lacrosse Network (@LacrosseNetwork) June 12, 2017
WHAT’S ON TAP
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The high school lacrosse season is reaching its end, but we have another round of Nike/US Lacrosse rankings out today.
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Also, keep a eye out for the Way-Early 2018 Division III Women's Top 10.