College Crosse Prospectus: Nanticoke’s Journey To Albany

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here are your links for September 14, 2017.

What You Missed

Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Nick Myers earned himself a new five-year contract extension Tuesday.

He also joined Lax Sports Network to discuss moving forward after a very successful 2017 season:

Lacrosse The Nation

Inside Lacrosse’s top freshman Tehoka Nanticoke’s journey to the Albany Great Danes is a fascinating one, filled with bumps along the way, pens Mark Singelais of the Times Union.

But his effortless play on the field belied his struggles in the classroom. He chose to transfer to IMG after his sophomore year of high school on the reservation to improve his grades.

After two years there, Nanticoke almost quit to go pro when he discovered he would need to do a postgraduate year to become NCAA eligible.

But his mother, Catherine, talked him out of it despite the fact that she didn't want him to go that far away from home in the first place.

"She's like, 'Don't think that. You need your education,' " Nanticoke said. "Just time after time, I got discouraged, and I just gave her a text, and she reminded me what I was doing."

Nanticoke said he chose UAlbany mainly because of coach Scott Marr, who first saw Nanticoke play as a high school sophomore. Marr's run-and-gun offense appealed to him.

"The fast pace, up and down the floor, that's the way I grew up playing," said Nanticoke, who began organized lacrosse at 3 years old.

The Lehigh County coroner’s office says that Lafayette Leopards freshman goaltender McCrae Williams died from “blunt force head injuries.” More from Daniel Sheehan and Matt Coughlin from The Morning Call.

Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said in a news release Wednesday that Williams suffered “blunt force head injuries.” Grim said he would not rule on the manner of Williams’ death until toxicology tests are completed and police have finished their investigation.

In a letter to students and parents, the headmaster of Noble and Greenough School — the Massachusetts boarding school Williams graduated from in June — said the 19-year-old athlete had suffered a “major head injury” after a fall.

That information came from Williams’ parents, who were with him when he died, a school spokeswoman said. The letter did not offer further details.

Lafayette public safety officers found Williams when they responded to a medical emergency about 4:17 p.m. Sunday at Ruef Hall, the four-story dormitory where he lived. He was taken to Easton Hospital and transferred to LVH, where he was pronounced dead at 5:02 p.m. Monday.

The Stony Brook Seawolves have brought on former UMass Lowell defensive coordinator Larry Kline as an assistant coach.

"We are very excited about hiring Larry Kline to assist the 2018 squad," said [Jim] Nagle. "He is a multi-talented coach who has a Master's in psychology and is widely regarded as one of the best goalie coaches in the country. He has a thorough understanding of the competitive challenges of America East lacrosse both as a player and as a coach."

Marisa’s got a great post for US Lacrosse Magazine on how the NLL’s growth has impressed the league’s biggest skeptics.

The last time the NLL has seen such a surge was the mid-2000s, when the league expanded to Boston, Chicago, Portland, Arizona and Anaheim, all of which were unsuccessful. Ownership shortcomings were a major factor in their demise.

But in its 32nd year of operation, the NLL seems to be in a better place to handle impending growth this time around.

“Nick [Sakiewicz] is doing a great job sticking to that plan,” [Richard] Lisk said. “The league is showing growth. It’s smart to get off of having nine teams. It’s going to make us stronger.”

The NLL’s visibility also has grown thanks to a digital-first strategy deployed by Sakiewicz. The NLL Game of the Week on Twitter averaged nearly 350,000 viewers last season and has nearly 50,000 subscribers with access to NLLTV and its other digital platforms.

“This shocked us,” Sakiewicz said. “It showed people will really watch our game. We think there’s more who will, too. The next improvement is in production quality, which we have invested money into. We know now that people will watch it.”

A reminder that Philadelphia’s new NLL franchise will be announced this morning at 11 AM on NLLtv.com. Get caught up on all the details here, including the team name:

[Dave] Scott will reveal the team's name, when they’ll play their first season, and where the games will be played. Myself and Crossing Broad have heard that the name could be the "Wings," but fans will have the option to name the team. So it’ll be Wings because if it isn’t, we don’t deserve them. This is the easiest thing to do.

The Vermont Catamounts and the Maryland Terrapins women’s team unveiled their fall ball schedules.

Fall ball practices continue:

Penn State plays a different ball sport as well:

The High Point Panthers ran with their cross country team for a morning workout:

NJIT hit the pool for their workout.

MD Biz News’ Emily Witty has a great profile on Maryland company East Coast Dyes and Greg and Mike Kenneally:

“Greg was always the go-to person in college for fixing equipment issues,” said Mike. “When he told us he was going to tackle the issue of lacrosse mesh failing in wet weather, we said go for it. He made the whole house smell awful while coming up with the wax mesh solution.”

But the results were undeniable.

The product generated more than 800 orders during the company’s first Cyber Monday sale in 2012. Mike told his brother they had created something special and the CPA duo took an unexpected change in careers. What started as a group of college buddies cranking out orders in their Baltimore County home transformed into a full-scale operation at a 2,000-square-foot facility in Lutherville by May 2013.

“Mesh hadn’t really been innovated until we played with the wax idea,” Mike said. “Between that technology and our ability to network in a state with a deep history rooted in lacrosse, we’ve been able to expand our presence across the country.”

The Robert Morris Colonials are excited to welcome back Luke Laszkiewicz for their alumni game Friday night.

Hi freshmen!

Philly Jawns

The 76ers have brand new red jerseys.

World News

Hillary Clinton wants the Electoral College to go. That might be tough to do.

Video of the Day

In case you missed the Apple announcement, here’s what the new iPhone X (ten) will look like:

That’s it for today!! I’ll see you out there!! Make sure you follow us on social media!

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Managing Editors: Safe Fekadu, Chris Jastrzembski, Ryan McDonnell