College Crosse Prospectus: Notre Dame continues trip in Spain

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation!! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here’s everything you need to know for June 2, 2018.

What You Missed

Yale Bulldogs attackman Ben Reeves and Boston College Eagles attacker Sam Apuzzo won the Tewaaraton Award for their respective genders.

Lacrosse The Nation

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are continuing their 10-day excursion in Spain. The NCAA allows individual teams to travel abroad once every four years. The Irish last traveled to Europe in 2014, when they went to Italy.

They’re playing in the Barcelona City Tournament, an event to help national teams get ready for the 2018 FIL World Championships in Israel. Notre Dame joins Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, England, Germany and Switzerland in the tournament.

They’ve defeated Spain and England already and already defeated Germany and Switzerland today. They’ll take on the Netherlands today at noon. If you miss lacrosse, you can watch the game on the team’s Facebook page!

I love what Notre Dame has done for their student-athletes. At most schools, it’s tough to study abroad as a student-athlete since you have fall ball and then the entire spring semester to prepare for your season. The Irish coaching staff, led by Kevin Corrigan, have found a way to not only grow the game in Europe, but also give their players a very rare opportunity to explore Europe while in college.

Personally, I’ve been to Barcelona before about 10 years ago. An unbelievable place to go. Wish there was a soccer match they could go to. Camp Nou is spectacular when its match-day.

While they’re in Europe, some teams are already on the summer recruiting trail!

Edward Lee of The Baltimore Sun caps off his premature 2019 top 20:

3. Yale

(17-3; NCAA champion)

Losses: Three starters in attackman and Tewaaraton Award winner Ben Reeves (62 G, 53 A) and defensemen Christopher Keating (59 ground balls, 25 caused turnovers) and Jerry O’Connor (23 GB, 22 CT).

Returns: Seven starters, including the entire midfield of juniors Jack Tigh (35 G, 14 A), Joseph Sessa (19 G, 6 A) and John Daniggelis (15 G, 6 A).

Reason for pessimism: In addition to graduating short-stick defensive midfielders Tyler Warner (48 GB, 16 CT, 3 G, 1 A) and Jason Alessi (24 GB, 3 CT, 6 G, 7 A), the unit may be pressed into defending more possessions after bidding farewell to faceoff specialist Conor Mackie (62.5 percent on 290 of 464, 191 GB, 3 G).

Reason for optimism: The void created by Reeves’ departure may be filled by sophomore Jackson Morrill (40 G, 32 A), who will be complemented by sophomore Matt Gaudet (41 G, 7 A).

Tonight is Game 2 of the NLL Cup Final. The Saskatchewan Rush look to win their third NLL title tonight, but they’ll have to do it in Rochester against the Knighthawks. Game begins at 8 PM, and you can watch it on Twitter.

But to be quite honest, we don’t care about that. We’ll tune in at halftime to see the real entertainment: A coin toss to decide the first pick in the Entry and Expansion Drafts! Here’s more about it:

In order to determine the order of selection, a ceremonial coin toss will be held. From the coin toss, the winning expansion franchise will elect to have either the first player selection during the Expansion Draft or the first selection at the Entry Draft. The other team will then have the first pick at the draft not selected by the winning team. The Philadelphia Wings’ Assistant Coach Landon Miller and the San Diego Seals’ General Manager and Head Coach, Patrick Merrill will represent their teams respectively at the coin toss held during halftime of Game 2 of the NLL Finals in Rochester, NY on Saturday, June 2.

With only two entering teams the Expansion Draft held this coming July, current member clubs are able to protect a total of eleven players, comprised of up to one goalie and ten runners or eleven runners and no goalie. In both scenarios, only five of the protected runners can be offensive players which must be approved by the Commissioner. In addition, no member club shall be required to lose more players than the number of expansion teams entering the Expansion Draft. Clubs are not allowed to protect more players once a current player has been drafted.

At the Entry Draft, to be held in the Fall of 2018, both expansion teams will have picks in the first round of the Draft. They will have one additional selection at the end of the Second, Third and Fourth Rounds. Given there are two teams, the order of selection determined from the coin toss on June 2, will be reversed in each alternating round at the Entry Draft.

If the Wings don’t win the coin toss, I’ll just assume it was rigged. W-I-N-G-S, WINGS!

In more college lacrosse news, the Jacksonville Dolphins have announced their captains for next season. Already! Midfielders Eric Applegate and Hayden La Vangie, as well as defenseman Dixon Smith, will lead the Dolphins for the 2019 season.

”Every year when a national champion is crowned it marks the beginning of a new season. I believe that if we want to achieve our mission for this upcoming season, it is going to take the entirety of the 12 months we have together. If we are going to truly accomplish something special, we need someone steering the ship for the journey,” stated [John] Galloway.

The trio helped the Dolphins to their first-ever trip to the Southern Conference Tournament Championship, capping the program’s second winning season with an 8-7 overall record.

”After peer voting and staff discussion, we have named three young men to lead our Duval Mission forward this summer. All three are uniquely different in how they lead both on and off the field. I believe their work ethic, understanding of the pulse of the team, and urgency to become champions is the perfect mix of who we want to be. As a staff, we will challenge them to shoulder the responsibility of continuing to build on the culture of toughness, respect, and our ‘Win The Day’ mantra that this program is built on.”

Peter Mills of the CBC profiled Saskatoon native and Yale junior attackman Brendan Rooney:

Aside from going to the first-ever Saskatchewan Rush game in Saskatoon, Rooney said he hasn’t been able to follow much of excitement for lacrosse back home. He’s not surprised more and more kids are being inspired to try the sport.

”It’s a great game and I think especially in the hockey community it’s a great summer sport for kids,” he said. “I think once people knew what it was and were exposed to it, it really caught on and that makes me excited for the future.”

Rooney, who is majoring in molecular, cellular and developmental biology, had two pieces of advice for young athletes wanting to follow in his footsteps: Play field lacrosse (as opposed to just playing indoor “box” lacrosse) and study hard in school.

”I’m going to sound like a parent here but you gotta keep your grades up, you gotta be a good student,” he said.

”It’s not only important for your admissibility to the school, but I think it says a lot about work ethic and your character and your ability to really battle through adversity.”

You thought only Ben Reeves played lacrosse and majored in MCDB. You were wrong.

The WPLL unveiled their rules for the upcoming season. Some new rules include four 15 minute running quarters, a 60 second shot clock, a two-point goal, and a shootout after a five-minute overtime session if a game is still tied.

Finally, Staples high school coach is accusing Fairfield Prep fans of anti-Semitic chants, along with some other inappropriate behavior. More from Justin Papp of the Fairfield Citizen:

According to Staples High School lacrosse coach, fans of the visiting Fairfield College Preparatory School team, referred to collectively as the Bomb Squad, repeatedly yelled anti-Semitic chants when one of his Jewish players scored, held up a sign he believed referenced male genitalia and were apparently seen urinating on the high school and on cars in the parking lot outside the field.

“This is my 10th year at Staples. There’s nothing wrong with chanting, but that’s the first time it’s ever been like that — pointed at an individual and his religion,” Staples Coach Paul McNulty said on Friday.

McNulty said after each goal one of his Jewish players scored, he could hear the Bomb Squad chanting what he believed was “Happy Hanukkah.”

Roz Koether, co-president of the Staples Lacrosse Booster Club, was sitting at the scorer’s table, across the field from the Bomb Squad. From her seat she said she also heard the students singing “The Dreidel Song” and chanting “We have Christmas,” when Jewish players had the ball.

“I’m sorry this all happened,” Koether said. “It’s disappointing behavior. There’s really no place for that much hatred and bigotry.”

Philly Jawns

Two people were shot inside the Lehigh Valley Mall last night. The suspect is still on the loose.

World News

Looks like the summit with North Korea in Singapore is back on!

Video of the Day

What would happen to you if you only drank energy drinks like Monster or Red Bull? Why would you even do that in the first place?

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