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We have some sad news to report. Ann Bates, the wife of Princeton University head men’s lacrosse coach Chris Bates, died today at age 43 after a long battle with cancer. Chris Bates, a 1986 John Jay High School graduate, took over as the Tigers’ coach in June 2009 after a successful tenure at Drexel. […]

Playing college lacrosse has been Jeff Kratky’s focus for a long time. After all, the junior midfielder at the Taft School in Watertown, Conn., has been playing the sport since he was in the first or second grade. It was so long ago, he can’t quite remember which. But Kratky never envisioned he’d be in […]

Mike Skluth’s path to lacrosse success has been paved through hard work. The results speak for themselves. The junior is one of the top defensemen on a John Jay team known for its defense. He’s also be continuing his career at the Division I level. Skluth, a junior, verbally committed to the University at Albany. […]

A combination of strong lacrosse skills and outstanding academic credentials made Eric Persky a target recruit for many of the nation’s top Division I programs. In the end, the New Canaan junior defenseman based his decision on what every high school player should – his comfort level with the school first, and the lacrosse program […]

Sean Foley is doing his part to keep traditions alive. No program in Connecticut has churned out as many college recruits the last decade as Darien. Foley, a dodging midfielder, is now the latest — and the Blue Wave’s first junior Division I-bound commit. The 5-foot-11, 165-pound right-hander made a verbal commitment to attend Lehigh […]

Alex Weber, an All-America attackman at Fox Lane who finished as the third-leading scorer at Penn his senior year in 2009, is pursuing a career in acting. He’s already racked up some impressive gigs. In addition to appearing in several commercials, including Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl,” he also had cameos on NBC’s “The Tonight […]

Sticks for Soldiers, a benefit tournament for wounded troops in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has become a Thanksgiving weekend tradition. The sixth annual edition of the 7-on-7 event was held Saturday in Connecticut at Fairfield Ludlowe High School and drew 30 teams from Connecticut. All proceeds benefit Brendan Marrocco, 23, an Army specialist […]

We’ve focused primarily in this space on lacrosse in the nation’s No. 1 lacrosse hotbed, the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region. Within the region, varsity teams routinely cross county and even state borders to play against one another, resulting in some of the best matchups each year in the nation. Just to the west of this […]

The Briarcliff Manor Youth Lacrosse second annual Fifth/Sixth Grade Turkey Day Jamboree is set for Saturday, Nov. 26. In addition to Westlake, New Rochelle and host Briarcliff, Harlem Lacrosse & Leadership’s Middle School B team will be competing in the event, which will be held at the new Club Fields at 25 Scarborough Road in […]

While the number of participants in lacrosse continues to increase rapidly, the number of college programs adding teams has remained relatively stagnant. So it’s noteworthy whenever a college adds a program. That was the case this week when Mount Olive in North Carolina announced it would be fielding a men’s team starting with the 2013 […]

There’s no shortage of contenders to the claim: * Two-time New York State champion Garden City. * West Islip, the eight-time defending Suffolk County champions. * Darien, which had won six Class M Connecticut state titles, before being denied a seventh straight last year. * Always powerful CHSAA heavyweights St. Anthony’s and Yorktown. * Yorktown, […]

Northport is on a roll when it comes to recruiting. As we told you last week, attackman Brian Cannon, one of the nation’s top sophomores, committed to North Carolina. Another Tiger standout has also made a verbal commitment to a Division I program. Junior John Glancy announced his intentions to accept a scholarship offer from […]

Josh Oliver first started playing lacrosse as a youngster because his father thought it would be something he could do during the summer. Nine years later, Oliver has parlayed his lacrosse skills into a college scholarship. The attackman, a Canadian native now attending the Vermont Academy, signed a National Letter of Intent last week to […]

Whether in football or lacrosse, twin brothes Nick and Anthony Grasso have been playing together their entire lives. The Fox Lane seniors, who all played together on the Prime Time travel team, will have one more season as teammates this spring. After that, they’ll be going their separate ways in college. Well, not exactly. You […]

The Fall Early Signing Week is an eight-day window for seniors bound for most Division I and Division II conferences to sign National Letters of Intent. Signing Week ended last week, but senior commitments continue to come in for Division III-bound players. One of the first ones we’ll be taking an up close look at […]

Among the players who signed National Letters of Intent this past week were Trinity Pawling players Dalton Lundy (Hartford, second from left)  and Jimmy Joe Grantino (Loyola, second from right). They were joined by Trinity Pawling head coach Nic Bell (far left) and Headmaster Arch Smith. The National Letter of Intent Fall Early Signing Week […]

Siena College is off to a new start. Brian Brecht, who served as the Saints’ head coach for the last seven seasons, left Loudonville to take over the Rutgers program. Enter John Svec. The new Siena head coach had been an assistant an assistant at Hobart. Despite the transition, there’s little doubt Svec will follow […]

We spent the better part of the last week-plus updating you folks on senior commits as the National Letter of Intent Fall Early Signing Week came and went. Then, on Thursday, the day after the eight-day window for seniors to sign with Division I and Division II college programs ended, came news that one of […]

We have a while to go before various media preseason polls will be released. But, as is an annual late-fall tradition in Long Island, we can now get a rundown of who the coaches think are the best teams. Below are the Nassau and Suffolk seedings, as voted on by the coaches. NASSAU Conference 1 […]

If you thought the end of the National Letter of Intent Fall Early Signing Period would result in a pause in recruiting commitments, think again. Starting early this morning and continuing through the afternoon, we learned of more new verbal commitments, including one involving one of the nation’s top sophomores, attackman Brian Cannon of Northport, […]

Now, here’s a look at another player who made his verbal commitment official by signing an NLI. John O’Connor, a lefty midfielder for the Salisbury School in Connecticut, is bound for the University of Delaware. A strong two-way player, the 5-foot-10, 170-pound O’Connor has exceptional speed and good stick skills. The Canton, N.Y., native, who […]

Rocky Point saw three seniors sign National Letters of Intent, from left: defender Ryan Palasek (Syracuse), midfielder Nick Strano (Manhattan) and midfielder Vincent Loscalzo (Belmont Abbey). Joining them is Rocky Point coach Mike Bowler. The National Letter of Intent Fall Early Signing Week is now history. We had commitments coming in through late last night […]

 Photo by Gene Morris/Smithtown Patch There are just a few hours to go before the Fall National Letter of Intent Early Signing Week for current high school seniors is one for the books. Be sure to check back first thing tomorrow for a rundown of those seniors who are now officially signed and sealed. For […]

National Letter of Intent Fall Early Signing Period ends this Wednesday. Now that we’re almost at the finish line, we can declare a winner as far as the school with the most senior commits. That’s among the topics we discussed in the latest installment of our weekly column on tristate lax for InsideLacrosse.com. You can […]

With three full days left in the Fall Early Signing Week, we’ve been telling you that St. Anthony’s leads the region with 16 senior commits. Well, the Friars’ CHSAA rival, Chaminade, is more than holding its own in this department as well. All told, Chaminade has nine senior commits and seven junior commits. One of […]

There is no shortage of fall lacrosse action going on this weekend, highlighted by the Yale and Stony Brook tournaments. Here’s a quick rundown: Bulldog Fall Classic at Yale University on Saturday, Nov. 12 (Youth/Freshman/JV Tournament) and Sunday, Nov. 13 (High School Tournament). Format: 10 vs. 10, four games guaranteed. For more info on Sunday’s […]

Two of St. Anthony’s 16 college committed seniors are bound for coach Joe Alberici’s program at West Point – Tim Stackpole (left) and Brendan Conroy. The National Letter of Intent Fall Early Signing Period is now in Day 3, with the final day for players bound for all but a handful of conferences in Division […]

The Dobbs Ferry football team starts state playoff action on Saturday when it takes on O’Neill High School at Dietz Stadium in Kingston. The college futures of two of the leading players on that Dobbs team will be in lacrosse – and not football. We told you about midfielder John Yozzo-Scapperrotta, who has committed to […]

Syosset. West Islip. St. Anthony’s. Shoreham-Wading River. Those are among the teams that will be competed in an event we first previewed here a couple of weeks ago – the Battles of the Counties Lacrosse Tournament at Syosset High School. Proceeds benefit BraveGoals4Autism, whose goal is to promote awareness, tolerance and acceptance for kids with […]

As we’ve been telling you, the start of the National Letter of Intent Signing Week is Wednesday. One regional team that better make sure it has plenty of pens ready to go is Avon Old Farms in Connecticut. Avon, after all, has no less than seven college-bound seniors, four of whom are headed to D-I […]

There are, of course, many differences between college football and college lacrosse. One of the main ones is in recruiting. In football, it is rare for varsity stars to commit prior to their senior season. Many of the top prospects, in fact, do not decide on a college until the start of the February signing […]

That effort to promote awareness and acceptance for kids with autism will be on full display on Saturday, Nov. 12 at Syosset High School when varsity and junior varsity teams will be competing in the Battles of the Counties Lacrosse Tournament. That’s among the topics in this week’s column on lax in the region on […]

UMass is making quite an impression among junior standouts in the region. The Minutemen have received verbal commitments from Fairfield Prep defenseman James Marusi, Yorktown attackman Nick Mariano and Sachem North defenseman Tyler Andreassi. Well, add another player to the list. Smithtown West’s Dylan Gruder is the latest Class of 2013 star to decide on […]

Michigan is making its mark. The Wolverines have yet to play a game at the Division I level, but the Big Blue is quickly becoming a big presence on the recruiting trail. Andrew Hatton is the latest standout from the nation’s No. 1 lacrosse hotbed, the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region, to commit to the Wolverines. […]

If you checked our “Updated recruiting review and commitment rundown” yesterday, you learned Sachem North now has 10 seniors who have committed to play in college. The latest verbal for coach Jay Mauro’s Flaming Arrows came from Tyler Novak, who will attend Florida Southern, an up-and-coming Division II program whose roster now includes eight Long […]