Hey gang –
I spent most of this sun-shiny, pleasant day at Day 1 of the second annual Maverik Showtime National Recruiting Spotlight at Western Connecticut University’s West Campus in Danbury.
We will have updates throughout the week as well as video interviews and highlights. So be sure to check back for that.
The invitation-only event includes 160 of the top rising sophomores and rising juniors in the nation.
And I do mean nation. There are players competing this week from Las Vegas, Florida, Kentucky and Oregon as well as the traditional hotbeds and the nation’s No. 1 lax hotbed the New York/Connecticut LaxLessons.com region.
The players spent most of today checking in and getting set up with the their dorm rooms, getting their roommate assignments, etc.
After that, each team had an hour-long practice, and then games began.
There will be games all week from 9-11 a.m., 1-3 p.m. and 5-7 p.m.
The all-star game, which attracts the most attention from college coaches, will be held on Wednesday night at 7:30.
It’s early, of course, but here are a few players to keep an eye on as the week unfolds:
- Read “Comments” portion of this thread for many other names of those participating. If you have any questions regarding who else is attending, etc., fire away and I’ll answer back.
Reach Joe Lombardi at joe@laxlessons.com.
Your source for the latest recruiting news
Posted In: Recruiting Rundown
Hey J-Lo. Who else is there from JJ??? Thanx. You continue to be the man!
P–Reigns
There is quite a contingent from John Jay. In the lobby of the dorm at check-in, it seemed like every time I turned around, there was another John Jay kid walking in.
In addition to Daniello and Walter, the following are also playing:
Jack Stewart, midfield, rising junior
Jimmy Morris, midfield, rising junior
Jake Weil, midfield, rising junior
Billy Pray, attack, rising junior
LOL. Good to see the 2010 state champs are well represented!!
Both Daniello and Walter have had good summers so far. From the comments that I’ve read on Insidelacrosse.com Daniello was one of the best rising juniors at the Nike Blue Chip Camp, he and other attackmen (Bitter, Stanwick, Connelly, etc…) dominated the camp.
Also Walter lit it up at the Blue Chip 225 camp. Comments from IL’s Zack Frank:
Forrest Walter (M/John Jay, NY) – my favorite player of the day; Good size and athleticism; Dodges down and backs into guy, switching direction, and gets good step on man towards net; Hard whip shot both ways; Has a very calm, composed demeanor when he has the ball in his stick; Extremely smart baller when finds himself in a jam, protects his stick and pulls the ball out.
Caviola (rising junior, defense) from Jay also at Showtime. Brendan Morris (John Jay, attack, rising junior) is playing. Jimmy Morris ( John Jay, midfield, rising junior) out with an injury.
More John Jay players at Showtime keep trickling in.
Caviola as well as Malcolm Winter, bringing our total to eight (including the injured Jimmy Morris) which is the most of any school.
Here’s the updated rundown:
Mike Daniello, attack, John Jay, rising junior
Forrest Walter, midfield, John Jay, rising junior
Jack Stewart, midfield, rising junior
Jake Weil, midfield, rising junior
Billy Pray, attack, rising junior
Trevor Caviola, defense, rising junior
Malcolm Winter, defense, rising junior
Jimmy Morris, midfield, rising junior, injured
If you’re interested in who’s attending from other schools, just let me know here, and I’ll fill you in.
Westrock represents with a solid contingent:
Keiran Donahue Somers A Nifty skills, good size, good head, one to watch
Mike Zavarella Ossining D Good skills, fast; outruns middies, another one to watch
Connor Ferguson Mamaroneck D Skilled and nimble, 15 yrs, could/should play up, Class of 2012
Mike Morley Irvington D Aggressive, bruiser, learning team D and improving quickly
??George Lodge Fox Lane A???
U18 coach Brian Smith is in camp.
Are there separate 2011 and 2012 groups, or are they all mixed in?
Darwinian, survival of the fittest, all mixed in.
It’s mixed with a combination of rising sophomores and rising juniors. (Remember, there are no rising seniors at this event.)
There are eight teams one more than last year with 20 players per team. The breakdown is five attackmen, eight middies, five d-men and two goalies. Paul Carcaterra, co-director of the camp along with Joe Ceglia and Mike Springer, said he thinks it’s the perfect roster breakdown to allow for plenty of playing time for everyone.
Also, FYI – James Bitter, who I noted in the main body of this thread, is the younger brother of UNC star Billy Bitter.
who is there from town…anybody??
Joe, don’t forget about Brendan Morris, you have his brother listed (out with injury) but not Brendan. Makes the total 9 players from JJ?! Thats pretty crazy. Love to have highlights from you throughout the week, thanks.
Joe, of the names you had on your watch list, I am least familiar with Darien’s Case Matheis. Do you have any details on him? Saw a lot of talk about him on the Blue Chip blog
Joe, besides the 2 Somers players you mentioned above were there others or is there someplace on-line that has the list? Tks
Towny –
Interestingly enough, just one player from Yorktown. That’s Tyler Fahey, a rising junior defenseman. This is the same event that Kevin Interlicchio performed well enough last year at to lock up a scholarship offer from Johns Hopkins.
Freelaxer –
I suspect by the end of the week there will be 15 John Jay players. Just kidding. (I think.)
Town 22 –
Case Matheis started at attack as a freshman for five-time state champion Darien this year. Enough said. He has the potential to be one of the best offensive players to come out of Jeff Brameier’s Blue Wave program in years. He is a small, quick and agile player. I’ll have more on him in the coming days. He’s joined by the following Darien players:
Tony Britton, defense, rising sophomore.
Jonathan Magnusson, attack, rising sophomore.
Old Rugger –
Anthony Lombardo, a rising junior midfielder from Somers, is also at Showtime.
Here is the link to the Showtime Web site:
http://showtimelax.com
There is no listing of players participating there or anywhere else online, however. But again, I do have the rosters, so if anyone has any questions as to who is participating and from what schools, etc., just fire away.
Finally, here’s the latest updated listing of John Jay players at Showtime. Stay tuned for further additions.
Heres the updated rundown:
Mike Daniello, attack, John Jay, rising junior
Forrest Walter, midfield, John Jay, rising junior
Jack Stewart, midfield, rising junior
Jake Weil, midfield, rising junior
Billy Pray, attack, rising junior
Trevor Caviola, defense, rising junior
Malcolm Winter, defense, rising junior
Brendan Morris, attack, rising junior
Jimmy Morris, midfield, rising junior, injured
Anthony Lombardo is the other Westrock player, not George Lodge…although Lodge should probably be there too! Good eye Joe.
Regarding the JJ contingent, not sure if there are any other juniors at showtime – but I believe that Alex Lanza and Mike Lupinacci are up at Peak 200 this week up in Mass.
Interesting note from Showtime today, gang.
Mike Daniello, rising junior from John Jay, had two goals and three assists as his team pulled out an 8-7 win over the team coached by his brother, Syracuse standout Chris Daniello.
We will have a video interview with the Daniellos we did this afternoon coming up here shortly.
Also check back for interviews we conducted with James Bitter, (attack, Deerfield Academy, rising junior and a native of Manhasset) and Case Matheis (attack, Darien, rising sophomore).
I heard there were some Florida players there. Can you please name them and their school? Thanks!
Hi Amy –
One of the things I’ve been most impressed with this week is not only how athletic players are from the non-tradition hotbeds but how fluid they are as well.
Quite a few of them have been playing the sport longer than you would expect.
Michael Nugent, a rising junior goaltender from Alpharetta, Ga., has been playing lax for six years.
Now, to the info on the players from Florida you requested. They are:
Dave Moore, goal, Longwood/Lake Mary HS, rising sophomore
Dominic Moriarty, goal, Fort Myers/Riverdale HS, rising junior
Chris Lewis, attack/midfield, Jacksonville/Boiles School, rising junior
Wilson Clayton, midfield, Orlanndo/Lake High Prep, rising sophomore
Davis Anderson, midfield, Winter Park/Lake High Prep, rising sophomore
Austin Tamayo, attack/midfield, Ovideo/Lake High Prep, rising sophomore
Cody Prizer, defense, Maitland/Lake Highhland Prep, rising sophomore
Among the college coaches on hand today at the Maverik Showtime National Recruiting Spotlight were head coach Scott Marr (Albany) and assistant coaches Pat Myers (North Carolina) and Frank Vitolo (C.W. Post).
There should be a large contingent of college coaches Wednesday at 7:30 for the all-star game at 7:30 p.m.
Will you be able to post the all-star roster?
They should just have the JJ kids play an all star team tonight for the all star game lol.
Joe – Great job covering this event. Who is there from WI or other top LI programs?
Joe – keep the updates coming! What’s happened today? Any chance you could post the entire invitation list or a link to it somewhere?
Thanks, guys. I will be heading up there for the all-star game tonight. The rosters have not yet been selected. I will have plenty of info on the game and who was impressive, etc. We will also have video interviews and video highlights.
Lions Den –
No one from West Islip. Here’s a sampling of some LI kids at Showtime that I haven’t mentioned yet in this thread:
Jake Gambitsky, goal, Wantagh, rising junior
Brian Coyne Jr., goal, St. Anthony’s, rising junior
Anthony Lomangino, goal, Hicksville, rising junior
Luke Spitzer, midfield, Lynbvrook, rising sophomore
Steven Marrandino, midfield, Lynbrook, rising junior
Ryan Matthews, midfield, Manhasset, rising sophomore
Jeremy Morgan, midfield, Longwood, rising junior
Jonathan Morgan, midfield, Longwood, rising junior
Matthew Clarkstown, attack, Chaminade, rising junior
Matt Kavanagh, attack/midfield, Chaminade, rising junior
Roger Coleman, defense, Manhattan, rising sophomore
OK, Joe – Could we get a list of Section 1 invitees?
Sure. Here are players not yet mentioned in the main thread or the comments portion of this thread from Section 1 and private schools in that area:
Conor Fraylick, goal, Pleasantville, rising junior
Christian Bonaventure, midfield, Rye, rising junior
Jack Near, attack/midfield, Bronxville, rising junior
Ricky Marrano, midfield, Iona Prep, rising junior
Charlie Shugrue, midfield, Harrison, rising junior
Charlie McCormick, midfield, Bronxville, rising junior
Spencer Repp, midfield, Scarsdale, rising sophomore
Nicholas Grasso, midfield, Fox Lane, rising sophomore
Anthony Grasso, defense, Fox Lane, rising sophomore
Timothy Curran, midfield, North Salem, rising junior
Brandon Bonistall, attack, Harrison, rising junior
Frank von Megren, defense, Bronxville, rising junior
Luke Dutton, defense, Bronxville, rising junior
Michael Zavarella, defense, Ossining, rising junior
Michael Morley, defense, Irvington, rising junior
Connor Ferguson, defense, Mamaroneck, rising junior
Darien Bica, defense, Dobbs Ferry, rising sophomore
And CT?
Section 1:
Connor Ferguson, D, Mamaroneck, rising Soph
🙂
From Connecticut, these are players not mentioned already in the main body of this post or in previous comments:
Will Driscoll, goal, Brunswick, rising sophomore
Colin Fortuner, midfielder, Litchfield (Masters School), rising junior
Daniel Grenier, midfielder, Danbury, rising junior
Eric Uhl, midfield, Simsbury (Masters School), rising junior
Ryan Cholnoky, attack/midfield, Greenwich (Westminster), rising junior
Chad Crisco, attaxck/midfield, Daniel Hand, rising junior
Jonathan Magnusson, attack, Darien, rising sophomore
Ian Ardrey, attack, Greenwich (Deerfield Academy), rising sophomore
Tony Britton, defense, Darien, rising sophomore
Kip McMahon, defense, Weston, rising sophomore
Matthew Shannon, defense, Ridgefield, rising junior
Malcolm Winter, John Jay D. played with a broken wrist. Ended up playing with a cast under his glove.
I saw Malcolm play, he still had great stick skills
Just to set the record straight, Connor Ferguson is a rising Jr. Only 15 which might be the cause for the confusion. Great stick and a vacuum on groundballs. Went with the HV team to NY shootout.
Congrats to Prime Time’s Merlino. He played like an all-star and deserved it
Hotbeds should apologize to Charlie and Forrest Walter and list them as having been chosen as all-stars on their website. It is the proper and fair thing to do.
and how about that Prime Time defense?! they were tough, they were everywhere, and there was great communication between them all.
The games Weds. had no meaning or purpose. They were a waste of time and money without having a proper playoff system. People could have gone home the day before. Why have the teams play a meaningless game?
I agree roLAX… I guess they want people leaving feeling like they got their money’s worth, but a consolation round or something is in order. Or just include everyone in the playoffs.
I think the problem they have though is that most of the coaches and scouts blow out of town after the all star game. But if they hold the all star game for last then they have grumpy coaches and scouts to deal with.
It’s a quandry.
Joe-
Out of the 3 Darien Players, 2 were all stars. What makes Case Matheis and Tony Britton all stars at this camp
Where is the talent in Darien Besides Case Matheis. Rising Sophmore wise.
At HotBeds PrimeTime had 4 guys selected as all-stars the team was the walking wounded. Everyone picked it up. The defense was incredible! 5 guys, 3 down low, LSM no subs. The goalies were great. The last day everyone was fed up so they messed around with positions and still won. 1 loss Without a playoff it’s a kissoff. Hotbeds to Primetime “Thanks you for coming”
Interesting reading this from the summer to see how the kids are doing now.
Greg Stern- Rye High School- rising junior attack.