Lax news: World Games, new Offensive Coordinator
Two pieces of interesting lacrosse news:
Conor Ford has been hired as the lax team's new Offensive Coordinator. My reading of the tea leaves sees this as a very positive development for Michigan lacrosse. This is a lateral move from a program that has been on the upswing. Ford is a branch off the Hopkins coaching tree, having been Brian Voelker's OC at Penn and later at Drexel when Voelker moved there. (Voelker was an assistant for Bill Tierney at Princeton and he was Dave Pietramala's D Coordinator at Hopkins before taking over as Head Coach and Penn.)
Link: http://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/conor-ford-to-be-named-michigan-offensive-coordinator/29219
In other news, Michigan grad Harrison Fried is a starting defenseman for the Israeli national lacrosse team, which is currently tearing it up in the FIL World Lacrosse Championships. Team Israel has made the quarterfinals, where it is playing against Australia tonight on ESPN3. (although Israel has a good chance to win through to the semis, their Cinderella run will come crashing down at that point, as they would face Team USA)
I wish Lax recruiting was easier to follow. I have to dig and dig for information.
I am generally pretty happy with this hire, although I really don't know enough about him to judge yet. I do remember watching the Penn-Drexel game this year and wondering why Michigan's offense couldn't look as good as Drexel's. It just seemed like simple fundamentals that they used to expose Penn's defense.
I think his top priority is going to be to develop that dodging/feeding attackman who can serve as the QB of the offense. Hopefully we have some guys coming in or that can step up to a role like that. Some of the recruits I've seen look like they can fill that role, but with the annoyingly early recruiting it doesn't look like they will be on campus for a few years.
Obviously the USA is the powerhouse. I assume Canada is good too (am I correct). Is anyone else even remotely competitive or is this like Women's Ice Hockey?
USA and Canada dominate and it seems like there is a lot of seperation between them and the rest of the field. I haven't seen them play, but I hear the Czech Republic and/or Croatia has some good players. But nobody has the depth like USA and Canada. And the Iroquois Nation has some amazing talent but, again, not deep and perhaps not the resources/coaching as the Big 2.
I was surprised at how easily Team USA dismantled the Iroquois Nation last night. They (USA) seemed to turn it up a notch and Rob Pannell was a beast.