Big College Admissions Year at St. Albans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's the fixation on St. Albans lacrosse players? The big spring sport at St. Albans is not lacrosse;it's CREW. The team traditionally finishes among the top five high school eights in the USA. They were runner-up at the scholastic nationals this year to an exceptionally talented Gonzaga team. The second largest interest among the boys is BASEBALL. Lacrosse seems to be the third or fourth choice by many of the boys for their spring sport. Therefore, they don't have the depth that many of their opponents do. It is a credit to a small core of boys and their coaches that they have remained competitive in the best lacrosse league in the area. The boys tend to go to schools where they can contribute, not just put on gear and be a member of the fraternity.

True to some extent; however, such is the strength of IAC lacrosse that St. Albans currently has more lacrosse players playing Division I than baseball players (in other words, although baseball is traditionally better at St. Albans than lacrosse; in this AREA lacrosse is better in national terms than baseball, and that is reflected in the numbers of Division I lacrosse vs. baseball (still very good).

Off-hand, this past year St. Albans had lacrosse players at the follwing Division I schools (tons more at Division III schools):
Yale
Dartmouth
Princeton
Brown
Naval Academy
University of Virginia (2)

There are also a bunch of crew guys rowing but the Ivies and other traditional rowing powers are now mining Eastern Europe and New Zealand for rowers so that cuts into the the number of STA alums rowing at the college level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the fixation on St. Albans lacrosse players? The big spring sport at St. Albans is not lacrosse;it's CREW. The team traditionally finishes among the top five high school eights in the USA. They were runner-up at the scholastic nationals this year to an exceptionally talented Gonzaga team. The second largest interest among the boys is BASEBALL. Lacrosse seems to be the third or fourth choice by many of the boys for their spring sport. Therefore, they don't have the depth that many of their opponents do. It is a credit to a small core of boys and their coaches that they have remained competitive in the best lacrosse league in the area. The boys tend to go to schools where they can contribute, not just put on gear and be a member of the fraternity.

True to some extent; however, such is the strength of IAC lacrosse that St. Albans currently has more lacrosse players playing Division I than baseball players (in other words, although baseball is traditionally better at St. Albans than lacrosse; in this AREA lacrosse is better in national terms than baseball, and that is reflected in the numbers of Division I lacrosse vs. baseball (still very good).

Off-hand, this past year St. Albans had lacrosse players at the follwing Division I schools (tons more at Division III schools):
Yale
Dartmouth
Princeton
Brown
Naval Academy
University of Virginia (2)

There are also a bunch of crew guys rowing but the Ivies and other traditional rowing powers are now mining Eastern Europe and New Zealand for rowers so that cuts into the the number of STA alums rowing at the college level.

Spot on re: lacrosse. I'm just curious whether the great admissions year for STA was fueled in part by sports recruits, and if so, how many were from lacrosse.

[Anonymous]

It really wasn't a sports thing at the Ivies this year. Of Ivy admits with a sports connection, I can think of one baseball player; one heavyweight crew prospect (who also happens to be a Presidential Scholar); two probable lightweight crew athletes (also great students). So maybe 4 out of 24 of the Ivy/Stanford admits will do a sport in college, and they were all really excellent students to start with, with the one guy being stratospheric (only 140 Presidential Scholars in the USA).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's the fixation on St. Albans lacrosse players? The big spring sport at St. Albans is not lacrosse;it's CREW. The team traditionally finishes among the top five high school eights in the USA. They were runner-up at the scholastic nationals this year to an exceptionally talented Gonzaga team. The second largest interest among the boys is BASEBALL. Lacrosse seems to be the third or fourth choice by many of the boys for their spring sport. Therefore, they don't have the depth that many of their opponents do. It is a credit to a small core of boys and their coaches that they have remained competitive in the best lacrosse league in the area. The boys tend to go to schools where they can contribute, not just put on gear and be a member of the fraternity.

Lacrosse is plainly the dominant spring sport in this area for prep school boys who are capable, including Gonzaga. There are plenty of other sports golf, tennis, crew, baseball, track for those who aren't Laxers -- but lets be honest about which sport draws huge crowds in the spring and merits coverage on the front page. STA has had a rough spell and it can't help to be competing against the best in the country - losing isn't fun.

[Anonymous]

Next fooball and basketball, lacrosse is terms of coverage is the next most popular sport in the DC area. You don't see many soccer or baseball games attract over 2,000 fans for a game.

[Anonymous]

@6:43

Maybe lacrosse draws big crowds in your corner of the world, but it is a fringe sport to most of the United States, much less globally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Next fooball and basketball, lacrosse is terms of coverage is the next most popular sport in the DC area. You don't see many soccer or baseball games attract over 2,000 fans for a game.

I haven't seen any high school lacrosse games attract 2000 fans either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Next fooball and basketball, lacrosse is terms of coverage is the next most popular sport in the DC area. You don't see many soccer or baseball games attract over 2,000 fans for a game.

I haven't seen any high school lacrosse games attract 2000 fans either.

Then you must be stuck watching violin recitals. The Landon-Prep games typically attract over 4,000 fans. This year, games between Gonzaga and either Prep or Landon easily exceeded that number as well.

[Anonymous]

So glad that this thread has turned to a discussion of sports. It is, after all, the most important thing in the U.S. Too bad the over-emphasis on sports in this country has led to the Penn State situation, Lance Armstrong doping, future-threatening concussions, and kids getting into college who can barely read. Oh, well -- it's only a game, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are the final numbers for STA this year: (These are matriculation numbers, graduating class size of 77)

Harvard 6
Yale 5
Dartmouth 4
U Penn 4
Michigan 3
Georgetown 3
Colorado 3
Wake Forest 3
Columbia 2
BU 2
William and Mary 2
Franklin and Marshall 2
Middlebury 2
Northwestern 2
Sewanee 2
GW 2
U of Cal santa barbara 2
UVA 2
1 at Bowdoin,Charleston, Cornell, Princeton, Elon, Hartwick, Kenyon, Macalaster, Purdue, Rhodes, SMU, Stanford, St Olaf, Trinity, Tufts, Tulane, Navy, U of Chicago, Maryland, Ole Miss, St Andrews, Wisconsin, Wash U, Wesleyan

You can add Brown to the list, according to kid grapevine (student admitted off wait list).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So glad that this thread has turned to a discussion of sports. It is, after all, the most important thing in the U.S. Too bad the over-emphasis on sports in this country has led to the Penn State situation, Lance Armstrong doping, future-threatening concussions, and kids getting into college who can barely read. Oh, well -- it's only a game, right?

Sports is a zero-sum game, right? If anyone talks about sports, they must be an over-the-parent, right? There's no middle ground, correct?

Sorry your child is a complete nerd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't seen any high school lacrosse games attract 2000 fans either.

Then you must be stuck watching violin recitals. The Landon-Prep games typically attract over 4,000 fans. This year, games between Gonzaga and either Prep or Landon easily exceeded that number as well.

Heehee. I don't even follow lacrosse, but that claim is obviously false. From what I can see in photos, there are rarely more than a few hundred fans in the stands at even the championship lacrosse games.

2010 Landon v. Prep video that shows stands at about 0:32-34, and a few other spots, with fewer than 100 people watching
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=F63CR2XNjhk

2010 Landon v. Prep IAC Championship game, with a section of sparsely populated stands in background
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebahniuk/4628621817/

2012 Gonzaga v. Dematha WCAC Championship shot of monochromatic fans.
http://www.thesportsfannetwork.com/photos/2902-boys-lacrosse-wcac-championship-gonzaga-vs-dematha-5-16-2012/168653/

2012 Gonzaga v. Dematha WCAC Championship with wide angle view of stands. You also can see from video of the game on YouTube that the fans sit on only one side of the field, so that's all there is at the WCAC championships.
http://www.thesportsfannetwork.com/photos/2905-boys-lacrosse-wcac-championship-gonzaga-vs-dematha-5-16-2012/168760/?page=1

Plus, here is a description from a local newspaper of the Landon v. Prep match, which doesn't say anything about crowd size, but I just thought was funny.

Minutes before Landon School and Georgetown Prep faced off in one of the bigger boys lacrosse regular-season matchups in the area, Landon’s fans congregated on the sprawling lawn beyond the entrance to Prep’s turf field. They waited there for a while before unleashing a Braveheart-esque battle cry and charging toward the metal bleachers. Then the mob — all of them wearing white polo shirts and khakis — piled into the stands single file, the charge toward the field complete.

I love the detail that their Braveheart charge is in polo shirts and khakis, and that they finish it in a polite single-file line up to the stands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't seen any high school lacrosse games attract 2000 fans either.

Then you must be stuck watching violin recitals. The Landon-Prep games typically attract over 4,000 fans. This year, games between Gonzaga and either Prep or Landon easily exceeded that number as well.

Heehee. I don't even follow lacrosse, but that claim is obviously false. From what I can see in photos, there are rarely more than a few hundred fans in the stands at even the championship lacrosse games.

Are you really that stupid? You think that only a few hundred people show up for the IAC lacrosse championship? That "evidence" you cited is laughable. From that first video, it shows the people on the visitor's side. There are many more on the home and circling the field.

As you noted, you don't even follow lacrosse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't seen any high school lacrosse games attract 2000 fans either.

Then you must be stuck watching violin recitals. The Landon-Prep games typically attract over 4,000 fans. This year, games between Gonzaga and either Prep or Landon easily exceeded that number as well.

Heehee. I don't even follow lacrosse, but that claim is obviously false. From what I can see in photos, there are rarely more than a few hundred fans in the stands at even the championship lacrosse games.

Are you really that stupid? You think that only a few hundred people show up for the IAC lacrosse championship? That "evidence" you cited is laughable. From that first video, it shows the people on the visitor's side. There are many more on the home and circling the field.

Instead of calling me names, why don't you put up some proof of your own? If all you've got is name-calling, I'm not impressed.

[Anonymous]

Your proof is a video that shows one side of the field, a side that has several hundred visitors in the stands.

Why not ask someone who attends the big IAC games how many are in attendance? They'll tell you that you are a fool.