Somehow one IAC school achieves dominance in a single sport for a period of time. How's that happen without any systemic advantage and/or a completely unequal amount of emphasis on it? Something in the water on Wilson Lane? Coaching genius? (which mysteriously went away when the football and basketball players from another school decided to play the sport) |
The former Landon head coach (Bordley) was brilliant, and the best to coach from the DC area, the Bears won 4 mythical national championships, all of them post this arbitrary 1997 year you keep referring to. I think the Bears' most recent #1 national ranking was 2017 or 2018? Either way, pretty remarkable to achieve what Bordley's Bears did post 1997. |
What a prince! Let the athletes compete, enjoy some great games, the lacrosse end game is essentially meaningless. NIL in football and hoops, barely anything in lacrosse - in fact, I think a lot of collegiate lacrosse programs are going to have to become self funding in the near future. We will see how that goes. But the guy saying Landon's banners don't count before 1997 is simply comical. Maybe Prep's banners don't count because they have 550 boys, Landon has 340, St. Albans has about the same as Landon, and Bullis, St. Stephens, and EHS have at best half the boys of Prep. So the lame excuse of who is taking what seriously is simply that lame. Prep should win everything because they have more boys, in some cases a lot more boys. Anytime Prep loses, it is a win for the rebellion and a loss for the Evil Empire. The Prep people only believe enrollment doesn't matter when they are the bigger school. Why don't they join the WCAC and get beat up by DeMatha, Gonzaga, Good Council, etc. or why don't they Join the MIAA A Conference? Wait for it... Enrollment matters a lot when you are the smaller school as far as Prep is concerned. They don't want to play the bigger boys... Then they get their Prep Pride hurt. They can be described as classic bullies, they want to pick on the smaller schools, but cower in fear when it comes time to compete against the bigger schools. I am talking about football principally, and pointing out the hypocrisy of the poster who says Landon's Reign in the IAC should not have started until 1997. We will see how it plays out over time. The Dorm can be a huge recruiting advantage, or it can help you kill your program from the top down. The fragile egos of the Prep Alumni are interesting - they can celebrate beating up on smaller schools, they don't like it when they get beat up by bigger schools, they want to have great athletes, but they want to make sure those great athletes are their sons, if their sons aren't playing, then it isn't so great and maybe it is time to move schools or try to get the coach fired, or both. |
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Okay. 90's dads want to fight out history. Cool, but not that interesting. School size is a funny place to go. Amazing that Cornell and Duke can beat Big Ten teams--they have fewer boys!! I don't like Prep either, but encouraging your rival to leave for a bigger conference is also not a great look.
Let's talk about the WCAC final. PVI has been the strongest and most consistent team in the DMV (including Prep), and won the rematch against Gonzaga decisively yesterday. They are the favorite based on their track record and cohesiveness of 11 senior D1-D3 commits who have all played on the same VLC club together for years. Can they keep it rolling in this dream season? SJC comes in playing their best lacrosse of the season. Their 22 senior and junior commits, many to great programs, suggest a big talent gap, but they have been inconsistent for much of the season, and often maligned on this thread. They have something to prove after disappointing finishes to their last two WCAC campaigns. Regular season game at PVI was a one goal win for PVI. PVI -1. But could go either way. Early momentum and physicality may decide this one at G'Town on Monday. |
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PVI vs SJC
I’ll go with PVI as a one goal favorite Should be a classic |
Comparing high school athletics to college is apples and oranges. GP exists in a nether world of too big for the IAC and not big enough and too expensive for the WCAC. The dorm, especially the new dorm, has moved GP closer to the WCAC and much further from the IAC. Just this year, they don't keep the football stars, the chinese bball star or the 5 boarders on lax. Next year's lax team might have as many as 7-8 starting boarders. |
This is a top ten post. Spot on. |
GP Board has moved on from the everyday alumni. The dorm, field and athletic center were primarily built through the donations of 3 families. That's who they focus on and not the dad from MD who thought they had an inside track for their kid to be a starter. Those days left the building about 10 years ago. |
| Episcopal is all boarders. Doesn't seem to have helped them all that much. |
Dei killed episcopal. It’s also half the size. |
Episcopal is a third of the size of GP and is also co-ed. Great analogy though. |
| It doesn’t matter if the school is 1000 or 200, all of the players are effectively “recruited” to the school for lacrosse, Nobody is randomly walking on a lacrosse team, this isn’t kickball. |
PVI wins I hope. Regarding the size of the school, it does matter, to say it doesn't is silly. A challenge for Landon is most of their class comes in well before 9th grade. It is hard to tell how a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grader is going to turn out in High School. Then when it comes to 9th grade admissions, when a lot of families are looking at private schools, Landon has about 15-25 spots. Hard to cover all of your bases, football, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, basketball, wrestling, swimming, etc in only 15 - 25 sports. Don't forget the Band needs a few, so does It's Academic. True, there is the potential advantage of playing in systems, and kids playing together longer... A challenge for Gonzaga and Prep is they need to find 250 freshmen for GZ, and about 150 for Prep. Landon only needs to find 25. The advantage Gonzaga and Prep have is in certainty and volume. You have a much better idea of how a student is going to develop as a 9th grade applicant versus a 5th or 6th grade applicant, and you have a lot more "slots" for each sport. Again, this might be why Prep likes to beat up on smaller schools, but doesn't like to get beat up on by larger schools. The previous poster who mentioned Prep is too small and expensive for the WCAC and too big for the IAC has a good point. That is a problem of their own making. You have DI,II, and III in college sports and the MIAA has an A, B, and C conference. I am not sure how stable the IAC is in football. I suspect each IAC school has a different perspective on what is best for them. Some of the schools have more in common-St. Stephens and Episcopal. Bullis is their own animal. St. Albans and Landon. Then Prep. We will see how it plays out. As far as Lacrosse goes, Landon has done more with less for a couple of years. I credit their coaching staff. Prep has done less with more, but now they might have more with their new coach and more when it comes to recruiting with their dorm. Bullis is in a major transition period, with an excellent Coach in Billestri retiring. Will the administration go all in on resources for the Lacrosse team, will they continue with the JUCO transfer model, or will they be content to pursue some other strategy. Ince is chomping at the bit to build something in Alexandria. Will he get the support from the school? How long will it take him to achieve the success of Tabil? Can he under the current circumstances with the current landscape? The St. Albans coach, Heeter, went on a run this year. Can he continue to improve his team? Smart and gritty can go a long way, but ultimately everyone will need athletes if they are going to compete with what seems to be coming from Prep. Episcopal has gotten a taste of success, they seem to be trying to build, can they do it. Ultimately, a conference that isn't dominated by one or two teams is a better conference and more fun than a conference dominated by one or two teams. |
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Which teams lose the most to graduation?
Who has the best incoming talent? Too early to predict next year? |
SJC has the most incoming freshman talent and it’s not even close. After that I’d put my money on Prep then followed by Landon. Hilgy is more about building through the HS transfer portal, case and point, they already have a transfer fogo coming in next year (a boarder - shocker) |