You could fill an ocean with what you don’t know about lacrosse.
New RUMLAX Commit
- Thread starter Caliknight
- Start date
In terms of what? What have I said that is in correct. Enlighten me. 9 years zero trips to the NCAA’s
The landscape of Rutgers in general has made it very difficult for us to get kids from certain towns. It's a culture issue beyond what Rutgers lacrosse has been able to control (and something that has been an issue before Brecht arrive). One of the major issues was our facilities. When kids are coming In With a poor opinion of New Brunswick and then saw our poor facilities it was even harder to compete with the blue bloods.
I'm not making excuses, and I think it's time we get to the next level, but Brecht has made us into a contender every year with a fraction of the resources other teams had or have.
+1
But pretty soon that won't be the case (facilities, academic support - financial + classroom, NB itself) and like in FB I wonder what the excuse will be from those "ABR" HS's @asgot is talking about. At least in FB those players/families/coaches can point to the W/L record or the scheme. Not the case in MLAX.
Give me the Bridgewater kid/family who already gets us and soon to be Shore kid/family who seem to be getting onboard.
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These are all fair points, but as a NJ HC ( that’s what you said you are right?) do you have any concern that their are no NJ guys on the staff and that one of the staff guys does not even live in NJ? Is that right or is that just a rumor.
I personally love the staff. I've talked to all 4 this week. Two live in my community. They are on top of recruiting kids and are heavily involved. nj connections never got us kids to be honest. Once we get the new facilities I think it will make recruiting a few of our NJ communities much easier.
Once the Rodkin center and the practice field is done we will have as good of not better dedicated facilities than anyone, and this is why I want them to keep the bubble, but they will find some other excuse just like they do for the academic side. I do a lot of independent contracting and you would not believe the stuff people say about Rutgers. Just completely inaccurate stuff.
*We have all heard this kind of thing for awhile, even from family and friends but worst of all...the uninformed alum. But sooner or later those excuses will fall flat for MLAX. Although the cultural thing @gef21 talks about is very true and will be tough to overcome just because.
* Mentioned this on the Issues Board but I am in a social circle ($$$, neighborhoods, HSs) like the places you're talking about but the Central NJ version where I hear it way too often. Though when told where some of the children are going...not worried for Rutgers.
And no reason to teardown the Bubble until it has out lived its life expectancy and becomes unsafe.
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It's been stated before but unfortunately most players and their families from towns like Mountain Lakes, Summit, Westfield, Ridgewood, etc would rather not go to college than go to Rutgers. This bias has existed long before Coach Brecht got here and it may never change no matter how successful RU lax becomes. That said, thankfully those places are becoming less relevant as lacrosse expands beyond traditionally white high ses communities. Brecht will get it done.
A bit of an overstatement given the Ridgewood goalie in the current roster but there's certainly some historical truth. And part of it is the ability in those communities to afford to send their kids to private universities (Lehigh, Georgetown) and out of state public colleges. For literally half a century or more RU did little to sell itself to those families so you'd have the "cool" publics of the day like Delaware or for non-lax like Vermont with a leg up.
True and I think we have a commitment from a Delbarton kid. But those negative attitudes are going to take a lot of winning and success before they change.
That is a blanket statement that doesn’t address where we came from and the strides that Brecht has made. If you understood this you would know that MLAX is in the best shape in its long history.
As far as recruiting, the fact that you think the roster needs to be filled with NJ kids shows that you don’t really know much about the state of HS lax today. There is a good amount of talent in NJ but lax is exploding at the HS level across the nation but not at the D1 level which means there are FAR more D1 caliber players around the country than scholarships available. The players we are landing come form all corners and are as good or better than all but maybe the top few NJ players. Should we recruit lesser Jersey players just because they are from NJ? We do fine with many of the top NJ public school players but we always have and likely always will struggle with the top private school and some of the wealthier public school kids. They are mostly Duke, ND or Ivy bound and don’t see that changing any time soon.
Recruiting NJ used to be a bigger deal when we were funded at in-state rates, it was tough to make the scholarship budget stretch when recruiting OOS kids. But we are now funded at OOS rates so in our out of state makes less of a difference, but this has only been since Hobbs came on board. Brecht is going out and getting the best athletes he can regardless of location, as he should. We are blessed geographically in lax because we are in the epicenter of lax talent between, NJ, LI, upstate NY, MD, eastern PA. All of these areas are within a 5 hr drive so there are lots of local options. But there is so much raw talent in places that are not traditional lax hot beds, like UT, TX, CA, etc. Brecht would be crazy to ignore these areas, especially because kids in those places often have a higher opinion of Rutgers than NJ kids and that goes well beyond lax.
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That is a blanket statement that doesn’t address where we came from and the strides that Brecht has made. If you understood this you would know that MLAX is in the best shape in its long history.
As far as recruiting, the fact that you think the roster needs to be filled with NJ kids shows that you don’t really know much about the state of HS lax today. There is a good amount of talent in NJ but lax is exploding at the HS level across the nation but not at the D1 level which means there are FAR more D1 caliber players around the country than scholarships available. The players we are landing come form all corners and are as good or better than all but maybe the top few NJ players. Should we recruit lesser Jersey players just because they are from NJ? We do fine with many of the top NJ public school players but we always have and always will struggle with the top private school and some of the wealthier public school kids. They are mostly Duke, ND or Ivy bound and don’t see that changing any time soon.
Recruiting NJ used to be a bigger deal when we were funded at in-state rates, it was tough to make the scholarship budget stretch when recruiting OOS kids. But we are now funded at OOS rates so in our out of state makes less of a difference, but this has only been since Hobbs came on board. Brecht is going out and getting the best athletes he can regardless of location, as he should. We are blessed geographically in lax because we are in the epicenter of lax talent between, NJ, LI, upstate NY, MD, eastern PA. All of these areas are within a 5 hr drive so there are lots of local options. But there is so much raw talent in places that are not traditional lax hot beds, like UT, TX, CA, etc. Brecht would be crazy to ignore these areas, especially because kids in those places often have a higher opinion of Rutgers than NJ kids and that goes well being lax.
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A couple of things, first I never said all of the kids need to come from NJ but it appears that the kids he is recruiting g are not coming from traditional NJ hotbed schools.
I have been told that NJ is actually pretty elite and with the exception of Long Island and Baltimore as good or better than anywhere else.
I do not think that you understand how scholarships work.
But thanks for your opinions.
+1
But pretty soon that won't be the case (facilities, academic support - financial + classroom, NB itself) and like in FB I wonder what the excuse will be from those "ABR" HS's @asgot is talking about. At least in FB those players/families/coaches can point to the W/L record or the scheme. Not the case in MLAX.
Give me the Bridgewater kid/family who already gets us and soon to be Shore kid/family who seem to be getting onboard.
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I have a friend who lives in BR and says that there team probably 9 D1 kids on it. How is that possible and none of them are going to RU. I thought their coach was an RU guy
I really don’t care where they come from, I care about whether or not they can play at this level and within our system and Brecht has done a good job of identifying players that fit that mold.
Yes, NJ has a lot of talent though not at the level of LI or MD. Probably closer to upstate NY. The difference is that in NJ, has historically been a rich kids sport. For a long time it was only offered on prep schools and some of the wealthier districts. It has since grown beyond that but the talent is still highly concentrated in those areas, which is not historically a favorable demographic for Rutgers. If you exclude the handful of traditional powerhouses schools, the talent in NJ is just average. Compare that to LI where there are nearly 200 HS and almost every single one has boys lax and has for decades. It is not really a considered as much of a rich kids sport there.
And I am fairly certain that I am much more well informed about how scholarships in lax work than most posters on this board.
Pennsylvania, particularly Eastern Pennsylvania, and Central New York (West Genny and Fayetteville-Manlius) might take issue with that. But if NJ talent is on a par with those areas it's because of the upscale schools, (Delbartonn, Mountain Lakes, Ridgewood) that RU has struggled to recruit for decades no matter who was HC. The fact that Grant Ament can be recruited by Penn State out if Haverford Prep shows that Rutgers, the SCHOOL, not the HC has work to do.
* Agree. The first question should always be: can they play at this level? Not: what's his zip code?
+ The "cultural" thing talked about earlier. Tough one to overcome.
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it is interesting that you bring him up. There is kind of an interesting story behind his recruitment that I will not share on an open forum. But if you knew you may have a slightly different view of your statement.
But you do not take into account the more working class areas like Hunterdon Central and Bridgewater (BR has won as many TOC's as Lakes and more than Ridgewood) and they have several BR kids in the past.
I always thought the label "working class" was odd. Do people in high income area not work?
Actually I do. I'm saying that to be equated with PA and Central New York for talent NJ Lax has to include BOTH the upscale schools and what, for a better word, I the working class programs. And while PSU can recruit from both (Ament) RU struggles
After our facility is built and assuming proper investments are made around coaching salaries and support, it is then that you can truly compare apples to apples. We’ve been fighting with one hand behind our back. For those paying attention, two of our last 3 recruits are a Syracuse flip and one of the best kids lax athletes in NJ.
Ascot’s understanding is near zero. Which wouldn’t be bad if he did t think he knew everything. Close to being put on ignore/
Absolutely. The level of ignorance is mind numbing.
If we weren’t blatantly snubbed two years in a row we wouldn’t even be having this conversation
There was a coach who didn't officially live in NJ at one time (though he spent his time there) right after being hired and wanting his kid to finish the school year. That changed.
But let's let Ascot answer, because he knows everything apparently.
Why does it matter? Are Rutgers coaches required to live in NJ?
That's ridiculous if it is a requirement.
It doesn't. The guy was hired before he had a chance to move his family. He spent all his time in NJ. It's Ascot trying to act like he knows something and present obstacles for some reason. It's really odd.
There's gotta be hundreds of Rutgers employees that live in other states. Maybe thousands.
It's a non issue. He had to get his family moved after coming on board late in the process. It's no big deal. In fact, it's part of the reason he took the job. He's from NY.
Is that jackass Asgot still going on? I'm glad I have him on ignore. Probably a scumbag Cuse fan in RU clothing.