Maryland: National Champions! A Lacrosse Primer

Sorry I’m late to Maryland Week at OTE. I’m nonetheless basking within the glow of a nationwide championship, which was merely the cherry on prime of a traditionally nice season. Inside Lacrosse simply named this yr’s workforce the fifth greatest lacrosse workforce of all time and the very best workforce of the 2000’s.

Maryland’s perverse obsession with lacrosse is inexplicable to outsiders, kinda like Wisconites’ obsession with cheese curds.

Enjoyable Info about Maryland and Lacrosse:

Maryland has 4 nationwide championships in lacrosse within the final 5 years (I’m ignoring 2020 cuz COVID).

• 2017 – Males’s and Ladies’s lacrosse
• 2019 – Ladies’s lacrosse
• 2022 – Males’s lacrosse.

Together with the 2018 males’s soccer nationwide championship, Maryland is averaging 1 nationwide championship per yr. Six B1G groups haven’t had a single nationwide championship in any sport over the identical time interval. You already know who you might be. However, I’ll name you out anyway as a result of I’m a spiteful jerk (also called a typical Maryland fan): Illinois, Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Purdue, Rutgers.

The Tewaaraton Award is the lacrosse equal of the Heisman Trophy. Maryland males’s lacrosse has produced three Tewaaraton Award winners during the last 5 years (once more, ignoring 2020 cuz COVID)

• Matt Rambo – 2017
• Jared Bernhardt – 2021, and
• Logan Wisnaukus – 2022.

Bernhardt took his additional yr of COVID eligibility and promptly led Ferris State to the D-II Nationwide Championship in soccer and has signed on to play with the Atlanta Falcons within the NFL.

On the ladies’s facet, Maryland palyers have gained the Tewaaraton Award twice of the final 5 years:

• Zoe Stukenberg – 2017 and
• Megan Taylor – 2019.

It additionally bears mentioning the MD gained all 5 Tewaaraton Awards from 2012-2016.

Across the B1G

As a part of Maryland’s inclusion within the B1G beginning in 2014, Johns Hopkins joined the B1G in lacrosse solely. JHU added the requisite sixth workforce to the convention, which allowed the B1G to have an computerized qualifying bid to the NCAA Event.

Maryland-Johns Hopkins lacrosse is a severe rivalry. They’ve performed 124 occasions since 1895. JHU leads the sequence 67-48-1, however MD has gained the final 5 occasions. The annual common season matchup sometimes attracts 10-15K, which is greater than a typical Duke-Northwestern soccer sport.

JHU is a blue-blood program, which was imagined to carry status and credibility to B1G lacrosse. Sadly, they’ve carried out their greatest FSU and The “U” imitations. Each have been imagined to carry credibility and status to ACC soccer. Look how that turned out.

Right here’s the complete roundup of the Large Ten in males’s lacrosse:

• Maryland is the very best program in males’s lacrosse. They’ve misplaced precisely 1 sport during the last two years. The 2021 nationwide championship sport during which they misplaced by 1 purpose to UVA. Since John Tillman was employed, MD has been to 9 of the final 11 Males’s lacrosse Last Fours.
• Ohio State, Rutgers, and Penn State have been strong, every going to a Last 4 during the last 5 years.
• Johns Hopkins has been respectable, however a lot extra was anticipated.
• Michigan has simply been going by way of the motions. I think Delaney informed UM to get a workforce collectively as a result of they, of all of the B1G faculties, had probably the most cash to fund a workforce (take a look at all that cash they preserve throwing at Harbs). However, they actually don’t care about lacrosse and are mailing it in every spring.

So why are we so lacrosse-obsessed?

Jousting was named the official state sport for MD in 1962. Realizing how dumb this was, MD named lacrosse, the official state workforce sport in 2004. Gotta present a hyperlink for one thing this wacky.

My daughter went to public highschool in Howard County, Maryland. She by no means began a single lacrosse sport in highschool. (She would have began her senior yr, however the season was canceled cuz COVID). She simply acquired all-conference honors as a sophomore taking part in D3 lacrosse in school. That’s how talent-rich the lacrosse scene is in Maryland. Can’t crack the first workforce till her senior yr in public highschool, however is all-conference in school as a sophomore. Ridiculous and inexplicable.

Listed here are the rankings for women highschool lacrosse: 5 of the highest 15 and three of the highest 5 faculties are MD faculties.

Listed here are the rankings for boys highschool lacrosse: 4 of the highest 10 and eight of the highest 25 faculties are Maryland faculties.

Lacrosse has its roots in richy-rich elite preps faculties within the Northeast. Given its roots, lacrosse nonetheless tends to be not a really racially numerous sport. Nevertheless, that’s altering shortly. Its recognition is rising quickly alongside the east coast, west coast and throughout Florida and partly in Texas. The midwest, not a lot, significantly the higher midwest, the place hockey nonetheless guidelines.

Intro to Lacrosse

For these , beneath is a 32-minute spotlight of Maryland’s victory on this yr’s quarterfinal sport of the NCAA event towards Virginia.

It reveals a number of slo-mo replays that specify the performs and serves as a pleasant option to recognize lacrosse performed at a excessive degree. And the way good Maryland was in dominating an excellent UVA workforce.

Notes: possession is awarded to whichever workforce has a participant closest to the ball when it goes out of sure throughout an errant shot on purpose.

Defenders are outfitted with lengthy sticks or brief sticks. Assault gamers are offense solely, Defenders are protection solely, and mid-fielders play offense and protection. A workforce’s greatest defensive weak point is normally their short-stick defensive mid-fielders [SSDMs]. Most groups will slide, which means present defensive assist with their SSDMs, which is when offenses assault. MD caught UVA a number of occasions in mismatches when substituting offensive and defensive gamers. The announcers do a very good job of noting when this occurred.