As The End of September Nears, College Lacrosse's top prospects choose their next four years
September 1st, a day that college lacrosse coaches across nation circled on their calendars. This is the day that college coaches can start to recruit their newest recruiting classes when they are juniors. This “September 1st”, that was established a few years ago, has created more hype around the up and coming high schoolers around the country. Before this rule was implemented, student athletes were committing to colleges in their 8th and 9th grade years in fear of top schools filling out their recruiting classes. This rule has changed the kind of publicity these kids receive throughout high school. No one greater than Brennan O’Neil, lefty attackman for St. Anthonys High School in Long Island. He found his way home in Durham at Duke University. There was no high school lacrosse player who was more polarizing than Brennan O’Neil. Until this passed year… enter Joey Spallina.
Joey Spallina was this years number one recruit in the nation playing Mount Sinai in you guessed it, Long Island. Joey Spallina comes from a lacrosse family where his father played in the MLL and now is the head coach of the Stony Brook Women's team. Spallina is a stockier attackman that can use his body to get to his powerful right hand creating offensive opportunities for his team. Spallina committed to Syracuse University, a power house, and is destined to wear the legendary “22”. No surprise here, knowing that he is a New York native and stated that it was his dream to wear number 22 at Syracuse. His list was narrowed down to Maryland, Loyola, UVA, UNC, and obviously Syracuse. Hopefully Spallina lives up to his hype; he has at his High School in Long Island but college is totally different game and we hope best for the kid.
The number 2 ranked commit in the class of 2022 is Dom Pietramala. If the name sounds familiar, that's because it is. Dom is the son of legendary head coach Dave Pietramala, no surprise that this kid has the talent. He is a long lefty attackman for the dominant Boy’s Latin School in Baltimore. No doubt this kid can play, killing it in the power MIAA-A conference that historically has been one of the most talented. Dom has chosen to spend his college years at the University of North Carolina. His top four choices were UNC, Penn State, Syracuse, and Denver. This is definitely a blow to Johns Hopkins because they would have been in the mix if the school did not let his dad go. Dom will also join his twin brother at UNC who is a very talented LSM and defensemen.
As the top of class of 2022 is making their picks day after day one school has been missing from the mix. Duke University. I know for a fact there will be plethora of talent coming to Duke in the class of 2022 but after Duke landslide victory in this past summers Covid-19 lacrosse free agency, I would have thought many young men would want to join this team of studs. I am not saying there is trouble in paradise for the Blue Devils in the future but it is a bit odd that they are not scooping up a majority of the top recruits. Always very exciting to see where these kids choose to spend their next four years but it is even more exciting to watch them when they make it to the big stage.
Nick Arcuri- 27