BOYS LACROSSE PREVIEW: Brother Rice remains ahead of the curve

OLSM is ranked #7

By ROSS MAGHIELSE
Of The Oakland Press

While lacrosse is a sport which continues to grow in popularity and quality of performance across the state of Michigan, there is one program right here in Oakland County which has remained ahead of the curve.

Birmingham Brother Rice has dominated the state lacrosse scene even before the sport officially became sanctioned by the Michigan High School Athletic Association in 2005, having won 13 state championships in the last 15 years — including all six Division 1 MHSAA state titles in the sport's sanctioned history. The Warriors won a national championship in 2008. Last season, Brother Rice won the Catholic League, state and Midwest titles, finishing with an overall record of 22-1.

The Warriors expectations are no lower this season.

“We never believe in a rebuilding year with our program,” Brother Rice coach Rob Ambrose said. “We're not shy about it, winning those titles is our expectation every season. It's always been that way. We always tell our kids that this is the year to get it done and we hold every player on our team to high standards.”

Despite heavy losses to graduation from last season's championship, Ambrose remains confident he has the firepower to maintain the program's traditional level of excellence again this season. A big reason for the Warrior's ability to remain consistent is Ambrose's philosophy of bringing along young players quickly.

“What we try to do to the best of our ability is to not rank kids by grade, but by ability,” Ambrose said. “We're going to bring up the best kids and the best kids are going to be the ones on the field, regardless of if they're freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors. In our perfect world, there would be a nice mix so we never have one really young team or have a year with all seniors where we lose everybody the following year. To be honest, this season we're really young, but our kids have the mindset to know that they need to come in and contribute right away. I think what that does is it creates an inner-competitiveness that makes our kids compete every day on the practice field and it somewhat illuminates any complacency from any of the upperclassmen starters.”

Senior attacker Will Meter is a three-year starter and will be relied on to be a consistent force on the offensive end — not that he won't have plenty of help. Junior Riley Kennedy started every game as a sophomore last season and is a talented playmaker while the Warriors' leading scorer from last season, junior Henry Nelson, returns in the midfield. Defensively the Warriors will be anchored by returning two-year starter in net senior Christian Eckert.

One of the biggest challenges Ambrose encounters each season is putting together a schedule difficult enough to challenge and prepare his team for the playoffs. He may have succeeded in doing that this year.

The Warriors play what Ambrose said might be the toughest schedule ever for his program, as they'll be going up against top-of-the-line teams from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ontario, all in addition to competing in a rigorous Catholic League.

Brother Rice has lost two games so far this season, one to New Trier of Illinois and one to the Hill Academy, a perennial power from Ontario. The Warriors have not lost to a school from Michigan since 2002.

Here's a look at the rest of the top 10 teams from Oakland County:

2. Novi Detroit Catholic Central — The Shamrocks were the Division 1 runner-up last season, losing to Brother Rice in a competitive state championship game. This year, Catholic Central is reloaded and ready to make another run at a state title and challenge Brother Rice in the Catholic League.

“To start the year with 20 seniors returning, our anticipation is to be back in the state championship game,” Catholic Central coach Dave Wilson said. “Without question we want to be back at that game. We're working on some things that we need to improve on before we get there, but that's our goal.”

The Shamrocks are off to a 7-3 start and 2-0 so far in the Catholic League. They won't get their first look at Brother Rice until May 3, but should be well-tested with a tough league schedule by the time that game rolls around.

“We expect every game (in the Catholic League) to be a dogfight,” Wilson said. “Each game is its own challenge and they're exhausting.”

Leading the Shamrocks' offensive attack and poised to have an all-state caliber season is senior Tim Urso. Urso is a scoring machine with great speed that flourishes in the quick-hit style of Catholic Central.

Helping to facilitate that offense is another talented playmaker in senior Mitch Burgin.

3. Troy Athens — Athens has established itself as arguably the best public school lacrosse program in Southeast Michigan and certainly in Oakland County. Coming off a 15-4 season a year ago, the Red Hawks are looking to take that next step this season and should be the favorite in the Oakland Activities Association.

“The youth of our team will be the biggest story, after graduating 17 seniors, we are looking for some underclassmen to fill some very large roles on both sides of the ball,” Athens coach Nick Stensen said.

While he will be working with a younger team, Stensen does have the luxury of a strong senior core. Seniors Joe Kemp and Dan Kreza both have strong offensive skills while defenseman Nick Youngerman and goalie Neil Mistry will help thwart off opponents on the defensive end.

Athens is off to a 6-2 start.

4. Pontiac Notre Dame Prep — The Fighting Irish are off to a red-hot 8-0 start and look poised to make another deep postseason run after losing to Forest Hills Central in the Division 2 state championship game last season.

“We've had a good start to the season but we've still got a lot of work ahead of us,” Notre Dame Prep coach Ben Ingram said. “It's a two and half to three month season for a reason and it's really going to take us that long to get to where we need to be, but we're definitely improving every day.”

Senior attacker Brandon Beauregard is a relentless scorer for the Fighting Irish and fellow senior defenseman Joe Gifford provides leadership at the other end of the field. Both players are headed to play at Detroit Mercy next season.

5. Clarkston — The Wolves are off to a 4-1 start and a recent big win over Orchard Lake St. Mary's only further proves that they could be a legitimate threat in the Division 1 state tournament this season.

Junior attacker Jordan Kincaid is a player coach Brian Kaminskas describes as seeing “two passes ahead of the play” and as a very accurate shooter. He's flanked offensively by fellow juniors Kevin O'Grady and Travis Craft and together, the trio forms a potent scoring threat. Senior Matt Burtnett solidifies the defense and junior Kevin Horton runs the transition game from the midfield.

6. Rochester Adams — After separating themselves from the Rochester United lacrosse program which combined all three Rochester schools a few years ago, the Highlanders have become more than self sufficient. This season, Adams boasts a talented and athletic roster with 10 seniors.

Seniors Brad Nylen and Alec Trumble will be key to the Highlanders' success and have helped Adams get off to a 5-2 start.

7. Orchard Lake St. Mary's — St. Mary's lost 25 players from last season's team due to graduation, including four college scholarship players. Needless to say, the Eaglets are a work in progress. But with a young, talented core featuring two freshmen, seven sophomores and eight juniors, their upside is huge.

“It will probably take us 10 games or so to figure out who and what we are,” St. Mary's coach Greg Normand said. “I'm not going to mention anything about possibilities or records at this point because last season it came back to bite me in the butt. … I think we have some talent, but these kids we have now are used to being role players behind kids who are now college players.”

Senior defenseman P.J. Walters, already committed to play at Adrian next season, will be relied on for his leadership with this young team and junior midfielder Spencer McInnis is one of the better faceoff guys in the state. Junior Garrett Anderson is a reliable offensive weapon at the attack position.

“We're just a really young team and right now we're trying to figure out who can do what in certain situations,” Normand said. “At some point somebody is going to need to emerge as a leader and somebody is going to have to step up and be that lead scorer, I had guys like Ian Brambs (now playing at Army) who did both for us the last few years. But you can't find that right away with a team made up of a bunch of guys who collectively have only 20 or so starts.”

While the Eaglets may be a year away from being a very good team, if they continue to progress they could become a tough out for somebody in the playoffs this season.

St. Mary's is off to a 4-5 start, but all five of its losses have come against the state's better teams such as Catholic Central, Brother Rice, Detroit U-D Jesuit, Clarkston and East Grand Rapids.

8. Novi — Novi is an up-and-coming program and the Wildcats could be poised for their best season yet. So far, Novi is off to a 4-1 start.

9. Bloomfield United — Coming off a 10-6 season a year ago, Bloomfield coach Aaron Sims is looking for his program to take that next step and make a potential deep run in the state tournament this season. Ari Cicurel, Keegan Kelly and Danny Cole will be pivotal to Bloomfield's success this season.

10. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood —

Typically one of the area's better programs, Cranbrook should be an interesting team to follow this season as the Cranes will be going through a significant transition period after losing 15 players from a team which lost to Notre Dame Prep in the state semifinals last season. Under the direction of interim coach John Giampetroni, the Cranes will be relying on the quick development of some young offensive players.

Defensively, Cranbrook does have some leadership and stability with senior defenseman Mack Gembis and goalie Ryan Clair.

“This is a young team with a lot of new kids out there at the varsity level for the first time and when you have that, the offense is always going to come later,” Giampetroni said. “There's a huge amount of growth every time the kids are on the field and it's clicking along at a pretty good pace and they'll continue to learn and get better. We coach and we train to compete at a high level even if you are retooling a whole team in one year, so our expectations are still pretty high.”

Mathew Giampetroni is a young attacker who could emerge as the dominant scorer for Cranbrook as the season progresses. After losing their first three games of the year, the Cranes have run off three straight wins.

Five other teams to watch

1. South Lyon

2. Rochester United

3. Lake orion

4. Birmingham United

5. Troy

Prep Lacrosse

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