I never post here and am not a LAX expert...

and I totally agree with you. Here's what I wonder...the rules are known, the problem has been obvious, shouldn't it be the head coach's responsibility to have addressed it by now?

It would be like football sticking with only walk ons for field goal kicking even after they've missed game winners, or like the recent issues we had in football with strength and conditioning. If there is a competitive disadvantage identified, coach needs to address it, proactively, through any "legal" means necessary (legal meaning within NCAA/ND rules, etc.).

By the way, as far as face-offs being too large a determinant, reminds me of girls and women's softball, where one pitcher can pitch almost literally every inning of a season. Really sucks in high school. Baseball is much better where inning limits mean you need the best STAFF of pitchers, not the single best pitcher.

In lacrosse, you can have 3 paid coaches and 1 volunteer

coach. Most programs typically break their staff into head coach that oversees everything, a defensive coordinator (Byrne at ND), and offensive coordinator (Karweck). This isn't always true but most programs use the volunteer coach in two specific areas - face-offs or goalie coach and general fill in the spaces type of coach. Generally, the volunteer coach breaks down into 3 type an older guy just looking to be involved (Hopkins uses an alumni goalie from the 80s) or a former HC coach looking a for a bridge to the next job (Duke had the old Cornell coach a year or two ago) or a young guy looking to get his break into coaching (similar to a grad assistant in football. ND has John Crawley - a former offensive midfield from Hopkins. I am assuming he is in grad school at ND.

It is an interesting selection. He was a tough guy but didn't face-off at Hopkins so his ability to work with fogos is likely limited. ND has usually had good goalies so I doubt he works much with the goalies beyond just warming them up before practice and games. My guess is that they think Karweck is going to get hired as HC somewhere and have him become the OC after that.

Face-offs are what make lacrosse unique. It allows a team to continue the momentum in either direction and string multiple scores together. The coaches that complain about it are those that don't have a good face-off guy. Desko from SU is notorious for saying face-offs are great when he has a good face off guy and should be eliminated if he doesn't - these statements can literally be one year after each other.

He has tried to address it

There are a few FOGOs on the team - I believe they try to recruit one per year, similar to goalie. You never know how a specialist will develop in college. Baptist was intending to go to Franklin & Lee (div 3school).

It’s not like ND is ignoring the position - they are recruitIng FOGOs on a regular basis.

I could see FOGO being very hard to project from HS. *

Denver has had success finding athletes from other sports

They've had a couple football players and I think Baptiste was more an athlete then a Div I lacrosse player. We are limited to 12.6 scholarships with 54 (listed on roster) on the team.

Maybe ND could open it up to the student body to find an athlete. I know I am making this too simplistic as there is much skill involved. But it seems like someone strong with fast twitch muscles and a willingness to practice and learn (experience with lacrosse even better). Maybe a wrestler?