Coach Witty is the real deal. He came from the St. Paul Boy's school Maryland. He won a few titles at Virginia.
Small world.
On a side note, really, only ESD, SM, Jesuit, or HP have any real shot at winning the state title. The other schools are just too football and are playing catch-up.
About the new coach. Send me an email, and we’ll take this offline.
babysits for the family. They live super close to us by Hockaday. My son (St. Mark's) and my daughter (Hockaday) are both laxers. The new coach is going to REALLY step up the expectations.
If so, I didn't see it. Could you resend. My grandson's family would really benefit from talking to you.
in the hospital. Crazy. This strain of covid for some has been a nightmare.
I'll get with you soon.
PS: Your stories are awesome.
Dude
They are moving in droves to take advantage of the money to be made. A HS lax coaching job in Texas will pay $$$. The districts that have bought in to lax are more affluent areas.
Coach Debolt (The older brother to the Debolt that played at ND) just brought his brother down to help coach a club team. The younger Debolt will find a job somewhere and do very well.
Lacrosse is becoming a bigger thing out West.
the club ranks. The women's head coach at Hopkins just "retired" and became a consultant to club teams. He's probably making about the same amount of money as he was at Bryant.
TBH, that is were all the money is. Lots of private capital getting involved in youth sports. As demented at that is to type it isn't just lax but lots of youth sports. He doesn't have to deal with the headaches of NIL and the NCAA (or whatever it becomes down the road_. Here he only has to deal with parents. Though that has its own set of challenges at the youth level.
It also isn't surprising that he is coaching at a private HS and likely a club director for a travel team. The most successful HS teams (and most of those are private) are quasi-affiliated with some type of travel/club lax team. It isn't a complete overlap as BI's grandson demonstrates but lots of HS coaches that run club teams try to keep some overlap between their HS rosters and club team.
One of the most ridiculously wealthy in the state but it's still a public school
I think it's equal parts cure for boredom, financial boost (coaches have only recently made some decent money), and an altruistic sense of giving back to the sport that gave them a lot.
Totally agree on the money in the clubs. It's absurd and we are just getting out of the throws of it with my daughter. The issue is that there are way too many talented young men and women playing the sport and not enough spots at quality schools - even at D3 level. Having a coach of Tucker's stature (or Starsia or Pressler's) be able to give a blessing to a kid and call up a college is priceless. And in Highland Park, TX money is not an obstacle.
As an aside, Tucker is awesome and she'll be missed. She coached my daugher's team at camp and I talked to her for a while. She representated Hopkins well.
His team won a state title.
Maybe there's an aspect of helping to spread the game for Pressler and Seaman, I don't know.
Duke had to settle with him twice, no?
I can see how he might be motivated by the challenge. The legendary Princeton coach who came out here to coach DU is sort of the same story. But TX is a much larger stage, lax is growing like topsy down there, HP poised to battle Dallas Jesuit for state championship every year, Jerry Jones money, etc.
come freshman year. Their K-8 program routinely gets beat by SM and the likes. Jesuit literally gets handed a solid team come freshman year. They add a few along the way, and BOOM, they are next level. Pre HS their Deuces teams are average at best.
The three players collected about $20 million from Duke in damages. In total, the whole affair cost Duke $100 million. I believe the accuser is still in prison for killing her boyfriend. The DA in the case was disbarred.