Eastern lacrosse elite discovering San Diego talent

West Coast making big strides in sport

By Kevin Gemmell   UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER   March 25, 2008

Photo credit: CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune

Torrey Pines High lacrosse standout Joey Hegener is expected to be playing for Penn next season.

Nick Gradinger thought he was pretty good at lacrosse – until he arrived on the East Coast.

"I went to a recruiting camp and in one weekend I completely overhauled my game," said Gradinger, a Torrey Pines High graduate who plays for Cornell. "I was seeing things I never would have thought of. It was amazing."

Sean McGonigle thought he was ready for big-time lacrosse when he enrolled at Syracuse University.

"My freshman year, I made a technical mistake and coach (John) Desko screamed at me 'McGonigle! Didn't you learn that in sixth grade?' " the La Costa Canyon graduate recalled. "Uh, well, no coach. Actually I didn't."

Gradinger and McGonigle have learned their lessons, just as coaches from elite East Coast schools have learned to take notice of the lacrosse talent in San Diego.

Not even a decade ago, if a boys or girls lacrosse player from San Diego went to a marquee school, it was viewed as an aberration. San Diego is far from college lacrosse's hotbed states on the Atlantic seaboard. Southern California was producing lacrosse players the way Nebraska produces surfers.

This year, there are more than a dozen boys and girls lacrosse players from San Diego making an impact on college teams that include some of the nation's best.

"We've always had the athletes, and I think we will probably always have better athletes on the West Coast," said Gradinger, who played in the NCAA Final Four last season. "That's because we can go year-round. But the technical skills and the knowledge of the game isn't as sharp as it is (in the East). But we're getting there."

Though it had been played in San Diego for decades, lacrosse wasn't sanctioned by the California Interscholastic Federation until 2002. That boosted the sport's profile. Club teams – some for kids as young as first grade – have sprung up across the county.

"The kids that are now juniors and seniors have been playing since sixth and seventh grade," said Santa Fe Christian coach Danny Kolts, who has one player headed to Towson University, located near Baltimore, and another looking at the Ivy League. "Six or seven years ago we didn't have that. Now we're starting to see what exposure at a young age can do."

Recruiting camps have formed in California that allow college coaches to fly out to see a large number of players at one time, plus lacrosse-specific Web sites make it easier to track West Coast players.

Area high school coaches are taking their teams cross country to expose them to the East Coast game.

"It showed our kids the next level," said Poway girls coach Kristy Gallagher, who took her team on a four-game East Coast swing last year. "And it also showed them they are good enough to play at the next level." East Coast high schools are making trips to the Left Coast. In 2004, Torrey Pines struck a major blow for San Diego when it beat nationally ranked Garden City (N.Y.). Last year, the Falcons downed Long Island South Side (N.Y.), also nationally ranked.

Adrenaline Lacrosse, a company based in San Diego, has been pivotal in helping local kids find a collegiate home. Started by Notre Dame teammates Alex Cade and Steve Sepeta, who coach at Coronado and Bishop's, respectively, Adrenaline Lacrosse takes some of the legwork out of recruiting. For a price, players can participate in a camp that flies East Coast coaches to California for a four-day tournament in Sonoma. The coaches host chalk talks and assist on the sidelines so they can get a close look at the players.

"College coaches aren't just coming out to watch a game," said Jill Albee, program director for Adrenaline and the girls coach at Francis Parker. "We put the college coaches up. We take care of them and let them know about the kids. We provide rosters and a detailed program with all of the information."

Torrey Pines senior Geordie Shafer, who participated in the Adrenaline program, found it helpful while he was being recruited by Tufts University – the No. 7-ranked Division III team in the country.

"A lot of coaches figure they can get just as good of a player from their backyard," Shafer said. "I think we all have to play with a chip on our shoulder because that's how we're going to get recognized."

Torrey Pines junior Becky Trees, who is being recruited by Division I schools, said opportunities have increased for girls.

"It's not as bad as it was even just a couple years ago, but it's still hard," Trees said. "We've got to get to a point where they start seeing us as equal to East Coast players."

The player everyone looks to as the trail blazer is Spencer Wright, an All-American out of Serra High in the late '90s who went on to play at Syracuse, where he won two national championships. Wright dealt with his share of West Coast prejudice.

"My first couple of practices, a couple of the older guys on the team would scream at me, 'Go the (bleep) back to California, you (bleep),' and you can insert the expletives of your choice," said Wright, who is coaching a high school team in New York. "But once we moved passed that, I tell you, it was a tremendous opportunity I was awarded. It took a little time, but it was a fantastic voyage for sure."

Players like McGonigle, Gradinger and dozens of others look to Wright as a hero of sorts for paving the way.

"I wanted to be Spencer Wright," McGonigle said. "He was our idol. That's the only kid that went D-I and won a national championship."

La Costa Canyon senior C.J. Small, who will play next year at Villanova, said he dedicated himself to playing Division I lacrosse while he was in middle school. He knew he'd have to leave the state since the closest programs are at Air Force and the University of Denver.

"I feel like I'm prepared for what I'm going to face out there," Small said. "I don't think we're that far behind. We don't have 40 people on our team that all play at the same level. (East Coast) teams are just deeper and they have been playing longer. But we're quickly closing the gap."

Player

High school

College

Matt Drenan

Rancho Bernardo

Johns Hopkins

Max Wygod

Francis Parker

Duke

Scott Bollert

Bishop's

North Carolina

Sean McGonigle

La Costa Canyon

Syracuse

Joe Coulter

Westview

Syracuse

Nick Gradinger

Torrey Pines

Cornell

Jake Myers

Torrey Pines

Cornell

John Luoto

Torrey Pines

Cornell

Brandi Jones

Poway

Maryland

Brittany Jones

Poway

Maryland

Area high school lacrosse players who will continue in college next season:

Player

High school

College

Geordie Shafer

Torrey Pines

Tufts

Jake Kenyon

Santa Fe Christian

Towson

Peter Long

Rancho Bernardo

Navy

Joey Hegener

Torrey Pines

Penn

Jason Meerbergen

Poway

Ursinus

Tara Arolla

La Costa Canyon

Cal

Liz Donahue

Poway

Richmond

Melanie Garces

Westview

Wagner

Greer Goebels

Coronado

Colgate

Tawni Gotbaum

Cathedral Catholic

Wagner

Kelly Jablonski

Poway

Oregon

Vanessa Jamison

Poway

UC Davis

Alyssa Litten

Coronado

Marist

Bria Phillips

Coronado

Md.-Baltimore County