Why you should care about Division Two Lacrosse

Middle child syndrome is real

Earlier this week, USA Lacrosse Magazine dropped their All-Americans for Division Two. I helped to craft them with Dan Arestia.

(Yes, everyone that writes about lacrosse knows each other and we don’t hate each other - it’s all an act. Except - some people really seem to hate me…)

We worked on the AA teams for months in the fall and turned them in just after Thanksgiving. So, obviously, there were some guys on that list that were erroneously placed that either graduated or went elsewhere. (Turns out not everyone takes the COVID year. -even when they are listed on a 2023 roster.) As a result, Dan and I were blasted with both barrels from the D-2 lacrosse community.

And I get it. They didn’t know when we did those teams or how. They just saw mistakes. Which - I made.

Shame is a weird thing. There are a ton of reasons that I could give as to why the picks were off. Not enough time to call every coach. The coaches we did call didn’t tell us a guy had graduated. Their schools didn’t have active sports information directors. For every point, there is a counterpoint. It’s the weird thing about writing or crafting something that people see as an honor, or at least honorific in some way. It has to be perfect in a way that other articles aren’t.

But I have to pull back the curtain here for a second and let you in on a few things.

Eventually, when you’re making these lists the fatigue hits you in a way that it doesn't when you’re working on other things. You can’t make a quippy comment in a descriptive sentence because there are no sentences. You just have a document where you’re moving and shifting guys based on what coaches say as well as your own biases. You run out of game tape to watch. There’s no one left to consider one day and the next day five more guys pop onto your radar.

This all builds until you can’t look at the list anymore and then you HAVE to turn it in. Deadlines force you to give up on things. That is what they are for. The thing you hand in dies in your heart as soon as you hand it in and it only lives again when other people read and react to it.

I coached at the D-2 level for two years at both Franklin Pierce College and Saint Anselm. At Franklin Pierce, I worked as the No. 1/only assistant and most days as the de-facto head coach because the actual head coach coached hockey and didn’t show up to practice until that season was over.

In March.

It was my second job as a coach after being an assistant at Plymouth State the previous year.

And it was a complete disaster.

The only other team I coached that was more unhinged was one of my two years at Emerson, which is a story that shall never be told. So, it was a really poor experience for me and for the athletes. That program has since changed for the better. My missteps there are remembered with a cringy filter. I learned a lot in the worst possible way.

At St. A’s that experience was completely reversed. I was just a cog in a machine. I ran the box, I carried clipboards or ball bags, and I occasionally had input in huddles. I mostly took the job to be closer to Gerry Byrne (now the head coach at Harvard) and learn as much as possible from him. I made zero dollars from this gig. I also lived in Worcester at the time and drove to New Hampshire every day. It’s the most formative coaching experience that I have ever had.

So, I love D-2 lacrosse. It helped to mold me into a better coach and a better person.

When those ranks went up, a former player at one of the better-known schools chirped us for not doing our homework. Now, this is how you know that I’m evolving into an adult. Instead of blasting off a hilarious and biting reply on Twitter - like I definitely did not do to the first guy who complained - I just DMed the guy and was like, “Hey. We worked hard on this. We did it so long ago that rosters weren’t even up. But you’re right, this is a thing we have to be correct about.” The response was articulate and understanding. Because D-2 dudes aren’t the aggro disregarded stepchildren of lacrosse that lash out at any opportunity.

But they are just straight-up neglected.

So, let’s do a good deed and try to rectify that.

This is a list of D-2 schools across the country. Now, I can’t guarantee that there is a program near you to go see. But at least you can see just how many schools there are that have D-2 men’s lacrosse programs. High-level D-2 teams are the same as high-level teams in D-1 or D-3 - they make great plays on offense and defense, they play fast and they don’t let up.

Division two schools also [actually] offer athletic scholarship money and tuition breaks in addition to all of the other aid a student can receive. As a result, they can be, and often are, a cost-effective option for certain players.

They also have seriously bonkers mascots. Spartans, Warriors, and Saints pair with Lions, Dolphins and, uhm…Lakers as the last dozen or so champions.

If you’re a lacrosse fan, and you have to be in order to be reading this newsletter, do yourself a favor and check out some Division Two Lacrosse this spring.

You won’t be sorry.

(Unless the team is awful, in which case, like - move out of Florida. It’s an unforgiving hellscape anyway.)