Moeller High School 1994-95 Lacrosse Articles

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MAY 24 '95 10:55 METCO_CINCINNATI

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Midwest Scholastic Lacrosse Association All Conference Team

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First Team Zach Gaqel Matt Keller Pat Kennedy

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Joe Borchelt steve Fiaminqo

Hqnprable Mention Nick Merritt Jeff strottm.an Eric Clapp

Moeller's Keller lacrosse All-American

By Joe Minster Press Contributor

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Matt Keller has become Moeller's second lacrosse prep All-American in the past two years.

Keller, a senior who is headed for Ohio State University on a football scholarship, joins Jim Kennedy (1992-1993) as a Crusader All-American. Kennedy, the son of Moeller coach Tom Kennedy, is attending the University of Massachusetts.

A midfielder, Keller paced the Crusaders in scoring with 82 points on 44 goals and 38 assists. Second in line in scoring was sophomore attacker Pat Kennedy with 39 goals and 2 7 assists for 66 points.

Keller also was named first team all-state,

along with senior Zach Gagel, junior Steve Fiamingo and Pat Kennedy.

Further honors went to Keller, Gagel and Kennedy, selected to the All-Midwest first team.

Named second team All-State were Fiamingo and senior goalie Joe Borchelt, with honorable mention¡ all-state going to juniors Jeff Strottman and Nick Merritt and senior Eric Clapp.

Besides Keller committing to Ohio State, seniors Gagel will attend Ohio Wesleyan, Borchelt Wooster and Clapp Wittenberg, all hoping to play lacrosse in college.

"It's been a good season," coach Kennedy said in assessing Moeller's 12-5 record that included a runner-up finish to Brother Rice of

Detroit in the Midwest tournament and third-place finish in the Ohio State tourney.

"We took two out of three from Cleveland St. Ignatius, including victories over the topseeded Wildcats in both the Midwest and State tournaments.

"We lose Keller, Gagel, Borchelt and Clapp through graduation, but I predict that we'll be even tougher next season," Kennedy predicted.

Trailing Keller and Pat Kennedy in scoring last season were Strottman with 25 goals and 30 points, Mike Stormshak with 21 goals and 27 points, Dan Ullman with 17 goals and 25 points and Pat Horan with 10 goals and 15 points.

SUMMER GAMES

The CinCinnati Enquirer'Patrick Reddy

Pat Kennedy (left) works toward the net as Kevin Hanrahan defends during a lacrosse scrimmage. The two play in ttie Monday Night lacrosse league at Frances Recreacres Park in Sharonville.

BEST 0 ALL WORLDS Speed, skill, action: Lacrosse players find it all

BY JOHN ERARDI The Cincinnati Enquirer

Two centuries after lacrosse served as the heart of the sporting culture of the Shawnee Indians of Ohio, it has begun to attract a considerable following among Greater Cincinnatians.

LAcrosse, known by its players and followers as "the fastest game on two feet" (ice hockey is played on skates), has come not only out of the closet, but out of school, as well.

Lacrosse is being played by 225 "youngsters," ages 10 to 51, on Monday nights from 6:30p.m. to 9 p.m. at Frances Recreacres Park in Sharonville, on Conrey Road off Kemper Road. Spectators are welcome.

"Monday Night LAcrusse" is the league's formal name, but it is anything but Formal, that is.

'They just do some stretching and go," says a smiling Tom Kennedy, who is Moeller's lacrosse coach and occasional "Monday Night" spectator.

"Just as playground basketball is more free-form, fast and flying, so is summer lacrosse," says league founder Scott Mortensen.

The players love it.

'There's no practice, just games," says Brian O'Donnell, 16, who plays at Moeller High, but on Mondays nights is on a team that mixes Moeller and St. Xavier players.

"It's a chance to get to know those guys."

Monday Night LAcrosse draws players from all across Hamilton County, although there is a higher mix from the northeast corridor, because of the presence of former college lacrosse players who attended school in the East.

One of the goals of the Greater Cincinnati Lacrosse Association, which is behind the local boom, is to have a lacrosse presence in urban Cincinnati within the next three or four years, says GCIA president Reid Schroeder.

After all, the man regarded as the greatest lacrosse player of all-time remains former Cleveland Browns running back

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Key to positions D = Defenseman A = Attackman M = Midfielder G = Goalkeeper

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Diagram shows men's lacrcsse field and positions at the start of the game. Women's games are 1:»1ayed with 12 players on each side instead of 10.

Source: Wortd Book Encyclopedia

Jimmy Brown, who played lacrosse at Manhasset High on Long Island and at Syracuse University.

"In Greater Cincinnati, there are 325340 school-age youth playing lacrosse, and 125 former (high school and college) players," said Mortensen. "It is the fastest-growing spring sport in America.''

The three hotbeds of the game are Baltimore (Schroeder of Hobart University in New York), Long Island (Mortensen of Niagara University) and central New York (Kennedy, raised in Syracuse, played at SU).

But Cincinnati's catching up.

In 1988, Moeller's Father joe Tedesco started the program; Kennedy was its ftrst, and remains its only, varsity coach. In 1990 a club program began for school-age kids county-wide. This season, there are school teams at St. Xavier, Summit Country Day and Cincinnati Country Day. There is also a girls club team, which draws players county-wide.

It costs about $150 to outfit a lacrosse player. For a ninth-grader, that $150 is pretty much a one-time cost For vounl!er kin<: on

The ball, about the size ol a tennis ball, is made of roc<-hard rubber. Players are protected by plastic helmets, arm pads and padded gloves. The ball 's advanced by players via use of a stick. to which a ne:ted web is as attached for purposes of catching and 1hrowing the ball, as well as carrying it for rt.'nning. The ball can be advanced ir. all those ways, as well as be kicked. Tou.:::hing it witn the hands is forbic!den.

The CinE:innati EnquirE-r/longtellow

the grow, new equipment has to be gradually changed Monensen, a marketing professional who lives in Montgomery, describe·; lacrosse as a combination of basketball (offensive patterns and fastbreaks), hockey (physicality and stickwork) and soccer (continuous action).

Opposing players may "check," i.e., block each other with !.he stick or body.

Body checking above the knees and from the front is legal. Illegal body checks are personal iouls, requiring the player tD leave the game for one to three minutes, d~pend­ ing on how serious the official considers the foul. A team must play shorthanded during this time.

The Creek Indians called it hotti icosi, that is, "lilile brother of war." because sometimes as many as 1,000 warriors would be involved in the game that would rut for two days over a huge landscape.

Pat Horan, 16, a senior· to-be at Moeller, plays football, too. Horan, only 5-foot-9, is being recruited to play lacrosse at the U.S Naval Academy and Air Force Academy.

Press

June 1, 1994

cr·usaders 2nd in state, Midw_est .·

By Joe Minster Press

Contribut~r

Runner-up in the Midwestern Championship, Moeller's lacrosse team recently completed another fine season by winning the runmir~up bracket of the state championship.

"We've ~gain played a tough schedule. and we finished with a 15-3 · record,"· coach. Tom Kennedy said after his· Crusaders had trimmed University School of Cleveland, 12-3, and Thomas Worthington of Columbus, 16-2, to take' fifth place in the recent state tournament.

After losing a hardfought 10-9 decision to. Kilbourne in the quarterfinals of the state meet to reverse an earlier 10-9 victory over the same club, Moeller bounced back to capture the A-2 runner-up backet convincingly.

Against Kilbourne, Casey Ragiel scored three goalt, Matt Keller three goals and an assist and freshman Pat Kennedy, the coach's son, two goals and an assist. .

Keller had four goals and two assists against University School, while Pat Horan and Kennedy each tallied two goals. Keller led · the way with five goals and four assists against Worthington, while Mike Wermes had four ·goals ~nd Ragiel and Jim Kelly two ap1ece.

Moeller defeated Detroit Country Day, 11-5, in the Midwest semifinals before losing to Upper Arlington, 7-3, in the title round.

Against Detroit, Ragiel had three goals and three assists, Keller four goals and two assists and Kennedy two goals. Ken Cowan scored twic~ and had one assist against Upper Arlington, while Kennedy had a goal and an assist. .

Moeller's 15-3 record was the second-best mark in school history, which went 14-3 last year and 18-2 in 1992 in compiling a 47-8 totalfor the past three years and a 75-27 slate for the past seven years. .

Keller, who also starred for Moeller's football team, led this season's lacrosse scorers with 34 goals and 30 assists for 64 points. Next in line were Ragiel with 34 goals and 22 assists for 5~ points, followed by Kennedy with .29 goals and 16 assists for 45 points and Wermes with 22 goals and no assists for 22 .Points. .

"We also got great play from our defense men, seniors Jeff Bumiller and Steve Fiamingo and ju,niors John. Merritt and Zach Gagel," coach Kennedy stated.

Assisting Kennedy were·defensive coordinator Ken lwanusa and Joe Fiamingo. .