Sept. 10, 2007

Stony Brook, N.Y. - Since my last correspondence in May, my staff and I have been very focused on recruiting, recruiting and . . . even more recruiting! During our season last spring, we attended numerous local high school games but once the season ends, we hit the road to observe as many prospects as we can from across the United States and Canada. While on the road, we try to see all our incoming freshmen in addition to as many of the top juniors that we have been recruiting throughout the year. As the growth of lacrosse continues to explode, so does the amount of recruiting opportunities. Those opportunities include high school games, elite club tryouts, Empire State Games tryouts and weekend tournaments just to name a few. Basically, from mid-May to mid-August, it's pretty much non-stop!

Our efforts are paying dividends as we are very excited about the quality of student-athlete interested in the Stony Brook University men's lacrosse program. In fact, we already have six student-athletes committed to us for the Class of 2012. Unfortunately, due to NCAA rules and regulations, I cannot specifically announce their names at this time but we're off to a terrific start. Five of the six are from Long Island. Recruiting on Long Island was a top priority for us and our victory (on national T.V.) over Long Island rival Hofstra University no doubt has had a significant positive impact on our recruiting. I cannot begin tell you how many times recruits, parents, high school coaches, even colleges coaches have brought it up over the past four months.

As I begin my second year as the Stony Brook men's lacrosse head coach, I am very eager to begin fall practice. This time last year I felt like a freshman, very excited but unsure what lay ahead with having to learn the landscape of a new university, administration, team, and league. My assistant coaches, Coach Johnson and Coach Montana, share these sentiments as well but are happy to be settled in now and are ready to crank it up for the 2007-`08 season.

Fall practice begins on September 10 and will feature a great group of returning players that will provide leadership to a strong incoming class of freshmen and transfer students. For more information on our incoming class, I encourage you to go to our web site: www.goseawolves.org and click on the link for men's lacrosse. Many of the newcomers will be able to contribute now while others will to develop into the exceptional lacrosse student-athletes we envision over the next few years.

Hopefully, you'll have an opportunity to see the team this fall. We have three home dates starting with Lehigh University on Saturday, October 6th at noon. That will be followed by Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, October 13th, from 11:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Both of those events will be played in LaValle stadium. Our fall season concludes with the annual Alumni Game on Saturday, October 20th (Homecoming Weekend) with the game most likely taking place before noon. We will send out some additional information on that game in the coming weeks.

My goal is to not only build a successful team but to ultimately continue to build a consistently successful and championship program. Developing a lacrosse program which we can all be proud takes a concerted effort by so many people. The coaching staff, university and athletic administration, parents, community and alumni must all make a contribution to ensure our ability to compete at the highest level in the America East Conference and beyond. Now, more than ever, your continued support is needed to help keep the program moving in the right direction.

I also wanted to mention that our annual Jon Ryan '90 Laxbacker Dinner in support of Stony Brook Lacrosse will take place on February 9, 2008 at the Meadow Club in Port Jefferson, N.Y. We hope to see you there as well.

Go Seawolves and remember, always wear red!