In case you haven’t heard or have been living under a rock the past week, I was hired as the recruiting coordinator and volunteer assistant coach for the men’s lacrosse team at Harford Community College in Bel Air, Md.
Recruiting players into play a couple years to improve their grades and lax skills to hopefully move on to a four-year program is my passion.
Several years ago, I helped CCBC Essex with their recruiting as well and was very successful. We brought in players from outside the state to play and who are now playing top level collegiate lacrosse. Lance Pavlina comes to mind right away. Lance was crushing it as a LSM in Arizona for Desert Vista HS. But he was under the radar. So he came to Essex and had a fantastic career for the Knights and is now a stud for D2 powerhouse, Florida Tech.
Pavlina says that going to a junior college saved his life, “I had no where to go coming out of high school in Phoenix Arizona. Coach Peace recruited me to play for Essex. My decision to go created doors for me I never knew existed. I now play lacrosse at Florida Institute of Technology, live on the beach, and getting my degree I’ve always wanted.”
At Essex, we also helped some kids locally. Max Edelmann was a blip on college coaches radar screens coming out of Middletown HS in Frederick County. Max never gave up on playing D1 lacrosse. He came to Essex, wasn’t even a starter at first, and had an All-American career. This past year Edelmann started in cage for Rutgers University and had a great season for the Scarlet Knights.
These are just a couple of many examples of guys have played JUCO ball and are now living the Dream of playing big time college lax.
I’m very excited and anxious to help the Fighting Owls become a dominant force in this region and in the NJCAA. Harford was a Top 5 program last season and Head coach Aaron Verardi and his staff continue to build something special.
I will continue to blog here for the Peace Report and cover the local HS lacrosse beat. But I enjoy doing more for this game and the players who play it. That’s why I enjoy recruiting and coaching. It gives me another angle on the game instead of the journalistic view. Both of my parents were coaches as well as my sister, so it’s in my blood.
Time to make the Fighting Owls Great Again!!
