from Patrick Fischer at umterps.com
Philadelphia doesn’t have deep lacrosse roots, but they have grown very strong, very quickly.
As far as our records can show (and that’s all I have to go on, so I apologize if I missed anyone), Maryland first tapped into the Philadelphia area way back in 1951 when midfielder Tom Lillis came to College Park. There was a bit of a gap until the next Philly-area product showed up in the form of goalie Rich Shassian in 1977.
Then came 1993 when a 6-foot-1, 185-pound goalie named Brian Dougherty came to Maryland as a two-time All-American from Episcopal Academy. All Doc did in his tenure as a Terp was be a three-time All-American, be named the 1995 national player of the year, be named the nation’s top goalie twice and be named the 1995 NCAA tournament’s most outstanding player after stopping 23 shots against both Johns Hopkins and Syracuse in the Final Four. Dougherty would go on to win two gold medals at the FIL World Championships and was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame last fall.
The mid-to-late 1990s also saw James Bickey and Mike Morsell come to Maryland out of the Philadelphia area.
The current trend of Philadelphia-area recruits dates back to 2002 when T.C. Behm arrived from Villanova, Pa. He only stayed for a couple of seasons, but 2003 saw then Terps’ next star from Philly arrive in the form of Bill McGlone, who was a two-time first team All-American from Swarthmore, Pa. (I’ll never forget showing up at the McGlone house in the Terp bus in 2005 when the Final Four was in Philadelphia as his younger sister Jill was getting ready to go to her senior prom.)
From there the proverbial flood gates opened from the Philly area as Xander Ritz and Ryne Adolph arrived in 2004 and Max Ritz and Matt Rankin followed in 2005. Brett Schmidt and Justin Blye came to College Park in 2008.
The Terps’ current crop of Philly talent started to arrive in 2009 when Owen Blye came in and redshirted his freshman season. The redshirt trend continued in 2010 when Niko Amato on campus, but didn’t take the field until 2011.
Casey Ikeda also redshirted his freshman season after coming in from Conestoga High School in 2011, but injuries limited him even in 2012, but he’s healthy now and has started all five games so far this season.
A pair of Philly kids came in last season and made an immediate impact. Goran Murray was named the ACC Freshman of the Year and earned All-America honors after making the switch from long pole to close defense last spring. Kevin Forster came is as a highly regarded attackman, but a preseason injury put him on the shelf for a while and he made the move to midfield when he was healthy. All he did there was score two goals and add an assist in the Terps’ win over Duke in the Final Four.
This season added another four Terps from the Philadelphia area in Tyler Brook, Jon Garino, Jr., Ryan Lehman and Bradlee Lord.
Here’s a list of Maryland’s All-American’s from the Philadelphia area:
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