Welcome back to another edition of Recruiting Radar. Over the next few months I am going to be breaking down and grading each team’s 2019 recruiting class, or at least of what they have at the moment. Many schools have had their classes finalized, some just recently finalized, and some programs will pick up some guys during the spring.
I am going to be going in reverse alphabetical order and the two two schools moving up to DI next year, Merrimack and LIU, will be added in here as well.
Today we kick things off with a breakdown of Yale’s 2019 recruiting class as it currently sits today. The Bulldogs have 11th ranked recruiting class by Inside Lacrosse and they have nine players currently in this 2019 class.
Attack
Need: 2
Committed: 2
Grade: A
The Bulldogs currently have thirteen attackmen on their 2019 roster and only two of them are seniors. Yale has guys in the pipeline with a lot of guys on the roster already. In the 2019 class they have Skylar and Griffin Wilson (yes they are twins) out of Salisbury (CT) currently committed. Both are rated as 4-stars by Inside Lacrosse.
Defense
Need: 1
Committed: 4
Grade: A
Yale has a very young defense currently on the roster with only three juniors and one senior out of ten guys. While the Bulldogs only lose one guy they bring in a lot of depth in this class with BJ Burlace, Xander Martin, Michael Alexander, and Brett Mallee. All of those guys are rated as 4-star’s by Inside Lacrosse except Mallee.
Faceoff
Need: 0
Committed: 0
Grade: F
While Yale has juniorT D Ierlan, freshman Joe Neumann, and sophomore Jack Mattei in that faceoff room right now it’s always a good idea to go out and grab another guy. They don’t really NEED a faceoff guy in this class but adding depth and competition can never hurt.
Goalie
Need: 1
Committed: 1
Grade: A
Yale has Jared Paquette currently committed in the 2019 class. Rated as a 4-star by Inside Lacrosse Paquette will have to wait his turn with Jack Starr only a sophomore this year. Because of that Yale doesn’t NEED a goalie, but I’m a believer that you need a goalie in every class and Yale has got theirs.
Midfield
Need: 4-7
Committed: 2
Grade: C
Yale looses seven of their 21 midfielders this year to graduation. That is a lot of depth to fill up, especially when three of their best midfielders are seniors. Yale needs to go out and grab at least two more midfielders to get that number to 18 midfielders on the roster in 2020.
That’s the breakdown of Yale’s 2019 recruiting class as it sits at this moment in time. They bring in a lot of depth to help this team at various spots on the field. The obvious misses are at the midfield position with much to left be desired there.
Recruiting in the Ivy League is tricky, but Andy Shay and his staff have a good track record of bringing in guys that will fit in the culture at Yale. So, the good news is that even with a small class of just 9 players Yale doesn’t really need that much, at least in this class.
As the 2019 recruiting cycle comes to a close with just a few months of high school left for those guys the Yale staff will start to turn the page to the 2020 recruiting cycle. In that class they already have a good number of guys that will help this team in the future.
Yale’s Current 2019 Recruiting Class
Skyler Wilson, A, Salisbury (CT)
Griffin Wilson, A, Salisbury (CT)
Jared Paquette, G, West Islip (NY)
Logan Soelberg, M, Crespi Carmelite (CA)
BJ Burlace, D, St. Mary’s (MD)
Patrick Hackler, M, Skaneateles Senior (NY)
Michael Alexander, D, West Islip (NY)
Xander Martin, D, Gilman (MD)
Brette Mallee, D, La Salle College HS (PA)
