12 replies to this topic

[bob12345]

Most people on this form argue about wether Saint Frances is the most dominant Baltimore area team (Not really, in terms of football they are.). I would disagree. That title should go to Mount St Joseph's varsity wrestling team. Here are their accomplishments for this year: 

 

Placed third at National Preps behind national powerhouses Blair Academy(NJ) and Wyoming Seminary(PA) with 10 of 14 wrestlers  receiving All American Status, with heavyweight (285) Isaac Righter being national champion. 

 

MSA state champions with all 14 wrestlers placed 3rd or higher, won by a 108.5 point margin over second place Mcdonogh with 4 individual state champions and 8 overall finalist as well as Chris Barnabae (120) receiving outstanding wrester for the entire tournament. 

 

MIAA conference champions with all 14 wrestlers placing 3rd or higher at the MIAA tournament with a 89 point margin over second place Mcdonogh with six champions and ten finalist overall. 

 

MIAA duel champions, posting three shutouts with the closest match being an 18 point margin of victory over second place Mcdonogh. 

 

21 out of 100 in the Walsh Jesuit Ironman tournament, known as the hardest tournament in the country. 

 

4th out of 145 at Beast of the East, by far the hardest tournament on the east coast. 

 

Finished the season with a top 20 high school ranking while proving themselves by going against the hardest competition in the country. Also, many of the wrestlers have came up through the MSJ Titans youth program. 

 

The board doesn't really give a lot of love to wrestling, but I felt that these young men deserved a shoutout in competing in the hardest sport one could do. 

[WillieSeanCoughlan]

Most people on this form argue about wether Saint Frances is the most dominant Baltimore area team (Not really, in terms of football they are.). I would disagree. That title should go to Mount St Joseph's varsity wrestling team. Here are their accomplishments for this year:

Placed third at National Preps behind national powerhouses Blair Academy(NJ) and Wyoming Seminary(PA) with 10 of 14 wrestlers receiving All American Status, with heavyweight (285) Isaac Righter being national champion.

MSA state champions with all 14 wrestlers placed 3rd or higher, won by a 108.5 point margin over second place Mcdonogh with 4 individual state champions and 8 overall finalist as well as Chris Barnabae (120) receiving outstanding wrester for the entire tournament.

MIAA conference champions with all 14 wrestlers placing 3rd or higher at the MIAA tournament with a 89 point margin over second place Mcdonogh with six champions and ten finalist overall.

MIAA duel champions, posting three shutouts with the closest match being an 18 point margin of victory over second place Mcdonogh.

21 out of 100 in the Walsh Jesuit Ironman tournament, known as the hardest tournament in the country.

4th out of 145 at Beast of the East, by far the hardest tournament on the east coast.

Finished the season with a top 20 high school ranking while proving themselves by going against the hardest competition in the country. Also, many of the wrestlers have came up through the MSJ Titans youth program.

The board doesn't really give a lot of love to wrestling, but I felt that these young men deserved a shoutout in competing in the hardest sport one could do.

I think they deserve a shout out, too. Not sure how SFA started the conversation. I may have missed it, but maybe you can point out any argument that SFA football is the most dominant team in the area in any sport is. They may be, but I never saw that argument. If anything, there are posters on here daily dismissing any accomplishment they may achieve. Seems SFA has to be interjected in every post on here, even a wrestling post. Anyway, congrats to the kids.

[bob12345]

I may be wrong, it might actually be Calvert Hall Lacrosse:

 

https://miaasports.n...m-for-the-ages/

[mdrunning]

I saw that 1997 Boys' Latin lacrosse team a couple of times. As the article stated, the game has changed in the ensuing two decades, but they were really something to watch. 

[glenn__davis]

I seem to remember that there was a girls lacrosse team that went through a stretch a few years back where they lost like 1 game in 5 years or something.  Mt. Hebron maybe?  I'm sure I'm wrong on a few of those details.

[bob12345]

I seem to remember that there was a girls lacrosse team that went through a stretch a few years back where they lost like 1 game in 5 years or something.  Mt. Hebron maybe?  I'm sure I'm wrong on a few of those details.

It was Mcdonogh.

[oldballcoach]

It was Mcdonogh.

Looks like Mt Hebron did dominate Girls Lax. Had a decade or so without a loss here is the article I found online.

https://www.pressbox...ak-at-mt-hebron

[WillieSeanCoughlan]

They both were dominant, and share a link - Chris Robinson. Robinson started at Hebron, where the Vikings won 15 of 16 state titles from '92-07. He was there for the first 9 years (4 as an assistant to PJ Kesmodel) of that 16 year run, before going to McDonogh. Hebron won 11 straight state titles from '97 through '07, notched a 103 game win streak during that run (with Coach Brooke Kuhl-McClelland), and were ranked #1 in the country, 6 times. Their banners hang in the gym.

McDonogh snapped that mark, running their streak to 198 games. Robinson stepped down in January of '18, to start a M&D club league chapter in Orlando. He's since took a high school job there, too. Robinson was a part of 177 of those 198 wins, 9 MIAA championships, and 5 #1 rankings. Marriotts Ridge and Glenelg are loaded, too. Many of the McDonogh players are from that western Howard County area.

The last few Terps womens lacrosse national championship teams rosters have been compromised of 35%-45% of its players from Western HoCo. Still one of the two biggest hotbeds in the country for girls lacrosse. Maryland's coach, Cathy Reese, who was selected Coach of the Year this year, and winner of 5 national titles, is a graduate of Mt Hebron, and former Vikings great.

[mdrunning]

Hebron's first title in the 1992 1A-2A state championship came at the expense of Loch Raven, which was riding a 67-game winning streak of its own at the time. The Vikings would go on to win four straight championships under P.J. Kesmodel, who stepped down after the 1995 season. 

[WillieSeanCoughlan]

Thanks for that MDRunning. There are 'coaching trees', and then there's Mt Hebron, the coaching 'tree trunk' of girls lacrosse.

Kesmodel was the architect in bringing girls lacrosse to Howard County and Mt Hebron. After coaching the Vikings boys team for 6 years, and after winning the state title in '83, he championed the Title IX effort to bring girls high school lacrosse to Howard County.

He coached Cathy Reese, the Maryland Hall of Fame coach, and mentored Chris Robinson, Mt Hebron's and McDonogh's former Hall of Fame coach. After leaving Hebron, he took some years off before coaching at Seton Keough for a couple years, then retiring to Rehobeth Beach.

There, he came out of retirement to coach Cape Henlopen High to 8 Delaware state titles in 9 years, which included a 99 game in-state winning streak, and a 143-17-1 record on the Shore.

[mdrunning]

Thanks for that MDRunning. There are 'coaching trees', and then there's Mt Hebron, the coaching 'tree trunk' of girls lacrosse.

Kesmodel was the architect in bringing girls lacrosse to Howard County and Mt Hebron. After coaching the Vikings boys team for 6 years, and after winning the state title in '83, he championed the Title IX effort to bring girls high school lacrosse to Howard County.

He coached Cathy Reese, the Maryland Hall of Fame coach, and mentored Chris Robinson, Mt Hebron's and McDonogh's former Hall of Fame coach. After leaving Hebron, he took some years off before coaching at Seton Keough for a couple years, then retiring to Rehobeth Beach.

There, he came out of retirement to coach Cape Henlopen High to 8 Delaware state titles in 9 years, which included a 99 game in-state winning streak, and a 143-17-1 record on the Shore.

I remember when she was Cathy Nelson. I believe she still has the 3A state record for goals in a championship game with eight. (Lacrosse only had two classifications back then.) Terrific player. 

 

I think P.J. Kesmodel went to coach at City College after stepping down as coach at Hebron after the 1995 season. He's still the only person in Maryland to win a state championship coaching both boys and girls. I believe he also started the Hero's Lacrosse program in Howard County, which provided Hebron with the lion's share of the talent for those powerhouse teams.

 

Hebron's girls were light years ahead of everyone else at that time. They were shorts instead of kilts, and they used plastic sticks instead of the old, unbalanced wooden models. That alone qualified as heresy in the eyes of some. They were also different from a tactical standpoint, starting their offense, for example, from behind the goal instead of up top like everyone else. They played a matchup type of defense, pressuring the ball on clears instead of just running back and fanning out around the eight-meter arc. Simply put, they played more like the guys, which didn't always sit very well with traditionalists, either.

 

Here's an excellent Baltimore Sun article from 1992 regarding the evolution of the women's game and how Mt. Hebron was at the forefront of those changes. 

 

https://www.baltimor...6272-story.html

 

 

[mdrunning]

Looks like Mt Hebron did dominate Girls Lax. Had a decade or so without a loss here is the article I found online.

https://www.pressbox...ak-at-mt-hebron

That was when the talent pool really started to dry up. The opening of Marriott's Ridge really hurt them as it siphoned a significant amount of talent away from Mt. Hebron. Most of their jayvee was transferred as well. They didn't have an all-worldly talent anymore like Cathy Nelson (Reese), Kristen Waagbo or Megan Bosica any longer. They were becoming just another high school team. Highly competitive, yes, but not at the level at which they had been.

 

For what it's worth, I saw the game where West Genny ended Hebron's streak. 

[sambowen]

Chris Robinson this year in his first year as head coach at Lake Highland in Florida won the Florida state championship. During the season he beat the likes of national powers Glenleg Country and St. Stephens St, Agnes. People forget the year before he took over at McDonogh the Eagles were 8 games below 500. He and his brother took McDonogh to the championship game in his first year and then to 178 consecutive victories. https://www.orlandos...72tq-story.html