Inside Lacrosse Podcasts

In what's become an annual tradition, IL's Matt Kinnear, Dan Kaplan, Kevin Brown and Terry Foy discuss their drafts of a Top 50 players list as part of an exercise leading to next week's reveal of IL's final list.

No. 1 is unanimous, but from there it gets more interesting.

As yet another evaluation window comes to a close, Harvard lacrosse coach and the sport's contrarian/ombudsman Gerry Byrne joins IL's Terry Foy to lay out the ills that he sees in the recruiting process.

Topping his list of complaints: gatekeepers of communication that don't act in the best interest of their players and families.

On the other end of the spectrum, Foy asks Byrne about his thoughts on reclassing and national teams, two of the hottest-button issues in the club landscape right now.

On the heels of last weekend's World Lacrosse General Assembly, newly-extended CEO Jim Scherr and newly-elected president Bob DeMarco join IL's Terry Foy to discuss what's been done to get to this point, from Scherr's arrival to Olympic inclusion, as well as what's next, from governance to schedule to sport development and more.

A year on from the release of his book "Influence and the Creator's Game," IL's Terry Foy catches up with Frank Kelly III for a unique and wide-ranging conversation that centers on the role that faith played in Kelly's life and the relationship between that and, among other things, the spirituality of the Creator's Game.

They also touch on what a unique year this will be four him and his three brothers, who together have five sons playing on five different college lacrosse teams, and updates within FCA.

About halfway through the college fallball season, IL's Matt Kinnear, Kevin Brown, Christian Swezey and Terry Foy convene to compare their notes on the teams they've seen so far this month.

They start with Swezey and Kinnear's breakdown of Georgetown's win over Virginia at the Bob Kemp Classic, then discuss Notre Dame's win over Harvard at "Playing for Peace" in Chicago. From there, they shift to Philadelphia for an examination of Maryland, Penn State, Lehigh and St. Joe's playday at Springfield High, then wrap with a recap of Yale-Carolina the weekend prior. They also discuss Kinnear's visit to Towson's practice Foy's dropping in on Johns Hopkins.

IL's Dan Kaplan continues the series of "How Recruiting Works" with a DIII twist. 

He welcomes Dickinson coach Dave Webster and Amherst coach Sean Woods to answer a bevy of recruiting-related questions. While a lot of the blueprint for most of DIII is pretty similar, the subtle manipulations by staff and program make all the difference.

In addition to valuable knowledge about the process, this episode also has packed in plenty of advice about how recruits should carry themselves as a means of showing off the tangibles and intangibles that it takes to go from a prospect to a committed player.

Around this time every year, dozens of parents of high school prospects ask IL's Terry Foy some version of the question, "How does recruiting work?"

In an effort to round out that answer, he's interviewing a series of DI men's lacrosse coaches about their process, concluding this year's series with Delaware coach Ben DeLuca.

The Blue Hens sit at the intersection of several aspects of college athletics — geographically (north/south), academically (most selective/most prestigious), competitively (perennial tournament contender/perennial title contender) and, most pertinently as they transition from FCS to FBS football, high-major vs. low-major. It all manifests in how DeLuca builds out Delaware's roster, and he discusses how that informs his evaluation and recruiting strategies.

More than 200 players in the Class of 2026 have announced their commitment, including more than 100 since IL's Dan Kaplan and Terry Foy last recorded. In light of that, the Top 10 Class Rankings have started to take form, most notably Duke's No. 2 group, which rocketed up the charts with four huge commitments on Sept. 16. After unpacking what the Blue Devils did (including an analysis of the video Mitchell Pehlke did with Bennett Matthews), Kaplan and Foy worth through how the groups have come together for Notre Dame, Virginia, Harvard, Syracuse, Carolina, Princeton, Maryland, Georgetown, Michigan, Ohio State and Dartmouth.

Around this time every year, dozens of parents of high school prospects ask IL's Terry Foy some version of the question, "How does recruiting work?"

In an effort to round out that answer, he's interviewing a series of DI men's lacrosse coaches about their process, continuing with Saint Joseph's coach Taylor Wray.

Entering his 14th season at the Hawks' helm, Wray describes how his path from Edmonton to Duke informs how he evaluates and recruits, and explains how St. Joe's has incrementally increased its investment in men's lacrosse since he arrived, culminating in receiving its full scholarship allotment six years ago (and how that has corresponded with the program's cresting).

Around this time every year, dozens of parents of high school prospects ask IL's Terry Foy some version of the question, "How does recruiting work?"

In an effort to round out that answer, he's interviewing a series of DI men's lacrosse coaches about their process, continuing with Sacred Heart coach Jon Basti.

Coming off a MAAC Championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance, Basti discusses the sweetest sandwich he's had recently before venturing into how assistant coach Chris Doctor has helped him slow the Pioneers' process down, how they try to find athletes that want to be at their institution and how they define the program's identity.