2026 Recruiting | Page 10 | Syracusefan.com

2026 Recruiting

Zack80 said:
Is John Balsamo at Chaminade the brother of Charles Balsamo at UVa, who just transferred from Duke? Will UVa get a 2-pack?

Then one has to ask, what is the level of John Balsamo? He is #23 in the nlf rankings and #91 in Inside Lacrosse's rankings.
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According to this yes, they are brothers.

chstarmac.com

SENIOR ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT: Charles Balsamo ’22 Prepares for His Final Flyers Season

Balsamo ranked among the top 10 nationally, according to the latest National Lacrosse Federation report. He is committed to Duke University. By Michael LaSalle ’22 The prowess of Chaminade Hi…
chstarmac.com chstarmac.com
 
I was curious to see what the variance between recruiting services were this year, given that we have three to choose from (IL, Prep Lacrosse and NLF). I think it's a good thing when the publications don't agree with each other, or else we would probably just assume one was copying the other. There was some fascinating disagreements here, especially with some highly ranked players.

Across all three pubs, Faison and Gillis are the 1st and 2nd ranked recruits. But after that, a wide range of opinions exist. I used the IL rankings as the "baseline" given that they are the most established, although that's mostly due to Xanders, who left for Prep Lacrosse. NLF has some issues given that they only focus on "their" club teams, but I think they are still helpful to have in here. They posted rankings for 120 players, but after the first 100, I didn't consider them unless they were also ranked by one of the other two pubs. Some of the players that stood out to me are:

Cooper Brozek (A, Deerfield) - IL's third ranked player was ranked 5th by Ty, but 14th by NLF.

AJ Theodorkakos (D, Penfield) - Ranked 4th by IL, but an astounding 18th by Ty and 21st by NLF.

Teddy Frisoli (A, St. Sebastian's) - ranked 3rd by Ty came in at 11th for IL and 9th by NLF.

Ethan Bramoff (LSM, St. Anthony's) - was NLF's top ranked player to start the summer, but he suffered an injury and fell to fourth when they redid their rankings. He comes at 14th for both IL and Ty.

Like nyclax pointed out, Jace Banks (A, The Hill School) comes at 4th for Ty, and 6th for NLF, but only 21st for IL.

Hunter Mezzatesta (G, Yorktown) was the 3rd ranked player according to NLF, but was ranked 8th by IL and 10th by Ty. It feels like most times two pubs will agree with each other, with an outlier, but there are players that appear all across the ranking spectrum.

Of players ranked by all three pubs, Reese Pionket (LSM, Epsicopal) and Billy Weller (M, Deerfield) and John Balsamo (A, Chaminade) seems to have the biggest variance among opinions - Pioket comes in at 35th, 69th and 109th. Weller comes in as 29th, 57th and 114th. Balsamo, 91st, 45th and 23rd.

All three pubs rank IL's top 39, but neither Ty or NLF rank number 40, Kevin Piffath (D, Malvern Prep). Other players ranked by IL but not the other two were, no. 62 JP Maggio (LSM, IMG), no. 78 Brody Helton (M, Bedford), no. 86 Andrew Pascarella (D, Lambert), no. 87 Grant Braburn (A, Penn Manor), no. 90. Hunter Thompson (A, Holderness), no. 94 Mac Cronin (D, St. John's), no. 97 Griffin O'Sullivan (A, Gill St. Bernard) and no. 100 (Bigel Strazzini (D, Rye).

Ty had seven players not ranked by the other two, while NLF had 12 (excluding the players ranked over 100).

Henry Metz (A, McDonough) is mister consistency, he's ranked 7th across all publications.

James Whitehorse (A, Salisbury) stood out for being consistently ranked, despite being in the 90s (92, 98 and 96). When you get that far down the list the variance goes way up. For instance, Blake Farnsworth (D, St Anne's Belfield) is ranked 99th, 68th and 38th.

Out of the 100 players ranked by IL, 66 of them were ranked by all three publications.

Of the 131 total players ranked St. Anthony's has the most with five, followed by Deerfield, Brunswick, St. Sebastian's, Lawrenceville and Episcopal who all have four.

For the longest time we only had Inside Lacrosse to rely on for recruiting insight. It's nice to see other publications contribute. Should be interesting to see who was more "right" in the next few years, especially given the differences in opinion.
 
banks had a performance late in the summer where he simply took over and made it look like he was playing against toddlers. one assistant described it to me as jaw dropping. but it kind of came out of nowhere. he has flashed potential but never did anything like that before...so thats the reason for the variance on him...i guess Ty and NLF are betting on the upside while IL wants to see more consistency first...both positions are defensible. i lean toward the upside argument, especially when we're talking about 16 year olds...consistency at this stage is overrated. give me the guy who has flashed an ability to be truly special...

brozek should be top 5. hes like if dyson williams could also dodge. i have heard he is the most coveted player in the class. that said all three pubs are too high on kids for a deerfield team that has been mediocre the last two years...they continue to not learn their lesson with lawrenceville...rossettie, morgan, and others should be way higher...rossettie in particular is going to FLY up the rankings after getting a year under his belt with posner at lawrenceville
 
Powellfan said:
For the longest time we only had Inside Lacrosse to rely on for recruiting insight. It's nice to see other publications contribute. Should be interesting to see who was more "right" in the next few years, especially given the differences in opinion.
Expand...
Another change for fans over the last 10 years or so, is that there is a lot more video of the recruits out there.
 
Powellfan said:
I was curious to see what the variance between recruiting services were this year, given that we have three to choose from (IL, Prep Lacrosse and NLF). I think it's a good thing when the publications don't agree with each other, or else we would probably just assume one was copying the other. There was some fascinating disagreements here, especially with some highly ranked players.

Across all three pubs, Faison and Gillis are the 1st and 2nd ranked recruits. But after that, a wide range of opinions exist. I used the IL rankings as the "baseline" given that they are the most established, although that's mostly due to Xanders, who left for Prep Lacrosse. NLF has some issues given that they only focus on "their" club teams, but I think they are still helpful to have in here. They posted rankings for 120 players, but after the first 100, I didn't consider them unless they were also ranked by one of the other two pubs. Some of the players that stood out to me are:

Cooper Brozek (A, Deerfield) - IL's third ranked player was ranked 5th by Ty, but 14th by NLF.

AJ Theodorkakos (D, Penfield) - Ranked 4th by IL, but an astounding 18th by Ty and 21st by NLF.

Teddy Frisoli (A, St. Sebastian's) - ranked 3rd by Ty came in at 11th for IL and 9th by NLF.

Ethan Bramoff (LSM, St. Anthony's) - was NLF's top ranked player to start the summer, but he suffered an injury and fell to fourth when they redid their rankings. He comes at 14th for both IL and Ty.

Like nyclax pointed out, Jace Banks (A, The Hill School) comes at 4th for Ty, and 6th for NLF, but only 21st for IL.

Hunter Mezzatesta (G, Yorktown) was the 3rd ranked player according to NLF, but was ranked 8th by IL and 10th by Ty. It feels like most times two pubs will agree with each other, with an outlier, but there are players that appear all across the ranking spectrum.

Of players ranked by all three pubs, Reese Pionket (LSM, Epsicopal) and Billy Weller (M, Deerfield) and John Balsamo (A, Chaminade) seems to have the biggest variance among opinions - Pioket comes in at 35th, 69th and 109th. Weller comes in as 29th, 57th and 114th. Balsamo, 91st, 45th and 23rd.

All three pubs rank IL's top 39, but neither Ty or NLF rank number 40, Kevin Piffath (D, Malvern Prep). Other players ranked by IL but not the other two were, no. 62 JP Maggio (LSM, IMG), no. 78 Brody Helton (M, Bedford), no. 86 Andrew Pascarella (D, Lambert), no. 87 Grant Braburn (A, Penn Manor), no. 90. Hunter Thompson (A, Holderness), no. 94 Mac Cronin (D, St. John's), no. 97 Griffin O'Sullivan (A, Gill St. Bernard) and no. 100 (Bigel Strazzini (D, Rye).

Ty had seven players not ranked by the other two, while NLF had 12 (excluding the players ranked over 100).

Henry Metz (A, McDonough) is mister consistency, he's ranked 7th across all publications.

James Whitehorse (A, Salisbury) stood out for being consistently ranked, despite being in the 90s (92, 98 and 96). When you get that far down the list the variance goes way up. For instance, Blake Farnsworth (D, St Anne's Belfield) is ranked 99th, 68th and 38th.

Out of the 100 players ranked by IL, 66 of them were ranked by all three publications.

Of the 131 total players ranked St. Anthony's has the most with five, followed by Deerfield, Brunswick, St. Sebastian's, Lawrenceville and Episcopal who all have four.

For the longest time we only had Inside Lacrosse to rely on for recruiting insight. It's nice to see other publications contribute. Should be interesting to see who was more "right" in the next few years, especially given the differences in opinion.
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IMG_7033.jpeg
IMG_7034.jpeg

Here’s a 4th list to compare
 
JeremyCuse said:
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How is he the #34 recruit when he doesn't even appear on IL's Top 100 list?

IL has him listed as one of their 136 4-star recruits. Since they have 20 5-star recruits, and he didn't make the top 100, that puts him somewhere from 101-156.
 
OrangeXtreme said:
How is he the #34 recruit when he doesn't even appear on IL's Top 100 list?

IL has him listed as one of their 136 4-star recruits. Since they have 20 5-star recruits, and he didn't make the top 100, that puts him somewhere from 101-156.
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Xanders no longer works for IL. He has his own separate rankings on Prep Lacrosse.

preplacrosse.com

Unveiling the Five-Stars and Top 50 Recruits in the Class of 2026 - Prep Lacrosse

Use the code ‘PREP30′ at checkout for 30% off annual and two-year subscriptions on Prep Lacrosse for daily, year-round coverage of the recruiting and high school scene. As the clock moves closer to September 1, it’s time to start releasing the first wave of Class of 2026 rankings, starting with...
preplacrosse.com preplacrosse.com
 
W'boro'Cuse315 said:
Xanders no longer works for IL. He has his own separate rankings on Prep Lacrosse.

preplacrosse.com

Unveiling the Five-Stars and Top 50 Recruits in the Class of 2026 - Prep Lacrosse

Use the code ‘PREP30′ at checkout for 30% off annual and two-year subscriptions on Prep Lacrosse for daily, year-round coverage of the recruiting and high school scene. As the clock moves closer to September 1, it’s time to start releasing the first wave of Class of 2026 rankings, starting with...
preplacrosse.com preplacrosse.com
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That's an awful big spread.

Xanders says 34, and IL says 100+.

That's like saying Saquon Barkley is either a Top 20 fantasy pick, or he's a 10th rounder.
 
ty might just value this year's FO group more highly than IL. he has six FOGOs in his top 100 while IL only has four..

my favorite in the class is the Kim kid from gilman
 
I think the rankings are so silly and the amount of folks doing them now just proves that point… I also think the individuals doing the ranking don’t expose themselves to half the country and just really hit the east coast circuits then the northeast for school ball.

I am willing to put my name on the fact that the 26/27/28 class will be loaded with talent from the southwest, true D1 talent, and half will be unknown steals.. you know how many kids in places like AZ, UT, and SoCal are still holding out for football or bball scholarships sophomore year? Go look at Mad Dog, Cali Gold, and West Coast Starz coaching staffs. Mad Dog just hired Mike Hungerford (Farmingdale/CSH HC) and brought him to the area as Director of Player Development for example. Project Midwest also helping produce some D1 talent based out of Missouri.
 
OrangeXtreme said:
That's an awful big spread.

Xanders says 34, and IL says 100+.

That's like saying Saquon Barkley is either a Top 20 fantasy pick, or he's a 10th rounder.
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FWIW, NLF has him ranked #60.
 
It's the 5th and I'm jonesing for some commits. Let's get this thing going.
 
GrowTheGame said:
you know how many kids in places like AZ, UT, and SoCal are still holding out for football or bball scholarships sophomore year? Go look at Mad Dog, Cali Gold, and West Coast Starz coaching staffs. Mad Dog just hired Mike Hungerford (Farmingdale/CSH HC) and brought him to the area as Director of Player Development for example. Project Midwest also helping produce some D1 talent based out of Missouri.
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verbally committing for lax does not prevent a kid from getting a football offer later on...we see that happen all the time...how many recruits have maryland and ohio state alone lost to d1 fball programs in the last few years...has to be close to a dozen

a ton of mad dog and west coast starz kids get ranked every single year

they will always miss some but they do a much better job of covering the west coast and non hotbed areas nowadays...tons of texas and florida representation in the top 100...
 
JeremyCuse said:
Lot of guys out taking visits and considering offers. Think you'll see some movement after this weekend but stay patient.
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Very few names of any kind off the board right now, whether it is 5 star guys or obscure recruits.
 
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