We Need An Avengers Squad For College Lacrosse Seniors Taking An Extra Year Of Eligibility In 2021
Okay so first of all, graphic design is my passion. Second or third or whatever number we're on, the NCAA voted yesterday and granted an extra year of eligibility for all Division I spring sport athletes.
Now the whole thing is still pretty confusing but it sounds like it'll be every DI spring sport athlete getting an extra year and not just the seniors. So who knows how long the impact of this will last for when you factor in the fact that we could still be seeing teams in 2024 with "5th year" players on the roster. But the fact of the matter is that for the first time ever, the NCAA did the right thing. You couldn't just rip away this season for the class of 2020 and not give them any chance of coming back to finish off their college careers. So luckily someone on the NCAA Council decided to turn on their brain and realize there was no way they could walk back the claim they made earlier for the blanket waiver.
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There are still a ton of details here about scholarships and financial aid that I still don't understand, but you can go to people who are way smarter than I am with way more sources (I have zero sources) to figure that all out. The only thing I'm concerned about here is if we can get an Avengers squad full of 2020 seniors to transfer to the same school next year and wreak absolute havoc on the college lacrosse world. Again, I don't know if this extra year of eligibility means that they're allowed to transfer or not but if they can? Well then there's gotta be a program out there who is willing to bite the bullet and assemble the greatest all star team that college lacrosse has ever seen.
Attack: Tre Leclaire - Michael Sowers - Mac O'Keefe
Unfortunately Grant Ament has already declared for the PLL Draft and I'm sure that plenty of other seniors will eventually follow his lead. Not everyone can afford another year of college/wants to spend another year in college when they already have jobs lined up for life after school. But maybe that could make Grant Ament the Nick Fury of this team, even though I feel like I'm the Nick Fury right now.
Either way, I'd imagine the Sowers to O'Keefe connection would be just as lethal as Ament to O'Keefe. Also if you give Sowers an equally lethal righty bomb on the other side, he might have 200 assists next year with each of those guys having a hundred goals each.
Midfield: Dox Aitken - TD Ierlan - Jeff Teat
I know that Teat is technically an attackman but I'd just run him out of the box so he and O'Keefe can just work together on that lefty side. I probably also wouldn't even pick up another midfielder to go on for TD after faceoffs because I'm almost positive this group would score in the first 25 seconds of every possession they have. So there really wouldn't be much of a need for anyone to sub on for him since he'd be heading right back out there for the next faceoff like 5 seconds later.
Defense: JT Giles-Harris - Jared Conners - Ryan McNulty
I know Conners and McNulty are LSM's and don't typically play close but again, this is a team built for scoring roughly 35-40 goals per game. So you get those two in transition and they each have the green light to shoot the shit out of the ball as soon as they cross midfield. Then you combine that with JT Giles-Harris who is quite possibly the scariest man college lacrosse? Teams will get bullied off the field by halftime. But if I had to add another another pole to the mix (maybe to get Teat off the field for defense), then I'd put McNulty at LSM and slide Nick Mellen down at close. Actually, yes, that is exactly what I'm doing.
Goalie: Drake Porter
Easiest choice of all time. Plus he'd be spiking all the water bottles with Mountain Dew so the team would be so goddamn wired all season long. Just a bunch of maniacs all hopped up on Mountain Dew for 4 straight quarters of dominance.
I know it's pretty typical for there to be plenty of conflict in the Avengers movies and obstacles for the Avengers to overcome, but that simply wouldn't be the case here. This team would go undefeated and I doubt they'd have any games that end up being closer than a 5-6 goal win. And that's just on a random Tuesday afternoon away game.
Fire it up, boys.