In just his first year of recruiting Coach Fritts has 18 new faces coming to practice on September 1st!  That’s equal to the total players last season!  The Bearkats lost just four to graduation and will come back in 2010 with 30!  Fritts had this to say… “Back in 1980 we recruited kids that couldn’t play their respective sport at the collegiate level.  Today, 18 new faces are coming and they have all played competitive lacrosse at the high school level.  The process (recruiting) is much more time consuming than ever imagined.  From getting the kids excited about the school and lacrosse program to their parents feeling ‘Okay’ with their son coming to play for you to all the conversation/email with their high school coaches.  Getting a new class in like this makes all the standing at tournaments and high school games well worth it!”

2009 – 2010 Recruits

Chris D’Auria – Commack (NY); Zac Fry (New London, CT) – Taylor; Brendan Gawronski – Keller; Logan Holmes – Fort Meade (MD); Greg Kremen – Cinco Ranch; Sam Lockett – Kingwood; Randy McMinn – Keller; Will McNutt – South Lake Carroll; Donny Meyer – Cy-Fair; Zach Montanari – Cedar Park (transfer from Lees-McRae);  Wil Nielsen – Kingwood; Mike Ritchie – Plano West; Alex Rivas – Woodlands; Forrest Schmidt – Keller; Ryan Sudduth – Westside; Tyler Tyson – Woodlands; Andrew Wilks – Kingwood and Nick Williams – Kingwood

Four come to Sam Houston from major lacrosse markets… D’Auria (Long Island), Fry (Connecticut), Holmes (Maryland) and Zach Montanari (North Carolina).  “Obviously, we are going to look for a lot from these four.  They should take the least amount of coaching and are expected to have an immediate impact,” Fritts said.  Donny Meyer (Cy-Fair) has the honor of being the first to commit to Sam Houston and Wil Nielsen (Kingwood) was the first to officially receive an offer under the new scholarship program.  Fritts added “I watched Wil play at the Cy-Fair tournament and happened to be next to his parents (Gerry & Kathie) who grew up just 30 minutes from me on Long Island.  Wil is so fluid and has a tremendous Lacrosse IQ.  I just went ‘full court press’ on the kid and am ecstatic that he selected Sam Houston.”  Mix and mesh some of these in with the four returning All Conference players (Badour, Cottle, Flores & Messer) and one 1st Team All American (Mann), and Sam Houston is going to spell trouble for many opponents.

Look for BIG things from Sam Houston in 2010!  Even bigger when the team goes up to Division I of the MCLA in 2011.  “This program is finally headed in the right direction.  18 recruits in 9 months and a Championship appearance.  No one, myself included, ever thought the turn would be so quick” said Doug Sarant… a former player for Fritts back in the 80′s and current Goalie Coach at Sam Houston.