Yuku free message boards

Welcome, KSM 624 and the other Ohio posters, to Searn's site. I wouldn't worry too much about Lahser. They do not play at the same level as Fremont Ross. I was shocked to see Ross on the Lahser schedule since Lahser never travels out-of-state and rarely schedules a game outside of its OAA conference. One of my criticisms of the OAA is that they don't have a non-conference schedule and consequently do not challenge its better teams, which by the way Lahser is not one of. There are three divisions in the OAA and Lahser is in the weakest of the three. And the OAA is not one of Michigan's best conferences, although they do have a couple good teams. Lahser has had some success in recent years, but keep in mind that this success has come at the expense of a weak division.

I was surprised by Lahser's playoff run last year. They made it to the semi-final round of the Division 3 playoffs before losing 36-20 to Inkster--the best team they played last year. They finished 11-2. I would venture to say that Fremont Ross could have beaten every team Lahser played last year, with the possible exception of Inkster.

I still wonder why Lahser is taking on this scheduling challenge. Is there some connection between the Lahser coach and Ross? It is so atypical for a OAA team. I do give them credit and wish them luck, but it is going to very tough. The team that I follow, Birmingham Brother Rice has ventured into Ohio many times and has had reasonably good success. They have played teams like Moeller, Piqua, Sandusky, Youngstown Mooney, Toledo St. John's and St. Francis, Middletown, etc. I think all but Mooney were played in Ohio. It's tough to play in Ohio and in some of the smaller towns, there have been some homer refs. I just hope Lahser doesn't run into that in Fremont; they'll have a tough enough time with the team.

Fremont Ross has a long history of sending players to top Division 1 programs. Lahser rarely, if ever, has had a big time recruit. If you were to name the top 50 high school programs in Michigan, Lahser would not be on that list. Nothing against Lahser. They are an improving program, but they just play at a different level. I realize that Ross is also not St. Iggy, St. X, Colerain, Elder, Moeller, etc., but it appears they are just a notch below those great programs.

Lahser opens this year against one of Michigan's all-time best programs, but one that has been down in recent years and is expected to be down again this year. I'm talking about Farmington Hills Harrison. Normally this would be a blowout for Harrison, but I wouldn't be surprised if Lahser pulls off an upset. That would bring them to Fremont as an undefeated team, but probably not ranked in the Top 25 in Michigan. If they can pull off the big upset in Ohio, they would gain a lot of respect up here and might actually have a shot at getting to the Div. 3 championship game this year. A lot depends on whether a couple of perrennially strong Div. 3 teams end up getting placed in Div. 2 or not.

Are any of the Ross players being recruited by major Div. 1 programs?