One of the area’s top juniors, Jameson Pickel, a converted defenseman who plays for John Jay, has given an oral commitment to Johns Hopkins.
Pickel becomes just the second Indian to play at Hopkins, joining 2004 graduate Matt Bocklet, a defenseman who helped the Blue Jays win the national title in 2007. Like Bocklet, Pickel is known for his ability to help his team gain possession by getting ground balls.
“Jameson is a hard-working kid that we moved from middie to defense last year,” John Jay coach Nick Savastano said. “He is very intelligent with great footwork and explosiveness on ground balls. He will fit the Hopkins mold perfectly.”
Pickel also visited Towson and was considering Army and Notre Dame.
“My family and I had been discussing it a lot over Christmas,” Pickel said “I loved the school when I visited and felt it was the best decision for me.”
Pickel started playing lacrosse and baseball as a third-grader, before committing to lax exclusively in sixth grade. Since then, he has spent plenty of Memorial Day weekends watching the Blue Jays play for a national championship.
“I didn’t really have a favorite (college) team growing up, but I always liked Hopkins,” he said. “Their program is so strong and consistent.”
The 6-foot-1, 175-pound Pickel, who also plays football at John Jay, is the son of Bill Pickel, who played in the NFL for 12 seasons as a defensive lineman with the Raiders and Jets. Bill Pickel, who grew up in Queens and played college football at Rutgers, never played lacrosse himself. But the sport has quickly become a family affair.
Pickel’s brother, Will, plays lacrosse at Bucknell, and like Jameson, is a converted defenseman (from midfield). His sister, Katherine, was a senior captain last year on John Jay’s girls lacrosse team.
“I feel more natural playing lacrosse than football,” Jameson said,
Pickel is the second highly regarded junior from the area to commit to Hopkins and third player overall. Kevin Interlicchio, the 12th-ranked junior in the nation by Inside Lacrosse Magazine, has also verbally committed.
Another ‘Husker, midfielder John Ranagan, the 35th-ranked senior in the nation by Inside Lacrosse, has signed a national letter of intent to play with the Blue Jays. The three future teammates will all be on the same field this upcoming varsity season when John Jay hosts Yorktown for the teams’ annual showdown on May 15 at 7 p.m. at John Jay High School.
• “John Jay’s Pickel commits to Hopkins”:http://www.lohud.com/article/20090109/SPORTS02/901090380/-1/SPORTS
• “Recuiting updates for the Class of 2010”:http://boyslacrosse.lohudblogs.com/2008/09/01/recruiting-updates-for-class-of-2010/
18 Comments
Congrats Jameson – I’ll be rooting for you and the Blue Jays !
Yorktown and JJ boys come together!! congrats Jameson.
Congratulations to Jameson—Section 1 ROCKS—the Sav brothers and staff (Joe Scaecella) plus your hard work are a true testament the limits of what lax is all about—- go Blue Jays
Congrats Jameson, Casey and others. All the kids being recruited to D1 and D3 programs are great for Section 1
As we’ve talked about before here, there are quite a few laxers who also play hockey. Among them, of course, is Somers’ Joe Marasco, who has been playing both varsity lax and hockey since eighth grade.
Last night he scored his 100th varsity hockey goal — and did it on his 18th birthday no less — as Somers/North Salem beat Carmel 3-0.
“It was a great feeling,” said Marasco, who had a goal and two assists, and who also has reached the 100-goal mark in lax. “I didn’t think I would get there in hockey. I never expected that it would happen on my birthday.”
Neither Badalucco nor Granelli are listed as being on the team at Syracuse, and Syracuse has stated that they left school. Any word on what happened or where they’re going?
I have somewhat of a definitive on Granelli. Some of this could be old, but I think most of it is accurate.
I spoke to someone really close to Tyler who said the following:
As of very recently he’s still going to Syracuse. He’s red-shirted for the 2009 season. He’s working on his grades and is still with the team.
He is, however, contemplating transferring, but in all likelihood will remain red-shirted for the 2009 season wherever he ends up should he leave. There’s really nothing more than that so don’t believe everything you read.
He is interested in schools like Delaware, Albany, Hofstra and Towson, but just interested. No serious contact has been made with any of the schools. He’s not in love with SU the school, or the weather, etc. It doesn’t have much to do with the fact that he’s red-shirted.
So as of right now he’s sort of in a holding pattern.
Again, this is a good kid we’re talking about here so let’s try not to spread any crazy rumors. My buddy says he’ll end up somewhere and will be a very good college player. He just needs to figure out what it is he wants.
And as we know there’s really no timetable for that sort of thing.
o,yeah
Kid first, student second and lax player third. College is a tough adjustment from high school. WE all want whats best for everyone’s kid!
going to cuse and playing for cuse are 2 different things joe you always say this kids are going to these schools but fail to mention if they were really recruited or just walk on’s also half these d1 schools couldn’t beat ny tech or even post
it’s ok you can say salisbury too, we know you are thinking it
haha yea Mr. D, relax…half of d1 teams couldnt beat ny tech or post? Are you out of your mind? Maybe your Salisbury could beat the ten WORST teams in d1 but thats about it…When you play no one (d2 and d3) its pretty easy to win a national championship lol
i know they couldn’t beat SALISBURY just ask duke
haha and you really think Duke plays all their “studs” vs a D3 team and risk injury? I dont think so…
D1 lax is a full time job and the commitment is second to none…Top 30 teams in D1 is made up of H.S All-Americans from all around the country (plus Canada), There is absolutley no team outside of D1 that could even touch such teams…
sorry to burst your bubble but i was there and both team played there starters for three quarters – when you say d1 do you count siena ,marist, sacret heart in that statement and you know all this how?
i agree with laxmaster, the top tier d3 teams are much better than the lower half d1 teams, the whole idea of division 1 is overrated unless you are going to the top 30 teams and in fact are being recruited, not just walking on as zach and tyler must have been doing.
All im saying is that D1 is known as and will always be known as the most prestigous level of lacrosse and is the absolute best competetion around…Top 30-35 teams in D1 would pretty handily beat up on d2 and d3 teams simply bc those teams do not even come close to playing the same competition as they do..
i’ll give you the top ten but from 11 on top d3 would give them a game the rest above 20 are overrated every year its the same in the final four now and then somebody gets in but they don’t come back sad but true