Lacrosse season is back, and there have been a number of teams making a real push for a state title. Here are three local teams to watch.
Dearborn Divine Child
A 21-9 Division 1 quarterfinal loss to East Grand Rapids ended Divine Child’s 15-7 season last year, but as the 2026 season has begun, the team is off to a strong start that seems promising.
Divine Child is undefeated through its first seven games of the season, featuring dominant wins over the likes of Dexter, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard and Ypsilanti Lincoln. Through the first five games of the season, Divine Child averaged 15 goals a game showcasing what has been a strong offensive approach.
The team has shown to be well-rounded early on, despite the offense boasting a rather young group.
“We’re very balanced,” head coach Ed Traub said. “Our defense, including our long stick and midfield, is very strong. Our attack is young, so that’s probably my biggest concern going forward, but so far they’ve been really great.”
The attack is highlighted by players like Landon Pelty, who garnered 15 goals through the first five games of the season. Brody McNamara has also been strong on that side of the ball with 11 goals through the first five as well.
Senior faceoff players Gavin Abraham and Griffin Teems have stood out especially for Traub, while the defense features the likes of Chris Hammock, TJ Konet, Ricky Stratton and Michael DiSalvo.
Traub mentioned how the goal is always at the minimum to win a regional game along with taking home the Catholic league. While the latter goal comes at a challenge in a tough league, Divine Child has had no problem making it beyond the regional round in recent history.
This year, however, the goal expands further.
“This year, we’ve got a very strong junior class,” Traub said. “We’ve had quite a few kids come out for the team, with numbers on both JV and varsity. Really our goal is to make it to the state championship game.”
All in all, Traub noted how the grit and bond of the team might be the silver lining that pushes them to their ultimate goal.
“They’re a heady group, they love the game,” Traub said. “They play hard and for each other. There’s really a lot of momentum and energy around them.”
Birmingham Brother Rice
Brother Rice has cemented itself as the team to beat through the last two decades, and this season is no different.
Coming off of a 19-5 season in which it won the Division 1 championship, Brother Rice is once again showing promise early on. Head coach Ajay Chawla has his team sitting at a 3-1 record through the first four games of the season, with the sole loss coming to out-of-state opponent Cincinnati St. Xavier in Ohio. Brother Rice is top five in the Michigan Power Rankings (MPR), with a 0.717 to begin the season.
Chawla mentioned how the outlook for each season comes at a challenge, as Brother Rice is always expected to make it to the state finals. However, this year looks a bit different for the team, as a large group of underclassmen highlight the roster.
“We have a lot of inexperience on the team right now,” Chawla said. “And so it’s something we’re going to have to work through early in the season to meet our expectations late on in the season. There’s a lot of work to get done between now and when the playoff run starts.”
The expectations for Brother Rice lacrosse is well known to the players, and the culture that is set in stone might be the driving factor that pushes the young group.
“They’re all well aware,” Chawla said. “The unfortunate part about being a senior for Brother Rice is you don’t want to be one of three or four senior classes in the last 25 years who haven’t won a state championship. They understand the culture and they understand what’s expected of them.”
Midfielders Brady Salach, Brennan Carmichael, Frank Baiardi and attackman Joe Lee highlight some of the upperclassmen for Brother Rice while Doug Passon and Danny Skandalaris have been a bright spot for the underclassmen.
The team captains feature NJ Tuliao, Lewis Grant and Ben Waechter, along with Salach and Baiardi. Waechter is one player that Chawla spoke highly of in regards to overall talent.
“[Waechter] might be one of the most dominant players in the Midwest, if not the country,” Chawla said. “He’s one of the top three defensive recruits in the country, and he’s heading to Duke in two years.”
Brighton
Brighton ended last season 15-5 before falling to champion Brother Rice in the quarterfinals. This season, the team is off to a hot start at 5-0-1 through its first six games while ranking in the top-20 in MPR.
Twenty-nine players graduated from last season’s team, so this year’s Brighton team looks quite different from what was seen last year. Head coach Jim Carl steered away from the term ‘rebuild’, however, he did bring attention to the holes on the team that are being filled.
“I don’t want to say we’re rebuilding, I think we’re kind of just filling spots and we’ve got some great players in our program,” Carl said. “A lot of our guys that are on our varsity team have some varsity experience, and I think that’s really helped a great deal.”
What Carl has seen go well so far early in the season actually stems from the motivation of this new roster as a result of the rehaul.
“I think the kids want to continue the tradition of last year,” Carl said. “Last year was the first year we won the division in the conference in quite some time, and we’ve had some really great teams here. So I think our kids are pretty motivated to win the KLAA, particularly as we foresee it going away.”
One of the top players for Brighton that have been leading this charge has been junior Joe Skoczylas, widely regarded as one of the top players in the state.
“He’s a very talented kid,” Carl said. “This is his third year on varsity. He’s a little bit bigger now than he was as a freshman, and I think most teams kind of know who he is and will key in on him. He’s probably our best offensive weapon.”
Caden Freimark, Luke Blow and Maddox Marlatt are each highlights of the offense behind Skoczylas.
The defense is led by goalie and captain Cass Whitaker, who came in to replace last year’s goalie following an illness and made noise in the position. Brody Shannon also leads the defensive end along with playing as LSM for Brighton.
Practices have been a defining part of the season so far for Brighton, with Carl mentioning how the approach within has set the tone for the team as a whole.
“We try to make our practices no different than our games,” Carl said. “We have intense practices and we expect each of our guys to come in and play with that kind of game-like intensity every day. [The captains] really help do that.”
Doug Doty is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Metro Detroit boys high school lacrosse preview: 3 teams to watch
Reporting by Doug Doty, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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