Flood Selected in 2007 MLL Draft

The Harvard men’s lacrosse team’s co-captain, John Henry Flood, was selected by Major League Lacrosse’s Washington Bayhawks in the fourth round of the league’s collegiate draft on Thursday, the only Crimson player and one of 11 Ivy Leaguers chosen in the six-year-old league’s annual draft.

Flood was the 32nd overall pick and the second pick of the fourth round in the 50-player, five-round draft. He was one of about 50 players present at the draft, held at Stony Brook University, and one of about 40 who were chosen.

A number of teams had expressed interest in Flood prior to the draft, but the faceoff specialist already has a post-graduation banking job in New York, prompting him to entertain requests only from East Coast teams.

“I knew that if I was going to get picked up by a team, it was going to be an East Coast team,” Flood said Friday while driving down to Washington’s team facility in the nation’s capital. “I knew it was between one of the six East Coast teams.”

Of six teams in the Eastern Conference—along with the Boston Cannons, Long Island Lizards, New Jersey Pride, Philadelphia Barrage, and Rochester Rattlers—the Bayhawks, located in D.C., are actually the farthest from Flood’s current home in New Jersey. But that didn’t stop the midfielder from getting to the team complex as soon as he could.

“I had no idea where I was going, and my name just came up,” Flood said. “The coach called really quick to get me down here. They wanted me to practice tonight, so I’m driving down there now.”

Unlike the drafts of many professional sports leagues, the MLL selection process takes place in the midst of the season. The Bayhawks were already 2-1 on the year when Flood was selected, and the team won a home contest against Flood’s hometown New Jersey Pride on Saturday.

Washington is also scheduled to face Boston—a team that began playing its home games at Harvard Stadium this year—on June 15 on Harvard’s home field, but Flood isn’t yet sure if he’ll be able to participate in the stadium homecoming.

“I don’t know if I’ll make the travel squad yet,” Flood said, “but I’m hoping to.”

Flood was undoubtedly chosen because of his prowess throughout his career at the faceoff X. A former high school wrestler, Flood has applied his wrestling technique to the lacrosse field to the tune of the second-best faceoff percentage in all of Division I lacrosse. His win percentage of 67.1 was also best in the Ivy League, and he won at least half of his faceoffs in every game in 2007. Ranked sixth in the nation in ground balls per game, Flood was also an honorable mention All-Ivy Selection.

“They have a guy right now for faceoffs, but they still want me to come in,” he said. “If I play real well, then there’s no reason they won’t keep me around.”

Flood also played with senior teammate Greg Cohen in this year’s United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association North South Classic, the premier all-star game in college lacrosse.

Cornell led the Ivy League with five players drafted, while Princeton saw three players selected. Brown and Dartmouth each had a single player chosen.

Though he’s the first Crimson player ever selected in the MLL collegiate draft, two other Harvard players have made their way to MLL rosters. Doug Kocis ’05 and Jake McKenna ’04 were selected in the league’s supplemental draft, Kocis to Long Island in 2006 and McKenna to San Francisco this year.

As the Crimson’s first-ever MLL draftee, however, Flood is eager to take advantage of the opportunity.

“I’m really excited,” he said. “It’s a little far from New York, but I’m just excited to play with the best lacrosse players in the world, and this is the best lacrosse league in the world. I’ll be playing with legends, these guys I watched growing up who are 35 years old now.

“I’m just happy to watch and play with these guys who I was a fan of growing up.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.