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Casey Gilchrist routinely takes on the assignment of covering the opponent’s top midfielder.
That’s pretty much in the job description for any LSM, let alone one ranked No. 13 in his class like the Team 91 Long Island and Massapequa (N.Y.) standout is. When 91 takes on Leading Edge, that means Gilchrist is seeing a whole lot of Danny Varone, the No. 2 midfielder in the class and No. 4 player overall. The two have traded individual wins against each other over the years, but Gilchrist is happy that it won’t last past next summer.
“It’s going to be nice not having to worry about going up against him in games because he does give me trouble from time to time,” Gilchrist said. “He’s very good.”
Instead of a couple of games per fall and summer, it’ll be a thing every day in practice for five years. Both of the five-stars committed to Duke in September as part of a five five-star player haul for the Blue Devils. They’re joined in the class by NLF No. 2 Landen O’Neil (Tabor, Mass.), No. 9 PJ Kennedy (Culver, Ind.) and No. 14 Hawkes Packard (St. Ignatius, Calif.). David Giuriceo (No. 38 from Brunswick, Conn. and Eclipse) and Joey Murphy (No. 43 from Malvern Prep, Pa.) give Duke seven top-50 recruits, while the addition of faceoff specialist David Druhot (Jupiter, Fla.) rounds out the Blue Devils’ class.
Duke Loads Up
That’s a whole lot of firepower for Duke and gives it a contender for the title of best class in the country. ACC rival Virginia may have something to say about that, but the feeling around the Blue Devils is that they have the best per-player class. It’s easy to see that argument.
“I couldn’t be more excited for it,” Giuriceo said. “The kids are all so elite and they’re all great people to be around. I’m excited to see my future around them and I wouldn’t have it any other way. This class is special. They’re all like-minded guys and they all want to win.”
The Blue Devils went hard on defense in the class of 2027. They landed a pair of five-star LSMs NLF No. 5 Jagger Zemachson (Seton Hall Prep, N.J. / Leading Edge) and No. 11 Ben Waechter (Brother Rice, Mich.) last fall while also securing the services of No. 13 Bodhi Harmon, a goalie from Culver (Ind.). Duke then flipped No. 7 overall prospect and No. 1 close defenseman Leif Anderson (Brunswick, Conn. / Eclipse) from Notre Dame this fall. Add in a four-star defenseman in No. 36 Dion Kitsos (Milton Academy, Mass.), a likely SSDM in No. 25 Finn French (Haverford School, Pa.) and another SSDM in No. 52 Brady Berg (Santa Fe Christian, Calif.), and the Blue Devils have their defense locking things down for a while.
It didn’t hurt to add Gilchrist as the second commit of the class, but he’s the only one on the defensive side of the ball. Duke went heavy on offense in the ’28 class, and it paid off. Varone is as good as it gets as a midfield shooter with the ability to take over a game at a moment’s notice. O’Neil is the best lefty in the class and makes magic happen around the net. Kennedy is a chameleon able to play just about any role in an offense. Packard is potentially the best athlete in the class, and while he might play some SSDM, can also electrify when initiating. Giuriceo and Murphy are both high-IQ types that will be a handful as midfielders in space.
“It’s gonna be fun,” Varone said. “If you look at our class from top to bottom, everybody’s good. There’s nobody where you’re, like, ‘I don’t know about that kid.’ These are kids that I can spend five years with and not bat an eye.”
“The recruits that we kept getting were getting better and better,” Gilchrist said. “We have so many five-stars and four-stars, and the quantity and quality have been great. We have a ton of sick offensive guys and if we get those guys the ball, they’re gonna score a lot.”
Back to Memorial Day?
The combination of the defense-heavy 2027 class and the offensively-loaded 2028 class means that Duke has all of the talent that it needs to finally get back to celebrating on Memorial Day for the first time since 2014.
“With the culture and coaching that Duke has, it’s only so far away,” Giuriceo opined. “Everybody works so hard and Duke is so strong overall, it feels like it’s almost inevitable that (the next title) will come soon.”