June 21, 2006

With high school seasons and academic years now in the books, the steady progression of summer tournaments, camps and all-star games has begun. This weekend in St. Louis, the National Senior Showcase will feature 93 of the nation's top players competing on four geographically-defined teams. Saturday's opening round games pit the North against the West and the South against the East. The winners face-off in the championship game Saturday afternoon, with the opening-round losers also meeting in the third-place game.

 

While the NSS has been one of the top events during the summer season, the Under Armour Classic for boys and girls made its debut last week in Baltimore. These games don't feature the national distribution of the NSS - 11 members of the South boys' team and 18 of the 22 South Team girls were from Maryland - but they do provide added exposure for the sport. The boys' game was televised nationally by ESPNU.

 

The national audience witnessed a high-scoring boys' contest that saw the North team emerge with a 17-14 victory. Attackman Craig Dowd, one of 12 New Yorkers on the squad, earned MVP honors with a game-high five goals. He scored three of those markers during the North team's decisive 5-0 fourth quarter run.

 

Ward Melville's Joe Cuozzo, one of four coaches leading the North squad, told Newsday, "The talent was unbelievable and the kids played well together. We didn't know what to expect, but it turned out great."

 

• On the girls' side, game MVP Traci Landy, who had 93 goals this season for Long Island's Seaford, tallied five goals and an assist to lead the North to a 15-12 win. Despite being on the losing side, South team member Samantha Schrum of Maryland's St. Mary's was excited about having an opportunity to be a part of the new all-star game. "This is a longtime coming," she told The Baltimore Sun.

 

• The festival also included preliminary games on Sunday featuring underclassmen competing on all-star squads representing the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. regions. Baltimore maintained it claim for lacrosse supremacy by winning both games, prevailing 9-4 in the boys' contest and 12-7 in the girls' match-up.

 

Third Time the Charm in Massachusetts

Wellesley finally got its title. After losing by one goal in each of the past two state finals, the Raiders walked off the field Saturday as Massachusetts' Division 2 champion. Wellesley claimed the crown with a decisive 12-3 win over Minnechaug, which had beaten the Raiders 6-5 in last year's championship game. Wellesley finished its season with an impressive 24-1 mark, dropping its only game of the year 10-5 to the state's Division 1 champion, Duxbury, last month. Duxbury earned its third straight title and fourth in five year's with a 14-7 win over first-time finalist Xaverian Brothers. The Dragons finished as Massachusetts' only unbeaten with a 22-0 record.

 

• In Massachusetts girls' play, Framingham nipped Longmeadow 13-12 in overtime and Norwell downed Winchester 9-6 to claim the Division 1 and 2 titles, respectively. Framingham finished 25-0 on the year, with all its victories coming against in-state competition. Framingham handed King Phillip its first loss of the season, 7-6, in the state semifinal before slipping past Longmeadow in the final.

 

Overtime Championships

A couple of recent New Hampshire championship games provided more than just the thrill of victory. They also offered spectators and participants the thrill of overtime victory. St. Thomas Aquinas claimed the Division 2 boys' title with a 9-8 double overtime win over Oyster River. It was the first state crown for the Saints, who had perhaps started their celebration prematurely, allowing Oyster River to rally from an 8-1 deficit over the final 10 minutes of regulation.

• The ConVal girls also needed extra time to successfully defend their state title, defeating Portsmouth 16-14 in two overtimes. Fans of the Cougars have likely adjusted to the dramatics as ConVal has successfully rallied from half-time deficits in the state semifinal and final in each of the past two years.

 

More Overtime

 

In Connecticut, they were already 43 seconds into the fourth four-minute sudden-death period when Rob Rotanz scored to give Fairfield Prep a 13-12 win over Norwalk in the Class L championship game. The game-winner was Rotanz' second of the week as he had also tallied the overtime winner four days earlier to help Prep upset top-seeded Greenwich in the state quarterfinal.

"I guess I've been in the right place at the right time." Rotanz told the Fairfield Minuteman. "There's no real talent to it."

 

The championship was the first for Fairfield, which lost to New Canaan 6-5 in triple overtime in the 2001 state final, its only previous championship game appearance.

Test Us, Please

 

A new development that gained popularity in some areas during the recent high school prom season was alcohol testing of students through the use of a Breathalyzer device. The obvious goal by school administrators is to discourage underage drinking. In Vermont, high schools take a firm stance against students who test positive. Penalties can include citations, fines, and school suspensions. Athletes who test positive may be required to sit out games or be dismissed from the squad.

With this in mind, the South Burlington boys' team decided to take a proactive approach. With the state play-offs approaching, the players asked to be tested at the start of the SBHS prom. The team members volunteered for the test in order to minimize the risk of losing players to violations.

"It was a move on the part of some leadership, some of the leaders of the team, that I think was commendable and hopefully can spread...to put pressure on each other to not use drugs and alcohol," school principal Patrick Burke told the Burlington Free Press.

With their full compliment of players, the Rebels lost 10-9 in double-overtime to Mt. Anthony Union in the state play-offs.

In Closing

Since this is the last high school notebook of the season, it would probably be appropriate to name our year-end Top 10 or Top 25 list for both boys' and girls'. Several other publications and online outlets have already released their lists and those who faithfully follow the high school ranks can probably guess the teams at the top. We've talked about many of them over the past few months, but focusing on the powerhouse teams has never been the goal of this notebook. Instead, we've tried to spotlight the developments in different regions of the country, highlight noteworthy accomplishments, and share some of the interesting lacrosse happenings that have caught our attention. For that reason, we'll pass - for now - on the temptation to provide a listing of the nation's best teams. If you really want our opinion on the matter however, it will be available in the August issue of Lacrosse magazine.