July 13, 2007
by Matt DaSilva, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
BALTIMORE - Kory Kelly no longer takes lacrosse for granted, so when 1:07 remained in the third afternoon session of the U.S. Under-19 national team tryouts Friday and no one picked him up in the alley, the 6-foot-5, 205-pound attackman unleashed a furious left-handed shot that tore the top shelf and left goalie Adam Ghitelman befuddled.
Kelly, one of 30 attackmen and 120 players trying out at UMBC for the team that will ultimately represent the U.S. at the 2008 ILF U-19 World Championships in Canada, revels in finishing - he scored 71 goals this season as a senior at South Brunswick (N.J.) High School - and the punishment he sustains around the crease. He bounced around for three goals Friday, each time looking down at the brace that envelops his surgically-repaired right knee, each time remembering the pain that sidelined him a year ago.
Even Kelly can appreciate the irony.
"I was laying in bed a year ago," he said.
After a sophomore campaign in which he scored 49 goals, Kelly committed to play Division I lacrosse at Rutgers. But in the first game of his junior season in 2006, an ill-fated feed left his foot planted near the crease. A defenseman stepped on it, and Kelly limped off the field with what he thought was a hyperextension of his right knee. It was later that he learned he had torn three knee ligaments - his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), his medial collateral ligament and his medial meniscus - and that his season was over.
So too, he thought, was his opportunity to play in college, until he received a reassuring phone call from Rutgers head coach Jim Stagnitta.
"I had only verbally committed. I was worried" Kelly said. "Coach Stagnitta called me and said, `Don't worry about a thing. You'll come back stronger.'"
On April 25, 2006, Kelly underwent a reconstructive procedure in which a graft harvested from his patella tendon was fused into the torn ligaments. Doctors said it would take six months to rehabilitate. But the pain was far more severe than Kelly anticipated, especially when they'd yank his knee cap during stretches to regenerate the displaced tendon.
Eight months later, Kelly regained full strength in his knee, with the help of a brace. He led South Brunswick to an 18-2 mark upon his return in 2007. And in what Kelly called the most rigorous post-rehab test yet, he has established himself as one of the more reliable targets and one of the most physically-imposing forces in these U-19 tryouts, which include four days of games before the final 23 players are selected Sunday.
"I don't take playing for granted," he said, looking at the sweaty players around him. "I was laying in bed a year ago, and now I'm here."
Well En-Dowd
Two months ago, Craig Dowd was playing in the NCAA Division I quarterfinals against eventual national champion Johns Hopkins. As a freshman at Georgetown, he played in 14 games and scored 17 goals, but went scoreless in another premature NCAA tournament exit for the Hoyas.
Lucky for Dowd, he has an earlier opportunity for redemption than most of his teammates. As one of just three players with college experience trying out for the U-19 team, the chronically younger attackman finds himself in the rare position of elder statesman.
"It's a lot different, I'll tell you that," Dowd said Friday. "I'm used to being the youngest one out there."
Dowd's older brother, former Duke player Kyle Dowd, played for Team USA in the 2003 ILF U-19 World Championships in Towson, Md.
"It's kind of cool that my brother played on it," Craig Dowd said, citing simple advice from big brother. "Coming into this week, he said you've got to bust your ass."
Dowd also gets an opportunity to meet future teammates, as five of the 120 invitees - attackmen Nicholas Heitz, Daniel Hostetler and Ryan Shuler, midfielder Max Seligmann and defenseman Robert Boyle - have also committed to Georgetown for the 2008 season.
"I'm actually getting kind of excited they're coming," Dowd said, "that they'll be playing with me instead of against me."
You talkin' to me?
On the flip side there's midfielder Anthony Spada, a sophomore in high school in 2007 playing lacrosse for a little-known program at Saugerties High School, just south of Albany, N.Y. Spada, who forewent the recruiting-heavy Empire State Games to apply for U-19 tryouts, is one of just two rising juniors among the 120 candidates.
When called from the sidelines for an interview before his afternoon session Friday, Spada did a double-take. "Anthony Spada?" he asked. "S-P-A-D-A?"
It's a typical reaction from the small-framed Spada, who applied for tryouts on a whim and was "surprised and honored" to warrant the committee's approval.
"It's great to be playing with guys that are future Division I All-Americans, MLL, NLL, whatever," said Spada, who is also one of about a dozen midfielders trying to differentiate themselves as faceoff specialists. "When you came out after the first faceoff [Thursday], you realized these guys were legit. You turn around and someone rips a top-shelf goal, and you're like, `Wow, these guys are good.'"
Stripes tread a line
Part of the intrigue of these tryouts is their inherent conflicts. Players are trying to stand out with skills and athleticism, but the selectors are stressing that they play within team constructs. Temporary teammates are actual competitors. A well-timed feed may make someone vying for your spot look just as good on the finish.
And the 24 officials, four of whom will also represent the U.S. in 2008, have an obligation to throw a flag, even if it means limiting one player's exposure.
"We're cognizant of that," said John Feegel of Purcellville, Va. "We're loathe to put a kid in the box, but you've got to maintain some semblance of order."
Yes, the refs are trying out, too, adapting to the international mechanics and being observed with every swallowed whistle. Feegel cited a push call that he missed Thursday, and said it was "eating me up" the rest of the scrimmage.
Stick Checks
Defenseman John Lade of Randolph, N.J. - one of New Jersey's top defensemen and 2007 US Lacrosse National Senior Showcase MVP for the champion East team - continues to turn heads with his fiery play in transition. After a game this season in which he saw Lade play, Chatham coach Steve Manitta told a local Web publication, "I'd say he's one of the top defenseman in the state of New Jersey, if not in the nation. I was telling him to tuck his cape in." And it was easy to see why Friday. In a 10-minute span, the Villlanova-bound defenseman won a faceoff of his own and another off the wing, beat Dowd to the sideline after a shot missed wide, checked away a feed at the top of the box, and switched hands while engineering a fast break that ultimately yielded a goal. "He must run track or something," one selector noted. Said the 5-foot-10 Lade: "I'm not a typical defenseman. I'm smaller. So I just try to use other skills to my advantage. I'm just trying to work my speed. I'm faster than typical defensemen..." An attack unit that worked particularly well in one game Friday was that of Kelly, Dean Gibbons (Garden City, N.Y.) and Jack McBride (Delbarton, N.J.). In addition to Kelly's three goals, Gibbons had two goals and two assists, while McBride scored a pair - including a nifty backdoor goal off a fake shot/underhand pass from Gibbons...After a three-session outing Friday, the players play two more Saturday and one Sunday before the 24-member selection committee finalizes a U.S. team roster Sunday.
