Notice Me: The U19 Defenseman's Dilemma
by Brian Logue | LaxMagazine.com
CATONSVILLE, Md. - How are you supposed to
stand out when part of your job is to not get noticed? That’s
the dilemma for the 36 defensemen trying out for the 2012 U.S.
men’s U19 lacrosse team this week at UMBC.
“I was kind of debating what I should do,” said John
Kelly, a recent graduate of the Bullis School (Md.) headed to Johns
Hopkins. “I consider myself more of a position player than a
takeaway guy. It’s tough to stand out, but I think these guys
know what they’re looking for and know what they’re
doing. I figure if I play well, then they’ll see
me.”
Tanner Ottenbreit, a longstick middie from Regis Jesuit in
Colorado headed to Virginia, felt the same way.
“It’s a little tougher,” said Ottenbreit, who
does have the added benefit of faceoff experience on his resume.
“To get noticed you have to be a little more flashy, and if
you want to be flashy you get beat more easily. You have to try to
stick to your body defense.”
The level of players they’re playing against, makes it that
much tougher.
“There’s no kids that don’t deserve to be here,
everyone’s really good,” said Kelly. “You
can’t underestimate anyone. Everyone’s going to give
you their 100 percent and everyone’s really good. You have to
be ready to play at all times.”
That’s part of the reason Kelly said he decided to play the
style he’s more comfortable playing.
“I knew everyone was good, so I can’t go crazy and
throw a lot of crazy checks and pressure the ball too hard because
I’m going to end up getting beat,” said Kelly.
“My take on it was, I’m going to play good position,
try to talk a lot and show that I’m a good communicator and
play within the system and be a good teammate. I think
that’s what they’re looking for, they’re trying
to win this thing.”
While many of these players have played against each other over
the years, the national scope of the tryouts, the high level of
play, and the chance to represent your country makes it a unique
event. There are players from 20 states competing in the
tryout.
“It’s been awesome,” said Ottenbreit.
“I’m playing against everyone that I’m going to
be playing against in college, and we’ve got like 10 Virginia
kids out here so I got to meet a couple more guys that will be
coming up after me.”
One of the Virginia kids coming up after Ottenbreit is another
Colorado product, midfielder Matt Florence. Florence is a rising
senior at Kent Denver who has verbally committed to Virginia.
He’s one of several non-East Coast players who have stood out
at the tryouts. Another has been attackman Connor Buczek from St.
Xavier in Ohio. Buczek, headed to Cornell this fall, is coming off
a high school season in which he scored 147 points (85g, 62a) while
leading his school to the Ohio state quarterfinals.
The tryouts opened on Thursday afternoon, but Thursday’s
night’s session was wiped out due to rain. The players had
three sessions of tryouts on Friday, but after Saturday
morning’s session, the selectors decided to give the players
the afternoon off. They’ll have another session on Saturday
evening before wrapping up the tryouts on Sunday morning.
It’s a lot of lacrosse crammed into a short amount of time,
but the selection committee wants to give the players as much as
time as possible to shine.
“It’s a marathon tryout, not a sprint,” said
Ottenbreit. “You’ve got be able to play the whole
weekend.”
The 23-member team that will compete in the 2012 Federation of
International Lacrosse Men’s U19 World Championship in
Finland will be named on Monday on www.laxmagazine.com and
www.uslacrosse.org.
