Household Names Among U.S. U19 Hopefuls
by Matt DaSilva | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
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Three days of U.S. U19 team tryouts will conclude Wednesday with the naming of a 24-member training team. © John Strohsacker/LaxPhotos.com |
CATONSVILLE, Md. -- Taylor Gait does not hide
from her father’s legacy. As a rising junior at Christian
Brothers Academy (N.Y.), she wears jersey number 22, just like he
did. She plays with similar panache. Reports say she has even
committed to play for him at Syracuse.
Gait was one of the last to arrive Monday at UMBC, where 165 of
the nation’s best high school girls’ lacrosse players
reported for tryouts for the 2011 U.S. U19 team. Her father’s
parting words?
“He just said to hustle,” she said, “and work
really hard.”
Being Gary Gait’s daughter carries a certain weight. So does
being a Stanwick.
Covie Stanwick, whose three older sisters left significant
imprints on the sport as stars at Georgetown, will buck the trend
and take her game to Boston College in 2011-12. Sheehan, Wick and
Coco Stanwick were All-Americans.
(At BC, Covie should hope to avoid the critical eye of Sheehan
Stanwick Burch, the oldest of the brood who now calls college
lacrosse games from the press box as an analyst for CBS College
Sports. Sheehan once chided their sister Coco on air for taking an
ill-advised shot during a Georgetown broadcast. “A terrible
shot by Stanwick,” she said. Ouch.)
In lacrosse-rich Baltimore, no surname stands out as much as
Stanwick. In addition to Covie’s three sisters, older
brothers Tad (Rutgers) and Steele (Virginia) have starred in the
collegiate ranks. Younger brother Wells has committed to Johns
Hopkins. Shack Stanwick will be a high school freshman at
Boys’ Latin (Md.) in 2011.
Although Covie, a rising senior at Notre Dame Prep (Md.), wants to
make her own mark, she would like to follow Sheehan’s,
Coco’s and Steele’s footsteps by playing for Team
USA.
“Sheehan was on the Elite team. Coco made the U19 team and
was the captain. Steele made the U19 boys’ team to go to
Canada, but he was hurt and couldn’t go. Yeah, a couple of us
have played on it,” Covie Stanwick said Tuesday. “We
practice really hard, help each other out and give each other tips
on what we can improve on. We’ve made each other better
throughout the years.”
Although lacrosse royalty courses through their veins, Gait and
Stanwick have each embraced the purity and anonymity of these U.S.
U19 team tryouts. They wear reversible practice jerseys with
randomly assigned numbers 49 and 171, respectively. Each wants her
play to speak for itself.
“It is really, really hard. I was not expecting this at all.
My dad kind of warned me, but not really,” Gait said.
“The key is to do something that will get someone’s
attention. Make them remember you. A couple of girls will do
behind-the-back shots. You’re not going to forget that. Or if
you’re playing defense and you double the ball, every ground
ball, you’re there. It’s the little things people
notice.”
Gait said she opted to try out for Team USA rather than Team
Canada, despite her father’s British Columbian box lacrosse
roots. No matter where she goes, the same questions follow her.
What’s it like being Gary Gait’s daughter?
What’s it like to call the most heralded lacrosse player in
history your father?
“I mean, he’s just my dad,” she said, “so
I don’t really think of it as anything special. But
it’s cool. There’s a little pressure, but he never
forces anything on me, so it’s OK.”
Gait and Stanwick are among 165 players remaining in the fight for
just 24 spots on the U.S. U19 training team that will be announced
Wednesday around 3 p.m. From there, 18 will be selected to defend
Team USA’s gold medal at the 2011 FIL World Championships in
Hanover, Germany.
A Well-Seasoned Sophomore
Two weeks ago, Courtney Fortunato scored five goals to lead the
Yellow Jackets over Starz Gold in the US Lacrosse U15 National
Championship final in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Now, she’s dominating on a whole new level, turning heads as
one of the youngest players at these U.S. U19 team tryouts.
“It’s been a very busy summer, so I’ve got a lot
of experience coming into it,” Fortunato said.
“I’m just trying to be a team player, just play my game
and have fun. It’s a lot of work, very tiring. I feel like
I’ve been here a year… You just have to go out, give
it your best and hope for the best.”
Rising sophomores are rare, with most of the tryout participants
entering their senior or junior years of high school. But Fortunato
is no ordinary sophomore. She scored 75 goals and dished 26 assists
as a freshman for Long Island power Northport in 2010. She has
played on the varsity girls’ lacrosse team there since
seventh grade.
“I’ve learned literally everything I know from that
experience. I have two more years on most people,” Fortunato
said. “All those older girls that have graduated taught me a
lot.”
Blue Streak
It’s hard not to notice Duke-bound Taylor Trimble, a rising
high school senior at Episcopal Academy (Pa.), at these tryouts.
She stands taller than most of her opponents and carries the
confidence of a two-time Heather Leigh Albert Award winner as the
nation’s best player in the schoolgirl division of the US
Lacrosse National Tournament.
Trimble has taken the added attention in stride.
“All of us were super nervous to begin, just that adrenaline
rush,” she said. “It’s just an incredible
experience knowing that these are the best players in the country
and we’re competing for such a special place on the U19
team.”
Future Blue Devils have had a way of winning over the world for
Team USA. Current Duke players Sarah Bullard, Emma Hamm and
Virginia Crotty won gold medals with the 2007 U.S. U19 team before
they arrived in Durham. Bullard, the captain of that team, would go
on to win another gold medal with the 2009 U.S. World Cup team and
over the weekend qualified for the 2010-11 senior national
team.
“I look up a lot to the Duke girls that have gone through
the program,” Trimble said. “You’ve heard the
same names, heard the success at the World Cup of the last U19
team. It definitely is in the back of my mind. I want that same
experience. That’s definitely a reason to keep pushing these
last two days.”
Twenty-Five of 50… Not Half Bad
Of the 200 players originally invited to participate in U.S. U19
team tryouts following regional qualifications in the National
Tournament (35 have since declined, been injured or dropped out of
tryouts), there are 25 states represented -- a testament to the
sport’s national presence.
“I think it’s so cool to see girls that have come
from, like, California. There’s a girl I just met from
Texas,” Stanwick said. “It’s cool to see where
lacrosse has gone, and how it’s spreading throughout the
country.”
Goalkeeper Katarina Habelt of San Francisco is one of 15
Californians on the tryout roster. She qualified while playing for
NorCal in the National Tournament.
“This is my first time being exposed to this type of
competition,” Habelt said. “It was cool to go out there
and represent really well, to show that West Coast girls can do the
same things East Coast girls can.”
The latest list released by US Lacrosse included seven players
from Georgia; six from Florida; four each from South Carolina,
Texas, Minnesota and Colorado; three from Washington; two each from
Illinois, North Carolina and Arizona; and lone representatives from
Kentucky, Utah, Indiana and Ohio.
