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Showing off their skills
More than 200 elite high school lacrosse players from around the mid-Atlantic converged onto the campus of Notre Dame Academy in Middleburg July 19 to display their skills for talent-seeking college coaches in the NoVa West Shootout.
The nonstop tournament featured eight teams cycling through 11 one-hour games.
Loudoun's NoVa West Crusaders were the event's unofficial champions with a 3-0 record, while Fairfax's NoVa Premier finished 3-1. Squads from Newark, Del.; Frederick, Md.; Washington, D.C.; and southwest Virginia also made the journey to the bucolic campus on a scorching Saturday afternoon in hopes of catching the eyes of coaches from all divisions of collegiate athletics.
The summer showcase is in its second year, having been created by NoVa West Lacrosse founder Matt Pinkston, a 20-year Purcellville resident.
"It's a great sport," said Pinkston, who played football in high school.
"Lacrosse is just growing at such a rapid rate,” he said. “Loudoun County is just starting to develop. There are tons of kids playing now."
Pinkston boasts of several local lacrosse players who developed their skills for the college level in his program, such as last spring's Dulles District Player of the Year, Heritage's Dean Stambules.
"A lot of these guys are here for a reason: they have aspirations of playing collegiately," Pinkston stated. "It's a good chance to play three or four games in front of 10, 12 colleges."
The boys from Fairfax and Loudoun quite possibly gave the assemblage of colleges much to consider as they competed in a defensively fierce battle from which the Crusaders emerged with a 5-3 victory. Chris Rabung, a rising junior with Loudoun Valley, notched a pair of goals for NoVa West.
The Premier won its other contests with scores of 10-3, 9-6 and 12-1. The Crusaders collected wins of 9-3 and 14-4. NoVa West coach Rob Horne, whose roster includes players from 11 schools, both public and private, pointed out that lacrosse is mirroring other major sports in the creation of made-for-college-coaches tournaments.
"This is a recruiting opportunity first and foremost," said Horne, who guides the Notre Dame Dragons' lacrosse squad during the school year. "It's one-stop shopping in which they can watch hundreds of lacrosse players in an afternoon and make some assessments."
In addition to seeking out size, athleticism, stick handling, game intelligence and field awareness, Horne said coaches at the next level are looking for a certain doggedness.
"These tournaments are grueling events, playing three or four games a day in the sun," said Horne, whose Crusaders were partaking in their fourth tournament of the summer. "College coaches look for young men who are willing to put out that effort in the fourth game as much as the first."
NoVa Premier's acting coach Matt Kawamoto, a West Springfield graduate, agreed.
"College coaches will recognize if you're lackadaisical on the field or if you're going full speed," said Kawamoto, who currently plays for Ohio State University.
Kawamoto has personally seen his sport's rise in Northern Virginia.
"Northern Virginia area is growing so much in lacrosse that kids are getting more and more looks," said Kawamoto, a former NoVa Premier player. "Basically, we want to get kids experience at a higher level of lacrosse."
Pinkston, who in 2009 will oversee the amalgamation of Loudoun's NoVa West and Fairfax's NoVa Premier into a super-elite summer showcase team to be known as the Flamingoes, wishes to foment the continued growth of lacrosse in the region.
"The whole reason for this tournament is we want to get lacrosse out here in Northern Virginia, to grow and be better," he said.
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