Betsy Mastropieri celebrates a goal in TLC 2009's win over New Hampshire's Granite State Elite 2009.
Teams came from far and wide to compete. There were 15 states represented on Saturday.
By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.comNew York girl’s lacrosse players are aggressive.
New Jersey girl’s lacrosse players are scrappy.
Maryland girl’s lacrosse players have good stick skills.
Oregon girl’s lacrosse players are a tad scared of all of them.
Those were the lessons girls reported learning Saturday at the first-ever United Sports Training Center All American Showcase Girls Lacrosse Capitol Cup. The Germantown, Md. complex played host to 170 teams from around the country in four divisions, ranging from upcoming freshmen to rising seniors.
If the growth of lacrosse wasn’t evident before then Saturday’s tournament just proved the point.
“It’s so much bigger here in Maryland but it’s really cool to see it in all its different stages,” said Sherwood’s Liz Collins, who plays for the JCL Elite 2009 Jackals.
Here’s a list of the different states represented: Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, California, Colorado, Oregon, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, Maine, Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan and Illinois.
“During the school year you play a lot of local teams and you don’t really get to see the other states and how their team is doing,” said Pikesville’s Alyssa Jeffers, who plays Greyhound 2009.
“And when you come to a tournament like this, you get people from Ohio and Pennsylvania and California and all over,” Jeffers continued. “It’s pretty fun playing people from all over because you get to see a lot of different styles.”
There were 183 colleges listed as having representatives at the showcase tournament. There were 71 Division I schools, 22 Division II and 90 Division III, ranging from St. Mary’s College of California to St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York. Nearly every Maryland school was represented. Every girl that had already committed to a school had to wear some sort of armband to tell recruiters that she was taken.
“The kids need to be out and seen by the college coaches,” said Michael Haight, who coaches JCL Elite 2009 during the summer and the WCAC’s Good Counsel in the Spring. “If they want to get recruited they need to be at these tournaments. A lot of our kids are getting recruited that might not otherwise if they didn’t have coaches come to it.”
But for every girl on an elite team, there were others getting an opportunity just to show themselves. For Jaquata Scott and JaNee Hill, both girls from St. Frances Academy in Baltimore playing for the Coast to Coast Pioneers, the large tournament provided an opportunity to be seen despite going to a school that doesn’t typically get many college coaches attending games.
“To prove a point that everyone can get equal opportunities with lacrosse,” Scott said.
It was also a chance to further learn a new sport. Hill has played lacrosse for just four months and it is the team’s first year together.
“It’s a lot of competition,” Hill said. “It’s a challenge. But if you want it then you’ll put in the work.
Alexa Jellison, who plays for Oregon Elite 2009/2010, played lacrosse the first year it was offered in Oregon – six years ago. She still finds girls from Maryland a bit scary.
“It’s so fast-paced and so competitive,” Jellison said. “I’ve been appalled how big they are. They are huge! It’s really intimidating. We try our best. … Refs don’t call as much here as they do at home. By the time we go back we’ll have to go back to playing Oregon rules. It will be a little hard.”
“East Coast lacrosse, it’s known for being really competitive and really difficult so we wanted to test our skills against them and it’s been a ton of fun so far,” said one of Jellison's teammates, Kelly Bartz.
For nearly every girl, the tournament provided a venue for bonding with teammates, many of whom compete against each other during the regular season, and a chance to bond with other teams as well.
“We play during the school year so we’re like, ‘Oh you’re from
that school,’” said Lauren Bucher, who played for Ultimate 2009 Yellow out of Philadelphia.
Many of the girls admitted to enjoying the summer season more than the Spring season, where they play for their respective high schools – and not just because of the traveling, pool time and eating out.
The All-American Showcase opened their eyes to different players, different styles and different opportunities.
“There’s college recruiters everywhere, you meet a ton of people and you get to play a bunch of games,” Jeffers said. “You get to see everyone rather than just the people you’ve played with for years and years and years. When you come here you can play a team you’ve never heard of.”
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