Area Ready To Catch Lacrosse Fever

WESLEY CHAPEL - Josh Gross, sales and public relations manager for NDP Lacrosse in Denver and a spokesman for the Dick's Sporting Goods Tournament of Champions, knew the event had a problem. Pasco County was eager to provide the solution.

With the boys high school national lacrosse championships beginning just days after qualifying tournaments are completed, officials knew changes would need to be made. That's just what they did.

Because of the starting date of the championships, "it made it difficult for many teams to finalize plans to reach the tournament," Gross said. "We were able to give teams time to raise funds by moving it back to January, but because of that we had to find a location with a warm climate.

"Thankfully we were lined up with Pasco County and Wesley Chapel."

Gross said 25 teams - 21 "Elite Division" and four "Rising Stars Division" teams from the United States and Canada, including the local favorite Tampa Tribe and defending national champion Edge Lacrosse Senior Elite (Ontario, Canada) - will compete this weekend at Wesley Chapel District Park. And although recent temperatures have made visiting teams feel as though they're back at Gettysburg (Pa.) College, last year's championship site, Gross said tournament officials hope to make Pasco County its permanent home.

More than 12 states will be represented in the field, along with three clubs from Canada. Teams will compete in pool play Saturday and will then be seeded in the single-elimination championship bracket based on pool-play results. Each team is guaranteed at least five games.

The Tribe will sport teams in both divisions, and the Palm Beach Storm, champions of the Derek Pieper Memorial Cup, and the Miami Makos will also represent Florida. Still, it's the northern U.S. teams that should have the best opportunity to dethrone the defending champions. Even with the Syracuse, N.Y.-based CNY Roadhawks Select, the only team to defeat Edge Lacrosse on U.S. soil, scheduled to play, the defending champs should be difficult to stop.

While Edge and its northern counterparts will claim most of the pretournament attention, Gross said Florida teams, despite a severe disadvantage in terms of the sport's longevity with state high school athletes, could be a surprise.

Seven pools of three teams each will begin competition Saturday at 8 a.m., with winners advancing to the championship bracket and losing teams dropping to the consolation bracket. Play will resume with games in both brackets at 2 p.m. and will continue until a champion is crowned after the 12:30 p.m. title game Sunday.

Although Edge is a favorite to repeat as national champions, Gross was quick to acknowledge that back-to-back championships isn't a certainty.

"You can definitely see someone knocking the defending champs off," he said. "All it takes is a key face-off here or there or a few shots going wide and they're no longer the defending champs. Realistically, there are eight to 12 teams that can be national champs after this weekend."