FOXBORO, Mass. — Fifteen years ago, Matt Danowski helped the U.S. win gold. He was the Most Valuable Player of the 2003 U19 world championship, leading the U.S. team in scoring with 27 points on the way to an undefeated run that culminated with a 19-10 victory over Canada in the championship game.

This summer he finally gets his second shot at gold.

Danowski was in the tryout pool for the 2006, 2010 and 2014 U.S. teams, but did not make the final roster. That's not what he's dwelling on.

"I always wanted to do this, play for this team," Danowski said. "It's the height of our sport, this team and this tournament. The MLL is great, but this is different. There's a different emotion behind us, a different sense of urgency.

"I'm excited to be a part of it. I'm really not trying to think about 15 years ago, the concept of getting cut or whatever. I'm just trying to stay in the moment."

The next moment comes on Thursday night when the U.S. team plays in the MLL All-Star Game at Harvard in a nationally-televised game on ESPNEWS.

It's the first time the U.S. team will play together since they announced the final 23-man travel roster to Israel for this summer's Federation of International Lacrosse World Championship.

The opportunity is a little extra special with his dad, John, serving as the U.S. team head coach. They have plenty of experience working together.

Matt went to Duke when his dad was the head coach at Hofstra, but following the 2006 Duke season that was cut short due to unfounded allegations against players on the team, John Danowski took over as the head coach. He coached Matt in his final two seasons at Duke, which included a Tewaaraton Award in 2007.

Now Matt works on John's staff at Duke, and has been the offensive coordinator the last two seasons, helping the Blue Devils reach the NCAA championship game this season.

"It's incredible," John said. "I don't think a day goes by where I take it for granted. He brings great energy to the office. He's got a sense of humor that I appreciate and he has really become a lacrosse geek in terms of X's and O's and film analysis."

The familiarity makes playing for his dad on Team USA an easy transition.

"When it comes to the USA stuff, I try to make it the least about [the father-son dynamic] as possible," Matt said. "I don't really care that he's my father, he's my coach, that's really it."

Where the connection has paid the most dividends is in helping John get a feel for the U.S. team players.

"Matt's been in the MLL for 10 years, so I rely on him for a lot of information," John said. "'What do you think the guys need? What can they handle? What's too much? What's not enough?' He knows. He knows the pulse of these athletes much better than I do. I'm used to working with college guys, the same guys for four years all-year round from August to May. It's a very different dynamic and Matt's been very helpful in bridging that gap."

Being one of the players with a lot of experience is vastly different from his first U.S. team.

"I was so green on that U19 thing," Matt said. "Me and Steve Panarelli were coming right out of (Farmingdale) high school and a lot of those guys were coming out of their freshman year of college. We were just trying to be good soldiers and not say much and get comfortable with the guys, the new rules. It was such a new experience for us in a lot of ways. I was trying to keep my head on straight as the world was spinning around me."

Now he's a father. He and his wife, Virginia (a gold medalist on the 2007 U.S. U19 team and the sister of his U.S. teammate Ned Crotty), have an 18-month old daughter, Coco.

He's juggling his coaching career with parenting and getting ready to play the sport he loves at the highest level. He says that he and Jordan Wolf joke about the saying, "You chop wood and carry water."

Lunch breaks became workout opportunities. He and Crotty, both members of the Duke coaching staff, pushed each other to keep working. And now the wait, all 15 years of it, is almost over. In just over a week, he'll board a plane and head back to the world championship for another shot at gold.

"I'm excited to play and work through the ups and downs as a team, to face challenges and get better with them, and see how we react and see what kind of team we're going to become," Danowski said. "I guarantee you the team that gets there is going to be different than the team that leaves."

NOTES: The U.S. team wrapped up its training camp at Gillette Stadium on Wednesday. Following a morning shootaround, they'll make the short trip to Boston for Thursday's game...the U.S. will dress 28 players for the game - 21 players on the travel roster and seven training team members...travel roster players Steve DeNapoli and Joe Fletcher will not play on Thursday...DeNapoli was tore his ACL during the MLL season and will miss the world championship...Fletcher is working through an injury...the seven training team members are Liam Byrnes, Will Haus, Myles Jones, Matt Kavanagh, Connor Kelly, Tim Muller and Jacob Richard.