Liz Robertshaw stood in front of 88 girls getting their first taste what it’s like to train for the U.S. national team and what it feels like to wear the red, white and blue at US Lacrosse. The blazing sun made it one of the hottest days of the year in Sparks, Md.
Robertshaw, the former U.S. assistant and current girls’ director for the National Team Development Program, quizzed the players on the effort to get lacrosse back into the Olympics. Where will the Games be held? Los Angeles. What year? 2028.
“There’s no coincidence that the airport code is LAX,” she joked. “We’re trying to get lacrosse into the 2028 Olympics, which we host. If some of you do your job, you might be there. We’re starting that process today.”
Robertshaw’s speech set the tone for a day of competition at the NTDP trials. A similar scene played out the previous day, when U.S. team star Kyle Hartzell addressed a crop of hopeful U15 and U17 boys.
Hartzell, the boys’ program director, shared with them his experiences in 2014 and 2018, the latter resulting in a world championship.
“Wearing those colors, the USA, on your chest is the greatest honor you can have,” he said. “The best experience of my life was winning a gold medal. Make sure when you’re out there representing the U.S., you’re working your butt off. I wish we had this when I was growing up.”
Both days reached 90 degrees on the Tierney Field turf, but there stood hundreds of teenagers hoping to comprise the next generation of U.S. national team greats. And that’s just what the National Team Development Program was created to foster.
The NTDP is a three-phased process for high school-aged boys and girls to enter the Team USA pipeline. US Lacrosse hosted 21 boys’ and girls’ regional trials in which more than 1,300 players participated. Nearly 300 advanced to phase two, a three-day combine at US Lacrosse this week, after which players will be chosen for U15 and U17 USA Select teams that will compete at the Fall Classic in October.
Natalie Wills, senior manager of the NTDP and the driving force behind its creation, used the culture surrounding recent national teams as a model for success.
“The players that ultimately make that final [U.S. team] are the best humans,” she said. “We’re using these people to help us mold, build, select and identify the future them. Because they care and they’re selfless people, they’re part of this.”
Each trial featured drills led by fellow professional players like Dylan Maltz, Lauren Lea, Katie O’Donnell and others. Veterans like Greg Gurenlian, Will Manny, Adam Ghitelman and Matt Landis have also lent their talents and experiences to the players during the process. US Lacrosse partnered with the PLL and WPLL for phase one.
As for the players, the consensus was overwhelmingly positive for their first crack at the national team pipeline.
“I found out I was invited a week ago,” said Vincent Markazi, a goalie out of Twin Valley, Pa. “My mom said, ‘Would you be interested in this?’ I said ‘Sure.’ There’s no greater honor than representing the U.S. in a lacrosse game. We were working on hand speed. Gunnar Waltz was my goalie coach. Within the first 10 minutes, he gave us two drills to get better by myself, which was really cool.”
For the girls at US Lacrosse, the theme was grit.
“You just need to flip that switch,” said Brooke Matthews, a freshman from Bryn Mawr (Md.). “You have to steer away from, ‘It’s hot and I’m tired,’ and go to, ‘I’m ready to play and I need to do my best.’”
Work hard. Show grit. Play for something beyond yourself. Those are the pillars of the national team, and it was on display at the NTDP regional trials this summer. For the latest, go to teamusa.uslacrosse.org/ntdp.