Prove and Improve: 2026 Standouts Set Aside Recruiting Interests at NTDP Combine

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — John Balsamo and Michael McColgan spent this summer playing lacrosse in front of sunscreen-lathered college coaches taking notes from their camping chairs. It’s showcase season, you see, and as rising high school juniors each of them hopes to hear from some of those coaches come Sept. 1.

This week was different. From the moment they arrived in Baltimore for the USA Lacrosse National Team Development Program Combine, they sensed a greater purpose.

NTDP coach Mark Glicini — the Carolina Chaos midfielder and mental performance coach who rose to lacrosse fame for his willingness to absorb 100-mph shots in the back — urged the more than 150 athletes competing for 48 spots on USA Select U16 and U18 teams to add a prefix to their goals for the three-day combine that concluded Wednesday at Garrison Forest School.

“Coach Glicini said we’re here to prove and improve,” said Balsamo, whose brother, Charles, was co-captain of the inaugural USA Select U15 team five years ago. “That improve part has been big.”

A righty attackman for Long Island Express 2026 Channy and Chaminade (N.Y.), Balsamo fashions himself more of a facilitator. But on the first day, evaluator Chazz Woodson, the head coach at Hampton, let all the attackmen know they needed to act with greater urgency when they didn’t have the ball.

“The aspect of training and the coaches connecting with us, that’s been the biggest thing compared to other events,” Balsamo said. “We start the morning doing some 6-on-5s and we’re all just sitting back there receiving passes and looking to dish it off. Coach Woodson came over and talked to us. ‘You guys have got to be able to catch the ball and dish, but also drive the field and receive passes to open that up and receive that slide.’ After that we were humming.”

McColgan came to the NTDP Combine with a ton of momentum. His unrelenting performance at Main Stage, an ML8 recruiting event earlier this month not far from here in Severna Park, Md., earned the righty midfielder comparisons to former UMass standout and current Boston Cannons star Jeff Trainor.

“It’s great seeing other guys I’ve played against trying to play on the same team now,” said McColgan, a Cincinnati native who saw St. Xavier (Ohio) All-American Khalif Hocker go through the National Team Development Program and earn a spot on the 2025 U.S. Men’s U20 Training Team. “We have so much talent out here that it could be a great team. We just got to figure out how to gel together, get that chemistry going.”

A two-sport athlete, McColgan started at quarterback as a freshman on the St. X football team and played JV lacrosse there before transferring to Culver Academy (Ind.). His recruiting stock rose this summer while playing for Sweetlax Florida.

Still, that USA hits different.

“I want to be able to represent my country,” McColgan said. “To have the opportunity to wear red, white and blue playing against Canada and the Haudenosaunee.”

In addition to on-field training and scrimmages, NTDP athletes underwent strength and conditioning evaluations overseen by U.S. National Teams coach Jay Dyer and attended a mental performance seminar by Glicini.

Selections loom. Though part of the same recruiting class, Balsamo (U16) and McColgan (U18) are trying out for different USA Select teams. Each will carry 24 players into the fall for a sixes development camp in September and the Brogden Cup in October.

When Balsamo asked his brother, now a junior midfielder at Virginia after two seasons at Duke, what it was like to suit up with players from around the country against international competition, he replied that “it was an experience unlike any other.”

Their uncle, Vinnie Sombrotto, is a National Lacrosse Hall of Fame midfielder and U.S. National Team legend. He’s one of just two players in history to play in four senior men’s world championships.

“The emphasis of being for the brand of USA, that’s stayed strong with me,” Balsamo said. “We’ve competed against each other on our club teams, but now we’re here trying to ultimately be on the one USA team together.”

USA Select U18 hopeful Jack D’Spain is one of several players with previous NTDP experience chasing that goal for a second time. A 6-foot-5, 215-pound defenseman from Texas, he stands out in the huddle. As does his roommate Ryker Kemp, a 6-foot-6, 235-pound defenseman from Florida. (That’s a lot of linen at the Embassy Suites in Hunt Valley.)

They’re in a different situation than Balsamo and McColgan. As rising seniors, D’Spain and Kemp have already committed to Division I programs Denver and Utah, respectively.

“Once I committed, I just felt so free. I felt I could go out with no pressure at all,” said D’Spain, a USA Lacrosse High School All-American at Allen (Texas) who plays club on the East Coast with the Baltimore Crabs. “For the non-committed guys, I would say keep going, keep pushing, keep grinding. But for me there’s not a lot of pressure. It’s just me having fun with the guys. And I think that’s really helped my game too.”

D'Spain played for the Brogden Cup-winning USA Select U16 team in 2022. A torn hamstring kept him out of the 2023 cycle but he’s eager to rejoin the National Team Development Program at the U18 level.

“I wanted to do it because it says ‘USA’ on your chest,” he said. “It’s a great atmosphere. All the players are great. My experience so far has been great. All the players are top notch and all the guys are real nice. I’m just real excited to be here and show what I can do.”