Seven Years Later, U.S. U19 Trio Shares 'Different Kind of Bond' with Senior Team
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© 2024 USA Lacrosse. All Rights Reserved.
© 2024 USA Lacrosse. All Rights Reserved.
SAN DIEGO — Ryan Conrad, Jack Rowlett and Michael Sowers know what it’s like to stare down the barrel of a six-goal deficit against Canada. They’ve felt the dread of being that U.S. team — the one that falls short of the impossible standard of perfection.
It happened seven years ago and about 1,400 miles north of here at the 2016 under-19 world championship in Coquitlam, British Columbia, where only nine days earlier the U.S. had cruised to a 12-5 tournament-opening win in the rain.
“Frankly, as younger kids back then, we probably thought we were hot [stuff],” Conrad said.
Their bravado all but vanished, however, when Canada scored six unanswered goals to start the gold medal game and the U.S. trailed 8-2 at halftime. Sowers scurried nervously to the corner of the field at Percy Perry Stadium where his teammates and coaches convened instead of going to the locker room.
“I remember internally panicking a little bit,” he said. “And then you walk into that huddle and it’s like, nobody else panicked. It was just another halftime. That calmed me down.”
Injured long-stick midfielder Matt Borges offered maybe the most soothing words at the time, saying, “You can’t score six goals in one shot.”
Simple. True. Effective.
“That’s really all it took,” Sowers said. “Somebody made a play and the next thing you know, it’s like dominoes.”
The last domino to fall that day? A quick-stick finish by Conrad as he crashed the crease to deposit a Simon Mathias feed from behind to put the U.S. ahead 13-12 with eight seconds remaining.
Canada’s desperation heave off the ensuing faceoff sailed out of bounds and the U.S. celebrated one of the most dramatic comeback wins in international lacrosse history.
“It has to be one of the deeper holes a championship game has gotten into that’s come out the opposite direction,” Rowlett said.
Conrad, Rowlett and Sowers reminisced about that win Friday as they left a walkthrough at the University of San Diego’s Manchester Village Field. They play for the U.S. senior team now.
Since they last wore red, white and blue together, Conrad and Rowlett have won NCAA championships at North Carolina and Virginia, respectively. All three have played for PLL championship teams, with Sowers earning MVP honors when he led the Waterdogs to an 11-9 comeback win last summer in Chester, Pa.
They’re not cocky kids anymore. They’re men with jobs. Conrad and Sowers work in finance, while Rowlett recently was named the defensive coordinator at Boston University after two years as a volunteer assistant coach at Georgetown.
But the memory of 2016 remains.
“Just the pure comeback aspect of it — that was absolutely one of the proudest moments I’ve ever had,” Conrad said. “What we overcame to get there just in the championship game alone, that was pretty incredible.”
Said Sowers: “Anytime you go through an experience like that with a group of guys, you’re automatically going to have a different kind of bond. That still lingers today.”
Historically, the junior-to-senior-team pipeline has not yielded much talent for the U.S. From 1988-2012, only 10 of 255 players who competed in U19 championships went on to compete internationally at the senior level.
This year alone, there are four of them — including Brennan O’Neill. The 21-year-old who starred for the gold medal-winning U.S. U21 team last summer in Ireland scored three goals in his senior team debut Wednesday, a 7-5 win over Canada in the World Lacrosse Men’s Championship opener at Snapdragon Stadium.
When it came to past world championships, Canada had chemistry and continuity over the U.S. That’s no longer the case. Eighteen of the 23 players competing here in San Diego have some form of international experience, be it box, junior, Sixes or senior training teams. Several of them will suit up for the U.S. next summer in the 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championships.
In the last decade, USA Lacrosse has moved to college coaches and players for its junior teams (now with a U20 designation) while introducing the National Team Development Program and USA Select U16 and U18 teams for high school athletes.
“This underscores our intentional plan to develop our players,” said Skip Lichtfuss, director of national teams and high performance at USA Lacrosse. “The hope is that this will provide the opportunity for our national team program to stay at an elite level.”
“Getting kids earlier will give them that sense of pride when you get the experience and the opportunity,” said Conrad, who also suited up for the U.S. Sixes team at The World Games last summer in Birmingham, Ala. “I’m incredibly honored to be a part of a couple teams now. I’ve loved every experience I’ve had with Team USA and I want to continue to be a part of it.”
Matt DaSilva is the editor in chief of USA Lacrosse Magazine. He played LSM at Sachem (N.Y.) and for the club team at Delaware. Somewhere on the dark web resides a GIF of him getting beat for the game-winning goal in the 2002 NCLL final.
