Many of the best lacrosse tournament operators in the country have joined US Lacrosse in efforts to improve the youth experience by implementing US Lacrosse player-segmentation guidelines, age-appropriate playing rules and sanctioned tournament standards.
Thirteen such entities will bring those experiences to life by hosting more than 40 tournaments in 2017-18 that will serve as qualifying events for the 10th annual US Lacrosse Nationals, powered by NXT.
“We’ve always enjoyed putting on a great experience for our youth members and their families at the US Lacrosse Nationals each summer,” said Kim Rogers, director of events at US Lacrosse. “We’re grateful for the support of these event operators for putting on similar experiences and for helping to ensure a competitively appropriate field of teams for the Nationals.”
The US Lacrosse Nationals will welcome 14U, 13U and 12U boys’ and girls’ teams to Frederica, Del., Aug. 2-5, 2018. Here’s a look at who’s in and how to get in as qualifying season gets underway.
Who’s In?
Adrenaline Lacrosse, Bitter Lacrosse, Corrigan Sports Enterprises, Lacrosse Monkey, the Michigan Chapter of US Lacrosse, NXTsports, Orlando Lacrosse, South Wake Sports, STEPS Lacrosse, Top Of the Bay, Trilogy Lacrosse, Ultimate Events and Sports, and 3d Lacrosse will run at least one qualifying tournament each.
This month’s lineup includes the Harvest Classic for boys in West Chester, Pa., Nov. 5 and the Belle of the Brawl for girls in Columbia, S.C., Nov. 11. A current schedule of qualifying tournaments is available at uslacrossenationals.com.
By virtue of winning the 2017 US Lacrosse Nationals, girls’ teams Igloo (N.Y.) and Yellow Jackets 2022 Blue (N.Y.) have earned automatic bids in the 13U and 14U divisions, respectively.
How to Get In
US Lacrosse has partnered with Sports Illustrated Play and Tourney Machine to create an automated qualifications platform. All qualifiers for the US Lacrosse Nationals will use Tourney Machine to record game scores and award points to participating teams per the structure outlined on uslacrossenationals.com.
Any team wishing to participate the US Lacrosse Nationals or one of its qualifying tournaments needs to register for a Tourney Machine Team ID, instructions for which appear on the website. There’s a mandatory, annual $25 registration fee per team that goes to Tourney Machine to cover the costs of system maintenance. Coaches or team leaders can create multiple teams within a single Tourney Machine account.
Committee to Help
Heads of selected tournament operators and US Lacrosse staff have formed a committee to ensure that the qualification is implemented fairly and consistently.
Joining US Lacrosse director of events Kim Rogers, director of club accounts and sanctioning Robin Baxter, and sanctioning manager JP Fischer on the US Lacrosse Nationals Fairness Committee: EW Bitter (Bitter), Alex Cade (Adrenaline), Matt Cornell (Corrigan), Krystin Porcella (Top of the Bay), Charlie Shoulberg (STEPS), Jimmy Vlahakis (Trilogy), Casey Vock (3d Lacrosse), Becky Wells (Ultimate Events and Sports) and Joel Zuercher (NXTsports).