 What is the Under Armour Underclass Lacrosse Tournament? How long has the tournament been in existence?
The Under Armour Underclass tournament has been in existence for 12 Years. Originally, the underclass event started out as a Baltimore vs. DC rivalry that’s blossomed in to 12 regions across the United States. These tryouts serve as the TOP college recruiting opportunity for players and coaches alike. College Coaches from across the D1, D2, and D3 spectrum flock to these tryouts in hopes of finding their next top recruit! Which regions are represented? Traditional Lacrosse Markets: Baltimore, Washington D.C, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Long Island, Upstate, NY, New England and Conny Emerging Lacrosse Markets: West (tryouts in CA), South (Florida, GA, and the Carolinas) Midwest and Southwest The scope of the event is to crown the ULTIMATE regional champion of Lacrosse! Rep Your Region. Why is this event unique across the high school lacrosse landscape? Unlike many other events, EVERY participant has the opportunity to make the team. Evaluators are provided a sheet that only lists the players number (“A Blind Tryout”)—our evaluators are compiled of club coaches, public high school coaches and private high school coaches. This is critical for the integrity of the event as we strive for equal representation from all regional lacrosse folks. Also, we do NOT financially incentivize one club/high school team as we feel this opens the door for that group to solely jam their players on to the team. We want the very best players in each region. Describe the tryout process and how players are evaluated. – Players are put on to random teams where they play games and are evaluated by 8-15 “evaluators”. These are HS Coaches and Club coaches from that region. At the end of the tryout, we have the coveted “Call Back Game” which features the best 40-50 players. Those elite participants play 1 more extended game which is heavily attended by college coaches. From there, the 8-15 evaluators re-convene with a CSE team member and select the top 23 players, to round out their final roster! CSE is a 100% unbiased 3rd party in the selection process—our role is to mediate the selections and control the room. It’s our quest to put together a diverse team to best represent that region, while also identifying the very best talent! What type of attendance do the tryouts get from college coaches? 100-150 for any given tryout for boys—The all-time record is 167 for the Baltimore tryout in 2018 40-100 for any given tryout for girls How do Underclass games relate to the Under Armour All-America games? The Underclass games feature the top talent from around the USA—the Underclass event begins on Thursday and finishes Sunday with our (4) total Championship games. On Saturday night, we have the Under Armour All-America Senior games at Johns Hopkins University. These games are shown live on ESPNU! The Senior games offer an incredible atmosphere at Homewood Field, which is known as the meca of College Lacrosse. The Underclass event serves as great way for Inside Lacrosse and others to see the maturation of players throughout their High school campaign—hundreds of Senior Under Armour All-American alumni have been a part of the Underclass event. (Matt Rambo, Shack Stanwick, Taylor Cummings, Caroline Steele, etc.) Where is the Underclass event held? And why? The Underclass event is held at Baltimore County’s Meadowood Park and St. Paul’s School—for years, the event was held at Towson University—in 2019, we we’re forced to move the tournament due to construction. Meadowood will again serve as the events home base in 2020. The unique element that Meadowood Park offers is a cohesive venue—meaning, the girls and boys fields are directly next to each other! CSE and Under Armour have crafted a truly unique activation space where players have the opportunity to interact with UA directly, purchase merchandise, enjoy an air-conditioned tent and visit with other select vendors. While parking was a concern in 2019, CSE has a plan to eliminate the issue in 2020. Baltimore County is thrilled to host the event and has plans to evolve Meadowood Park in to Baltimore’s hub for lacrosse—“Where Baltimore Play’s Lacrosse” CSE is proud to assist in that initiative by bringing the sports elite event to the park. If a player makes his or her regional team, what type of experience can they expect? Will there be team practices? Who will be coaching the teams? Coaching staffs are made up of 1 Private School Coach, 1 Public School Coach and a Club Coach. Each team has (3/4) practices before coming to Baltimore to participate in the UAAA Weekend Tournament. All players receive a regionally customized Under Armour uniform, which is modeled after that regions professional team (EX: The West uniforms are purple and gold) The Tournament is generally regarded as the best and most organized event of the summer. In addition to the games – The players are also invited to a banquet honoring them—at the banquets we always have a featured guest speaker, in years past we’ve had Marvin Lewis (Long time Cincinnati Bengals Head Coach) Chad Fleming (Special Ops who was 1st guy into Saddam Hueseins palace) Matt Eversman, (real life hero of Blackhawk down) and many more! What are the dates of the 2020 tournament?
Why should a kid tryout for this event? If players have played in the UAA games in the past, why should they return? There are (3) primary reasons why players should tryout for this event:
REP YOUR REGION IN 2020. Lee Corrigan President Corrigan Sports Enterprises www.underarmourlacrosse.com
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 US Club Lacrosse is excited to announce that it will be powering the Legends Freakshow & Western Invitational this July in beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah. This showcase and tournament will be the premier events of the West this coming summer. The best clubs from the US and Canada will be coming to Utah to showcase their talents. US Club Lacrosse is thrilled to be joining Legends Lacrosse in these two unparalleled events. Salt Lake City will be a huge influx of college recruiters between July 7-9th, not wanting to miss any of this high level lacrosse action. The Western Freakshow will take place on Tuesday, July 7th, and will be an elite showcase with over forty NCAA recruiters. This showcase will be for 2021s through 2024s and will be an opportunity that top athletes of the West will not want to miss. “The Western Freakshow will provide for about 45 college coaches to work directly with the players. Players will participate in skill and positional work, collegiate style practice settings, full field scrimmages, a recruitment seminar, and more, all directed by the NCAA coaches themselves,” explains Reid Doucette of Legends Lacrosse. Players participating in the “Freakshow” will also receive custom gear packs and all of the benefits that come with a US Club Lacrosse powered event, including player interviews, highlights from the action on US Club Lacrosse social media, and an Interactive Vendor Village. The following two days, July 8th and 9th will be the Legends Western Invitational. This top class tournament will feature incredible teams from around the country competing to prove who is the best of the West. “The Freakshow showcase will transition us nicely into the Western Invitational where we will see teams from 10+ states and a couple of Canadian provinces compete at a high level in front of a diverse group of 40+ recruiters. With divisions ranging from 2021-2027, we’ll be seeing 80+ boys teams represent their regions and showcase their talent over 16 fields in the heart of Salt Lake City,” adds Doucette. This tournament will be a great opportunity for teams to move up the US Club Lacrosse rankings. US Club Lacrosse will also be tracking game outcomes, highlighting key match-ups and players to watch, posting video recaps, and holding post-game interviews with players and coaches. Block off your calendars for July 7-9th, as these are events your club will not want to miss. For more information about these events, go to the event websites - Western Freakshow & Western Invitational.  |
AuthorKevin Preston Archives
February 2020
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