The Norcal Grizzlies Boys U19 and U17’s both did well in their respective divisions at the Vail Tournament this summer. The Norcal Grizzlies teams are the summer All Star teams (boys U17 and U19) for Northern California with players trying out from CIF and club teams all over Northern California for one of the coveted spots. In order to try out, players had to be nominated by their coach and then beat out a field of highly talented players for one of the roster spots.

The U17 team finished 6th out of 16 teams, a great victory for California lacrosse considering the depth of competition in the U17 tournament this year. On day one of the tournament, the U17’s beat Denver (7-6) and Ft Collins (10-5) to earn a spot in the “A” bracket of the tournament. Their only loss on day one came against a team from Pennsylvania who beat them 7-4. Day two of the tournament was tough for the U17’s as they lost to Baltimore (13-2), Maryland Fireballs (14-5), and Texas (10-9). The team started day three with a tough loss in a rematch against Baltimore (11-2). They rebounded though with a GREAT victory against Long Island in overtime (6-5). The winning goal was scored by midfielder Marcus Sylva (Amador Valley) with a great outside shot that stunned the Long Island team. Other standout players for the U17’s throughout the tournament were goalies Mike Clothier (SI) and Max Van Broek (O’Dowd), defensemen Zach Lujan (Cal High) and Jonathan Jardim (Berkeley), midfielder Noah Wachtel (Menlo-Atherton), and attackmen Clatin Kuhns (Amador Valley) and Jimmy Parsons (Amador Valley). The U17 team had a final record of 3-5 for the tournament and were coached by Mike Sheridan, Jeff Fagen, and Matt Barba.

The U19 team finished 4th out of 16 teams this summer! This is up from a 7th place finish a year ago. On day one of the U19 tournament, the Norcal team beat the Trojans (Annapolis, MD) by a score of 7-6 to open things up in a good way! They moved on to face Team Ohio (last year’s 2nd place team) and lost by a score of 10-5. They picked it back up in the final game of the day though by beating Team Vail 12-1. The two victories moved the U19’s into the “A” bracket of the tournament and set them up for a run at the tournament title. On day two, the U19’s shocked the tournament by beating the Griffins (an All Star team from Baltimore) 11-6! The Grizzlies faced Team New England on day three. Team New England had 11 All Americans on their roster and most of their team is made up of “5th year seniors” from prep schools back East. The Grizzlies had New England scared for the first half as they ran with the East Coasters and took a 7-7 score into half time. Even through the end of 3 quarters, the Grizzlies held their own and New England only led by 2 heading into the fourth. In the final quarter the New England talent finally took over and the final score was 18-11 after a tough battle. It was a great game against a team that went on to win the tournament championship!! The New England coach went so far as to compliment the drastic improvement in the CA players and to say that we gave him the best game of the tournament thus far!

This put the Grizzlies in a rematch with Team Ohio for 3rd place on the final day. The Norcal team had spent too much in the preceding games though as they couldn’t keep up with Ohio and lost 13-3. The 4th place finish though is the best for a CA team in the U19 bracket in over 10 years! Outstanding play for the U19’s came from goalies Mike Ricci (De La Salle) and John Honea (Foothill), defensemen Andrew McGann (Holderness) and Derek Yecies (Menlo), midfielders Jonah Platt-Ross (University), Jon Black (O’Dowd), and Brad Blakey (Monte Vista), and attackmen Andrew Kirchner (University) and Chris Carman (Monte Vista).

As a special note, attackman Andrew Kirchner (University) was named to the All Tournament Team for his outstanding play. This is a great milestone for California Lacrosse as this is the second year in a row that a Northern CA player has made the team (George Granelli, O’Dowd, 2003). Andrew was a great force at attack all tournament long and was the leading scorer for the U19 team. Congratulations to Andrew on a great job!

This was a great start to the summer for the Norcal teams and the U19 team hopes to build on this success as they head to the Victoria Summer Slam in Canada in two weeks! Congratulations to the U17’s and U19’s on a great Vail Shootout performance!