SPARKS, Md. — US Lacrosse has invited 105 of the nation’s top young men’s lacrosse players to try out for the 2020 U.S. U19 team. The final team selected after the tryout process concludes will compete in the World Lacrosse Men’s U19 Championship from July 9-18, 2020 in Limerick, Ireland.
“We’re grateful that we had such an amazing response from players across all parts of the USA,” said head coach Nick Myers, who led the U.S. to a gold medal in 2016. “With nearly 300 applicants, it was as deep a player pool as Team USA has ever had at the U19 level. We are also thankful for our committee of college coaches, as well as media members, that voted in an effort to narrow our field to the top invitees that will attend our first training camp in June. This is an exciting first step in our process. We are all looking forward to getting on the field and wearing that red, white and blue in June.”
“As we prepare to host the initial tryout session for the 2020 U.S. Men’s U19 team at our training facility, we’re extremely excited to begin the journey in quest of the gold medal in Limerick, Ireland next summer,” said Skip Lichtfuss, director of national teams and high performance for US Lacrosse. “It’s always a challenge to defend your title, but we’re confident that Coach Myers and staff will construct the right cast of characters to get it done.”
The invited players come from high schools in 20 different states and include one current college freshman — Lehigh’s Cole Kirst — 56 high school seniors and 48 high school juniors. Per FIL age requirements, all players invited to the tryout had to be born between Sept. 1, 2000 (under-19 as of Aug. 31 in the year preceding the championship) and July 8, 2004 (at least 16 on the day prior to the championship beginning).
The opening round of tryouts will be held at US Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md., from June 21-23. Following the first round of tryouts, approximately 50 players will be invited to move to the second round of tryouts, which will also be held at US Lacrosse, from July 12-14.
From there, a 30-man roster will be selected to participate in training weekends in November 2019 and January 2020, after which the final 23-man roster will be selected.
The United States is the only nation to have won the FIL Men’s U19 World Championship, having rallied to beat Canada 13-12 in 2016 on Ryan Conrad’s game-winning goal with just eight seconds remaining. That was the eighth straight world championship for the U.S., which also won gold medals in 1988, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2008 and 2012.
The U.S. men’s national team trains and plays using best-in-class products provided by Nike (apparel and footwear), Cascade (helmets), STX (equipment), Warrior (equipment), SISU Guard (mouthguards), The Pearl by Guardian (balls) and DJO (sports braces).
In addition to these partners, Greenfields, Krossover, MedStar Sports Medicine and Sports Performance Tracking are official sponsors of Team USA. Team training is also aided by products from Motive Pure, NormaTec Recovery and Athletic Republic.
