U.S. national team head coach John Danowski has named the 23-player travel roster that will represent the United States in the Federation of International Lacrosse Men’s World Championship July 12-21 in Netanya, Israel.
The roster was selected from the 48-member U.S. men’s national team after the Team USA Spring Premiere on Saturday at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. That was the seventh evaluation weekend for the players since Danowski was named the head coach in late 2015, including four events since July.
“I have been blown away by their commitment to this process, probably highlighted by this weekend where travel was a mess,” Danowski said. “Guys were getting here at three in the morning, flights were being changed, guys got up at three in the morning to take a train to Baltimore to fly here and never complained, not once. It just shows they love the game and they love being a part of this.”
The roster includes eight veterans from the 2014 world championship team that won a silver medal in Denver — Jesse Bernhardt, Ned Crotty, Tucker Durkin, Greg Gurenlian, Kyle Hartzell, Marcus Holman, Rob Pannell and Paul Rabil. Durkin (defense), Pannell (attack) and Rabil (midfield) were named to the all-world team in 2014 and named the most outstanding player at their respective positions.
It’s the third world championship roster for Crotty and Rabil, who starred in leading the U.S. to the gold in 2010. Crotty scored the game-tying and go-ahead goals in the gold medal victory over Canada, and Rabil was named the MVP of the event.
The roster includes players from 13 different colleges, led by Maryland with five selections. Duke (three), Johns Hopkins (three), Hofstra (two) and Syracuse (two) had multiple selections as well. Denver senior Trevor Baptiste was the lone current collegian named to the roster.
“We’ve thoroughly enjoyed all seven evaluative weekends, but now going forward we get to coach the team,” Danowski said. “We haven’t really coached them yet as much as we’ve provided structure and let them be themselves. Now it’s time to dig deeper into the team dynamic and place them in situations to be successful and to ask them to be accountable to one another. The process has taken another step, and to me, that’s the most exciting part of this in working with these really high-end accomplished athletes.”
The team will have a final training weekend in late June before heading to Israel in early July for the world championship.
The travel roster for the world championship:
Name – Position – MLL Team – College
Trevor Baptiste – FO – none – Denver ’18
Jake Bernhardt – SSDM – Ohio – Maryland ’12
Jesse Bernhardt – D – Chesapeake – Maryland ’15
Ryan Brown – A – Charlotte – Johns Hopkins ’16
Ned Crotty – A/M – Dallas – Duke ’10
Matt Danowski – A/M – Chesapeake – Duke ’08
Steve DeNapoli – SSDM – New York – Hofstra ’11
Tucker Durkin – D – Florida – Johns Hopkins ’13
Michael Ehrhardt – LSM – Charlotte – Maryland ’14
Joe Fletcher – D – New York – Loyola ’14
John Galloway – G – Dallas – Syracuse ’11
Greg Gurenlian – FO – New York – Penn State ’06
Kyle Hartzell – LSM – New York – Salisbury ’08
John Haus – M – Charlotte – Maryland ’13
Marcus Holman – A – Ohio – North Carolina ’13
Jack Kelly – G – Denver – Brown ’16
Rob Pannell – A – New York – Cornell ’13
Paul Rabil – M – New York – Johns Hopkins ’08
Tom Schreiber – M – Ohio – Princeton ’14
Drew Snider – M – Denver – Maryland ’12
Kevin Unterstein – SSDM – New York – Hofstra ’08
Joel White – LSM – Dallas – Syracuse ’11
Jordan Wolf – A – Dallas – Duke ’14
Since 1967, the U.S. has won the gold or silver medal at every men’s international world championship in field lacrosse. The U.S. won gold in 1967, 1974, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2010. The U.S. finished as the runner-up to Canada in 1978, 2006 and 2014.
If you missed the Spring Premiere, check out our recap here!
