The United States Developmental Team struggled against the Iroquois powerhouse, but there are some positives the players can take out of the loss.Several of the USA players have played in pro leagues but only a handful have NL experience. Though the NLL is trending away from American players, more and more good players out of the states seem to be developing thanks to more exposure in minor leagues.
Most of the players on the USA roster competed against one another or with each other in the NALL, PLL, QSLL, CanAm and smaller leagues like the PBLA or the BILL.
“I think that USA indoor lacrosse has taken some steps in the right direction over the past few years but there is still an obvious gap between the Iroquois (and Canada) and the US in regards to the development of indoor lacrosse talent.” said Greg Rogowski of team USA and also a former member of the Boston Rockhoppers and current Vermont Voyageur. “I think the only way the US can catch up is to provide more opportunities on the youth level. In Canada and from my experiences at Six Nations, Akwesasne, Kahnawake and Onondaga native reservations you see the kids growing up playing a lot more indoor than field. They get used to playing in tight with small goals and then when and if they play field they have a much easier adjustment to shooting on bigger goals with bigger goalies more time to make decisions with the ball and little bit of a less and different type of physicality.
“In the US this is the opposite, almost all of the youth programs across the country with the exception of a few, focus on strictly field lacrosse. Most kids don’t ever have the opportunity to learn how to play true box lacrosse, you see a lot of great indoor programs when the weather turns cold but most play a style of field lacrosse with big nets and field rules indoors.”
The Voyageurs to date have been one of the best programs for American players with team members such as Ryan Hotaling and Ethan Farrell making it to the NLL, and several others the NALL. Rogowski played in the NALL but has remained one of the better players with the Voyageurs in a league dominated by Canadians and Iroquois.
Another American player in the game was goaltender Joe Evans. Evans is one of the goalies with the Voyageurs and was the starting goaltender on the Rhode Island Kingfish of the NALL. Other than Evans, USA lacked severally in the goaltending department this past Bowhunter Cup without some of their better goalie candidates. In fact, the starting goaltender, Brand Miller, is of Iroquois decent and was on the roster due to Sean Henry out of the PBLA having an ankle injury. Even still, the best candidates were not in place, but even without that it has been well documented how goaltending has been something USA has struggled to improve.
“Why isn’t their more elite goaltenders in the states? Well that’s easy; there’s simply not a lot of good box lacrosse competition in the states, you have to be willing to travel… a lot.” Evans told us. “This makes it an uphill battle for the American goaltender, you have to work a lot harder to get your name out there just to get a tryout let alone a spot on solid squad. Hopefully in the future as HS and youth box programs continue to emerge in the states we’ll start to see a greater number of box goalies”
This was one of the obvious struggles for USA in their loss in the Bowhunter. However, despite some of the issues they faced, players feel like the experience was a positive one and going in the right direction.
“As an athlete I don’t think you can ever go into a game expecting to lose. Obviously the result was disappointing but at the same time we knew it was going to be an uphill battle.” Rogoswski explained. “I think we showed that we can be competitive even with less experienced ‘box lacrosse’ players but that our understanding of the concepts and the instincts that you develop playing a sport for so long is our biggest disadvantage.”
“I learned just how fast the game really is at the top level, what we as a team can work on in the future and that 5 on 5 the US can run with any other team.” Evans said.
