Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/29/10
From Press Releases
Five members of the U.S. Men’s National Lacrosse Team (Team USA) who have ties to the Philadelphia area are excited about playing in their home area when Team USA takes on the Philadelphia Lacrosse Association (PLA) All Stars on Friday, June 18th at Lehigh University.
Three are players on Team USA (Brian Dougherty, DJ Driscoll, and Kyle Sweeney) who grew up and played youth and high school lacrosse in the Philadelphia area, one is a coach (Tony Resch) who grew up, played, and still coaches lacrosse in the Philadelphia area, and the fifth (Kevin Cassese) is a player who is presently the head men’s lacrosse coach at Lehigh University.
“I love that we are playing back in Philly, so my family and friends can watch me play. Living out on the west coast, I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like, and sharing this experience with them is making it all the more special” said Driscoll, who graduated from Malvern Prep in in 2002 and then had an outstanding collegiate career at Notre Dame.
The exhibition game between Team USA and the PLA All Stars is Friday, June 18th at 8:00 p.m. at Banko Field at Lehigh University.
Tickets for the game are on sale at www.palacrosse.com. You can learn more about Team USA at www.uslacrosse.org.
Sweeney, who graduated from Springfield-Delco in 1999 and Georgetown in 2003, added, “I love coming home and getting to play in front of my family and friends. In 1998, I went to Villanova (University) to watch the US Team play the PLA All Stars and it was at that moment I knew my goal was to represent US Lacrosse.”
Four of the players have previous experience on Team USA. Sweeney and Cassese were part of the 2006 US Men’s Team that won the silver medal, Dougherty was a member of the 1998 gold medal team and Resch played on the 1990 team which also won gold at the International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) World Championships.
Sweeney is excited about having a second chance at a gold medal. “I am so proud to be representing my family, friends, schools and home town of Philadelphia,” he said. “Being my second time with the team, I feel honored that people look to us to bring home the gold, something we fell short of in 2006.”
This is Driscoll’s first experience with Team USA and he understands what it means to represent his country.
“Getting the opportunity to represent the country is an unbelievable feeling of pride and humility,” he said. “We all know we have a job to do in July, and what we need to do to get that job done, and it’s exciting to be around this level of people all with the same goal and plan of attack.”
Driscoll also has fond memories of his years playing youth and high school lacrosse in the Philadelphia area. “Some of my best lacrosse memories are from playing for Lionville (youth lacrosse) and travelling around to tournaments,” he said. “Getting in the conversion van with a bunch of guys on the team and watching movies on our ways to the games was a blast.
“I was lucky enough to have John Rohde get me started in lacrosse in 3rd grade, and he coached me up and until the day I graduated from Malvern. I was very lucky to learn from him, as well as John McEvoy at Malvern. They were able to balance hard work and fun, and you really wanted to play for them and give them your best.”
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