Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 12/2/15
From Press Release
Six states were represented at the first annual Maple Leaf Kickoff box tournament Nov. 28-29 at Bucksmont Indoor Sports Center in Hatfield PA. The tournament format was unique in that Saturday each team received a two-hour box clinic from members of Fusion Lacrosse’s staff and other professionals players. Sunday feature a full championship format tournament.
Bucktown Lacrosse, run by MLL star Joe Cinosky traveled the furthest up from North Carolina. A close second was another former MLL stars program, Team Superstar, run by Roy Colsey out of Connecticut. Other teams that took in the clinic and tournament include Team 91 (NY), Lax Factory (MD) and Patriot (NJ) as well as WC Rustin HS and Fusion teams.
As has been the norm of late, Team 91 was the most dominant program of the tournament with their 2020s, 2022s, and 2023s going a perfect 9-0 on the day. Other champions included a strong Patriot (N.J.) team that went 3-0 in the JV division, and the Fusion 2017s (PA) that won the HS division in a head to head tiebreaker with a talented Lax Factory squad. While Team Superstar and Bucktown did not take home championships this time, their future is secure with extremely talented 5/6 grade teams that battled 91 all day long.
In all, the theme of the weekend was embracing the growth of box lacrosse, learning the game the right way, and competing against great teams.
“We have been holding box lacrosse events for some time and believe playing the game correctly directly translates to success outdoors,” said Fusion Co-owner and MLL/NLL standout Kevin Crowley. “The collective level of play and understanding of the box game this weekend was the best we have seen to date from east coast teams. This was extremely encouraging as there are a lot of great programs and coaches embracing and committing to the box game.”
Part of the festivities this weekend included tournament All-Stars competing against the newly formed, box only travel-team, Penn*Lax All Stars. These exhibition games took place on Saturday after the clinics with one full length middle school game and one full length high school game. While both games were close at Halftime, Penn*Lax teams pulled away in both contests to win their games comfortably. While Penn*Lax did not officially compete in the tournament this was their first official game as a team and the staff was very pleased with their performance.
Penn*Lax first official box tournament is the USBOXLA Northeast Regional in Philadelphia on Dec. 28/29.
http://playfusionlax.com/fusion-tournaments/northeast-regional-championship/
Clinic Coaches on Saturday included:
Kevin Crowley (MLL and NLL pro Team Canada)
Jordan Hall (MLL and NLL pro Team Canada)
Adam Mueller (Team USA coach and NLL coach of the year)
Steven Holmes (MLL and NLL pro MLL champion 2015)
Luke Wiles (3x NLL All-Star)
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