Phillylacrosser.com, Posted 8/4/17
Black Bear Lacrosse Club is proud to announce current Owen J. Roberts Head Varsity Boys Lacrosse Coach Ben Carville as the club’s inaugural 2026 (4th grade) Team Head Coach for the 2017-18 season.
Tryouts for the 2026 (4th grade) Team are set for Sunday August 6th and 20th 4-5:30pm at Phoenixville High School. CLICK HERE to register for Black Bear’s youth team tryouts August 6th & 20th 2022 to 2026.
Coach Carville brings with him over 20+ years of playing and coaching experience along with being a “Founding Father” of the Owen J. Roberts Boy’s Lacrosse Program playing on the club high school team from 1997-99 then being a part of the inaugural 2000 high school sanctioned team his senior season as an attack man earning All-Star recognition. From there Carville played for Widener University from 2000-02 as an attackman for the Pride.
His first coaching stint was in 2006-07 as an Assistant for Upper Merion High School’s 1st season as a varsity club program. After helping establish the now thriving Vikings program Carville headed “back to his roots” taking the Varsity Assistant coaching position at Owen J. Roberts from 2008-11 before being promoted to Head JV Coach from 2012-16 being in charge of developing the daily practice plans, scouting reports, and many other administrative duties for the Wildcats program.
After longtime OJR Coach Jeff Neese stepped down after the 2016 season Carville applied and accepted the Head Varsity Job at Owen J. Roberts in 2017 picking up right where they left off finishing with an 11-9 record, a District 1 Class AAA playoff berth, and taking the Wildcats to a 10th consecutive PAC-10 Final as a 3rd seed after avenging a 9-3 loss to PAC rival 2nd seed Perkiomen Valley in the Semifinals 9-8.
“We are VERY excited to welcome Ben into the club. His passion, knowledge, and love for the game of lacrosse is very evident but most importantly he wants to build the sport in his community as well as the surrounding areas,” said Black Bear Director Bryan Churchey. “Grady and I have gotten to know him extremely well these last couple of years and can’t say how much we look forward to seeing him share his passion for game with the youngsters at the 4th grade level this year.”
The 2026 Team will consist of a roster of 20 players: 1-2 Goalies, 6 Defense, 8 Midfield, 4-5 Attack
The Black Bear 2026 (4th Grade) Team will have practices on Sunday afternoons in the Phoenixville Area on October 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th before playing in their first team event on November 5th at Lehigh University. It will do a BOX introduction program on December 2nd & 3rd with the American Indoor Lacrosse Association and do a Box Winter Program on Sunday’s in January and February. In the Summer it will have a 2-day boot camp on June 2nd & 3rd, practice weekly practice’s 6-8pm Tuesday’s and Thursday’s and play in TEAM EVENTS on June 23-24th(PA), June 30th(NJ), and July 14-15th(PA). CLICK HERE To Learn More About Black Bear’s Club Program.