June 7, 2006

As many readers are well aware at this point, the High School Team Nationals, a boys' championship tournament being organized and sponsored by lax.com, has been cancelled. The decision was made by the tournament's organizers after several of the high school teams invited were unable to commit to the mid-June event.

Organizers said that they were initially able to secure 12 of their desired 16 teams for the event, but late withdrawals for various reasons caused too much shuffling of the original tournament line-up. Adequate and worthy replacement teams could not be arranged with limited time provided for logistics like travel and individual player commitments.

"We knew some teams wouldn't be able to come," said Neil Blaney of lax.com. "But we had three teams that had been committed all year tell us late in the process that they could not participate. That made us scramble at the last minute."

Putting aside, for a moment, any discussion about the need for a national high school championship, there are numerous logistical difficulties that make this a difficult event to organize.

Primary among the obvious hurdles to overcome is participation by the true national elite. This year, that list unquestionably includes Maryland's Georgetown Prep and Boys' Latin. The fact that neither school accepted an invitation to this year's event brings into question the tournament's credibility in determining a true national champion.

"The idea that kids wouldn't want to play caught us off guard," admitted Blaney. "However, we're still talking to coaches to get their input and almost all love the idea. They are very supportive, even the ones who can't participate."

Secondly, organizers must find a way to balance the gap in season schedules that exist in different geographic areas. Some states determined their champions two or three weeks ago, while others, as in New York, have play-offs that run into the second week in June. Will teams that packed away the equipment in mid-May be willing to start all over four weeks later?

And at what point should the organizers determine the invitees? Logistics dictate that you can't wait until the second week in June to finalize the tournament field. But if this event is to be a true tournament of champions featuring each season's best teams as determined by the state tournaments and league championships, then organizers can not extend the invitations in mid-season either.

One solution might be to push the event from mid-June to the July 4th holiday week, allowing more time to identify the worthy squads and also provide ample planning time for the participants.

"That actually works against us because the later we go in the summer, the more seniors we lose," said Blaney. "The whole idea is to have these teams compete with the same players that they had during the season."

Blaney added that this year's cancellation "is a big disappointment", but that the organizers learned a lot from the process and hope to announce new plans for the event in the fall.

As for the basic question of need, when did state championships stop being enough? There are no national championship tournaments for football, basketball or any of the other various high school sports. Why does high school lacrosse need to crown a national champion?

That question is still being considered by the organizers, and apparently, we have yet to hear the final word.

• While it doesn't get a lot of attention, lacrosse continues to grow in the Pacific Northwest and Saturday's Oregon boys' state championship game may help perpetuate the game's popularity in the region. Junior Max Schlesinger scored the game-winning goal with 2.9 seconds left to lift Lakeridge to a 7-6 win over Oregon Episcopal before a packed house at Lake Oswego High School. Deadlocked at 6-6 for more than eight minutes in the fourth quarter, the teams went back and forth in the final minutes, with each nearly scoring the go-ahead goal.

OES survived several potential Lakeridge game-winners in the closing seconds before Schlesinger's marker found the back of the net. Lakeridge captured its second straight title and finished the year with a 22-1 record, with its only loss coming against Washington's top-rated Mercer Island. Oregon Episcopal finished as the state runner-up for the second straight year after winning the title in 2004.

• Back on the East Coast, the Garden City and Rocky Point girls' teams played their own classic in the Long Island Class B championship game, with a bid to the New York state semifinals on the line. In the first-ever meeting of unbeaten and untied teams in the history of the championship, the two teams also added another championship first - overtime. Eventually, Garden City (18-0) emerged with a 16-13 victory after rallying from deficits of 8-4 at halftime and 11-8 in the second half. A four-goal run pushed GC ahead by one before Rocky Point tied the score at 12-12 in the closing seconds of regulation to force the extra session.

Even the losing coach, Rocky Point's Joe Spallina, raved afterwards about the game. "The outcome was awful, but the game itself was a classic," he told Newsday. "This lived up to everything it was built to be."

Garden City, last year's state runner-up, advances to face NY Section IV champion Corning East in Friday's state semifinal, with 2005 state champion Brighton and Glen Falls meeting in the other Class B semi.

• In Class A, Farmingdale upset Northport 6-4 in the Long Island final to earn its first final four berth since 2002. Farmingdale (16-2) faces Section III's two-time defending state champion Fayetteville-Manlius in Friday's semifinal, with Yorktown and Webster Thomas meeting in the other Class A girls' semi. In Class C, Shoreham-Wading River plays 2005 champion Skaneateles in one semifinal, while 2004 champion Penn Yan meets Rye.

• And finally, congratulations to Max Quinzani of Duxbury in Massachusetts, who became the all-time national high school scoring leader by registering his 554th career point during Saturday's 22-10 play-off win over Acton-Boxboro. The senior attackman, who has 137 points this season, broke the mark held previously by New York Carthage's Casey Powell. Duxbury is the only remaining unbeaten team in Massachusetts with a 19-0 record and is trying to capture its third straight Division 1 state championship. The Dragons play Lexington in the second round of the state tournament on Wednesday.