Team selection is always a difficult process and the second-guessing and Monday morning quarterbacks come out of the woodwork after the teams have been selected. There is almost always questions about politics and how pushed who into taking one player or another. No region seems to have come up with a procedure to pick a team with which everyone is pleased. That being said, Head Coaches pick their teams, all wanting to win the gold and have fun with the boys as well.

While, for a number of reasons, there are key people missing from each of the lineups, some because they have other plans, some because they don't want the commitment and some because there are other venues, the regions always bring together a talented group of players and the tournament is not only prestigious but one filled with excitement and excellent play.

LONG ISLAND

Long Island brought eighteen seniors and two juniors to the games and all but three of the seniors have made verbal commitments to college teams. The juniors, Jake Froccaro (Port Washington) an offensive player on the Inside Lacrosse Sophomore Watch list and James Pannell (Smithtown West) and attackman who was also on the Watch List both have older brothers who are college stars (Jeff Froccaro at Princeton and Rob Pannell at Cornell). The team was nearly split between Section XI and Section VIII players.

Long Island came in with a strong offense. Attackmen Included Michael Andreassi (Sachem North/UMass), Kyle Keenan (Smithtown West/Duke), James Pannell (Smithtown West) and Ryan Walsh (Wantagh/Colgate). The four posted nearly 275 points last spring.

A number of the midfielders could play either midfield or attack. Midfielders included Froccaro who scored 48g-23a last spring, Brandon Gamblin (Hicksville/UMass) who scored 38g-32a, Tom Gordon (Garden City/Hopkins) who had 45g-14a for the Class B NYS semi-finalists, Myles Jones (Walt Whitman/Duke) ranked #6 on the Inside Lacrosse Young Gun Junior list and Mike Sagl (West Islip/Albany) who scored 4g in both the LI championship game and the NYS championship (won by the Lions). The rest of the midfield lineup included Bryan Gerrato (Southside/Navy), Luke Miller (William Floyd/Stony Brook) and Kevin Wendel (East Islip/Navy).

In the Defense JP Burnside (Garden City), Alerio DeMerieles (Syosset/Yale), Rob Enright (Massapequa/Hopkins), Matt Scalera (Comsewogue), Jordan Stevens (Smithtown West/Cornell) and Zach Zanone (Ward Melville) made the trip to Buffalo.
Goalie Zack Oliveri (Connetquot/UMass) had 226 saves last season. Tom Cordts (Northport) made 18s saves last spring.

CENTRAL

Central brought twenty rising seniors to the games this year. The team featured four players from the Class B NYS champions from Jamesville-DeWitt. There were three from Carthage and two from West Genesee. The majority of players came from Section III, with four very talented players from Section IV.

The attack, consisting of Dylan Donahue (West Genesee), Nick Piroli (Carthage/Brown), Kevin Rice (Skaneateles/Cornell) and Ari Waffle (Fayetteville-Manlius/Jacksonville) combines for an amazing 208g-134a (342 pts) in their junior scholastic season.
There were six defensemen on the Central roster including J-D's Matt Kopp, West Genny's John Sabert (Army), Gerry O`Brien (Seton Catholic), Whitesboro's Austin Curtis, Hoe Snyder (Westhill) who also plays LSM and Vestal's Cam Buglione, whose brother Brian played on the 2008 Central team.

Central's eight midfielders came with lots of credentials. J-D sent Alex Hatem (20g-6a) and Tim Edwards (20g-12a and 112 gbs) and Carthage sent Derek Kehoe (Ohio State) who has 117g-34a (151 career points) and Thomas Grimm (Syracuse) who played on the 2008 ESG team and has 197g-176a (373 career points). Joe Corapi (Liverpool, 24g-4a), Connor Ferrito (Homer, 60 pts and 105 gbs), Brett Williams (Fulton, 30g-28a) and Riley Lasda (Ithaca/Cornell) filled out the midfield roster. Lasda scored 45g-18a and had 92 gbs for Ithaca (18-1) last spring.

Jamesville-DeWitt goalie (Vermont) made 28s (65%) in the NYS tournament last spring. Number thirty-five on the Inside Lacrosse Top 50 Young Gun Rising Junior list, Tyler White (Corning East/Towson) had a choice of trying out for either the Central or the Western team.

WESTERN

Western came into the tournament with high hopes and one of its strongest group of players. Defenseman Eric Chadderdon (Hamburg/Ohio State) was a USLacrosse All American as a junior and an ESPN RISE Warrior top 40 player. The University of North Carolina had three of its eleven recruits on the Western Team. McQuaid Jesuit defenseman, Jake Bailey, Fairport midfielder, Drew Hays and Bishop Timon defenseman Brian Sullivan have all made verbal commitments to play for Joe Breschi . Most of the players came from Section V (13 players), but they were supplemented with a talented group of players from Section VI.
The attackmen were Derek DeJoe (Fairport 16g-14a), Nick Doktor (Irondequoit rising junior 16g-28a), Klay Heston (Aquinas, 60g-29a), Zach Reed (Haverling/Hobart, 54g-70a).

Seven midfielders included Corning East star, Jordan Frysinger (Hopkins, 73 pts), Irondequoit's Greg Coholan (Virginia), Mike Messina (Aquinas/Syracuse, 34g-6a) and Hays. James Burke (Pittsford, 23g-11a), JT Hauck (Webster Thomas,34g-35a) and Ryan Yunker (Churchville-Chili/Bryant, 35g-27a) gave Western added depth at midfield.

Western brought seven midfielders including Chadderdon, Bailey and Sullivan along with Cullen Mangino (Orchard Park), Irondequoit's Colby Wehner and rising juniors Zach Moore (Corning East) and Marc Pettrone (Aquinas)

Section Six provided the goalies in two time All Western New York Alex Govenettio (Lake Shore) and Bishop Timon three year starter David Scarcello.

ADIRONDACK

Adirondack brought three rising juniors and seventeen seniors, seven of whom have made verbal commitments. Robert Wardwell, a USLacrosse All American goalie, has committed to Syracuse and already has four years as a starter at Shenendehowa. Hoping for an injury-free tournament, Wardwell was the only goalie Adirondack brought to the games. West Point is the destination for attackman Tim Coll (Shenendehowa, 29g-39a) and midfielder Troy Gargiulo (Ballston Spa, 26g-18a). Defenseman Andrew Dorsey (Shenendehowa) plans to attend Stony Brook and midfielders Jimmy O`Brien (Shaker/Holy Cross,33g-4a) Brian Schlansker (Niskayuna/Bryant) are also committed. Saratoga Springs attackman, Tristan Sperry (25g-23a, 55 gbs) is committed to play from Coach Andy Coplan at Fairfield.

There was some even distribution between four scholastic teams as Christian Brothers Academy and Shaker each sent three players and Niskayuna and Shenendehowa each sent four. Shen won the Section II championship this year and lost, in overtime, to Section I champ (Lakeland/Panas in the NYS quarter finals.

Five attackmen made the trip for Adirondack. Chris Breiner (Trinity Pawling), Coll, Alex D`Amario (Niskayuna), Sperry and Sam Thompson (Queensbury) were selected by Head Coach, Rich Scully (CBA).

Nine middies included Tim Cox (Schenectady), Cam Fisher (CBA), Gargiulo, O'Brien, Schlansker, Carter Sherman (CBA) and rising juniors Joey Chiara (Shaker), Liam Christensen (Bethlehem) and Tanner MacIver (Niskayuna).
Shen sent two of the five defensemen, Nick Hourigan (also LSM) and Andrew Dorsey. The three others were Nisky's Michael Chambers, Shaker's John Holland and from CBA, Max Kerber.

HUDSON VALLEY

Hudson Valley found most of their team at Rye (6 players) and Somers (4 players). Fox Lane goalie has committed to play at Ohio State and Warwick Valley goalie Mike Grace has committed to Assumption College (NE-10 - Division II). All but five of the players will be seniors in the fall.

Four attackmen made the final twenty including Briggs Barton (Rye), Rob Caffrey (Lakeland/Panas, 66g-31a), Kevin Carey (Mahopac, 23g-25a) and Kieran Donohue (Somers).

Eight midfielders were selected including seniors Chris Bonaventura (Rye, 26g-12a), Tim Curran (North Salem, 41g-31a), T.J. Foley (Mahopac, 30g-10a), Anthony Lombardo (Somers) and Matt McReddie (Rye), Rising juniors included Anthony Berardis (Mahopac), Ed Dedomenico (Brunswick School) and Kevin McNally (Suffern).

Three out of the six defensemen were from Rye, including Max Bonsall, Michael Collins (SUNY Binghamton) and Brian Pickup,. The other three were Matt Landis (Pelham) and brothers, Eddie Schurr (senior) and Kevin Schurr (junior) from Somers.

NEW YORK CITY

New York City had the youngest team in the tournament with only seven rising seniors and so there is a potential to bring twelve back with experience next summer and three who could come back for two. Poly Prep sent six players, The Collegiate School, three and Choate sent two. Chris Fiore who was selected a USLacrosse All American goalie as a sophomore last season came from New Dorp where he recorded 483 saves in 16 games (83%). His brother, Mathew played on the 2007 and 2008 ESG teams. Offensive rising junior, Neil Hamamoto (Riverdale, 28g-41a) returned from the 2008 team.

Offensive players included Garden City junior Michael Lofrese and Mark Phillips (Dalton senior) along with A/M players, Joseph Madrazo (Midwood), Hugo Francis (Poly Prep) and Hamamoto.

Collegiate School junior midfielders Anthony Evans, Will Nollmann and Tim Ford were joined by Poly Prep seniors Gregory Pietroforte and Chris Moser with Dylan Fowler (Choate Rosemary Hall) rounding out the midfield group.

In the defense Poly Prep sent seniors Theo Kalogerakis and Devin Keskinkaya along with Will Otremba (Salisbury) and juniors Chris Doyle (Midwood) and Ryan Nardi (Fieldstone). Rising sophomores Nader Sharif-Emami (Lawrenceville) and Michael Shanahan (Choate Rosemary Hall) rounded out the longs sticks.

Fiore was joined in the goalie duties by sophomore James Superka (Poly Prep).