The folks at SportsFive.NET were pretty much sequestered in July as they made the final adjustments for the new look for the BLaxFive. NET website, so posting stories were on hold. Nevertheless, there were several noteworthy stories that need to be remembered.

Sutton Boland makes USA final 32

In mid-July, Head Coach Nick Myers (Ohio State) announced the final thirty-two players who will practice for the USA 19-U team that will play in the FIL World Championships in Limerick, Ireland in July 2020. The pool of candidates started at 104 players who were invited to try out. The original group included Victor rising senior Joey Pezzimenti who also made it to the top 50.

Sutton Boland (Penn State), a senior from Victor and SportsFive Defensive Player of the year was selected for the practice squad of thirty-two which will need to be cut next summer to a final squad of twenty-three. The squad will have training weekends in November, January and June as they get ready for the tournament.

Twenty-five of the players will start their freshman college year this fall while the rest will player their final high school season before the Championships. FIL age requirements specify that players must be nineteen or under by August 31^st, 2019 (the year before the games).

More than half the team come from New York (10) and Maryland (8) with the rest from Connecticut (4), New Jersey (2) and Minnesota, Florida, Virginia, Missouri, North Carolina, Indiana, Colorado and Oregon each adding one.

Ryan Maloney Suffers Spinal Cord Injury – Community responds

Early in the month, Cornell University rising senior attackman, Ryan Maloney (Victor) suffered a severe spinal cord injury while on vacation. After emergency surgery and time in intensive care, he became stable enough to be transferred to the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation where he has been making good progress but still has a long way to go.

As usual, the lacrosse community reacted quickly to help in many ways. Teammates on the Cornell lacrosse team set up a Go-Fund-Me page to help with the significant costs that are expected. In twenty-eight days, more than 2,00 people have donated over $243,000. In addition, a Caring Bridge website has been set up to keep everyone up to date on his progress.  

“Ryan, as you all know, is one of the most genuine and goodhearted kids you'll ever meet. As utterly terrifying as the past few days have been, Ryan's strength and positive attitude through this incredibly trying time have proven unwavering. We are all so proud of our brother and teammate, his resilience will undoubtedly pull him through this nightmare.”< /p>

From the Ryan’s Recovery Fund Page  

Shootout For Soldiers Another Success

In its third year, the folks at Canandaigua produced another lacrosse extravaganza on July 20^th and 21^st. The event is a twenty-four-hour lacrosse “game” played by all sorts of teams of all ages. The program takes place in twelve sites through the country from May to November and is a combination of fund-raising and community engagement and the Canandaigua games is great on both scores. This year the group raised $52,578 Bob Chavez, sports editor for the Daily Messenger had a great story on how this event is more that lacrosse and more than fund-raising.       

2019 AGR Team Announced

In mid-July, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle came out with their annual All-Greater Rochester team. Victor defenseman, Sutton Boland was their Player of the year and was joined on the first team by Mark Belles (Canandaigua, Jack Brennan (Irondequoit), Joe Camp (Wayne), Shawn Doran (Hilton), Conner Fingar (Penn Yan), Jake Gallina (Pal-Mac), Liam Haller (Victor), Camden Hay (Victor), Sonny Imburgia (Pittsford), Casey McDermott (Brighton), Sam Miller (Geneva), Joey Pezzimenti (Victor), Mitch Pfeiffer (Canandaigua), Lukas Stanat (Brighton) and Klay Stuver (Fairport). Jim Andre and Mike Torrelli were named co-coaches of the year.