The Veterans Cup is the largest fall tournament in the state and this year’s event continued to grow with twelve divisions including the high school and middle school girl’s tournament.

While it’s aways great to see so many kids playing lacrosse lacrosse the huge expanse of the Indian Trails Sports Complex, we always enjoy getting a sneak preview of some of the high school teams.

The Braveheart Lacrosse Club won the U19 Upper Division.  First of all, if anyone thinks that this is going to be a “down year” for Lake Highland Prep they may be disappointed.  LHP returns their entire attack unit for the 2015 season and only Kyle Richbourg was absent from the Braveheart’s roster for the Vet’s Cup.  The attack unit looked just like we expected.  A year bigger, faster, more experienced, and more disciplined.   While there is no “next Max Parker” anywhere, that doesn’t mean that LHP is planning to struggle at the face off X.  This weekend we saw Will Walker and Brandon Mintzer alternated at the X this weekend and they both are tough.   Jackson Colling (Boston University) looked great as did Don Eidson (Delaware.)    Grif Calligiuri, who committed to High Point last week, is going to have a huge year.

The topped Ponte Vedra Possums for the Championship.  Although PV dropped the game to Braveheart, they looked great knocking off a very impressive IMG team in the semi-finals.  Mile Silva is going to score a large pile of goals this year for PV and Collin Peaks looked seller at the other end of the field between the pipes.  John Harding has clearly been putting in the work this summer and handled some tough assingments at close D while Gray Larson and Liam Anderson both looked great on the midfield.

IMG was the team everyone was talking about when I arrived at the fields on Sunday.  IMG has a new super star in the making, Tehoka Nanticoke from six nations. He is teaming up on the attack with Ben French, a very skilled lefty attack.  The pair had been getting quite a bit of attention throughout the tournament.  Ponte Vedra was ready for them and did a great job against IMG.  The Possums even through some of their own “indoor style” offense at them.  The end result was a great game that saw scoring in spurts for both teams.  Fortunately, IMG will be playing quite a few more Florida dates this season as head coach Bill Shatz told us they have 14 of the top 15 Florida high school teams on their schedule this season. The Landsharks for Brevard county was the fourth team to reach the semi finals.  The Landsharks is a team with players from several Brevard county schools.   In addition to the Landsharks having success in the HS Upper division this year, the Viera Vipers took the runners up spot in the U13 group.  Lacrosse is on the rise in Brevard county. The full listing of winners;   Girls HS Champs – Pasco Lions, Runners Up-Swerve Elite Girls MS Champs – Tampa Elite, Runners Up-Swerve Select U19 Upper Champs-Braveheart, Runners Up-PV U19 Lower Champs – Southern Express, Runners Up-Gainesville Cats U17 Upper Champs- Braveheart, Runners Up-Duval Possums U17 Lower Champs-LB3 Jacksonville Select, Runners Up-Stars and Bars U15 Champs-Team 22, Runners Up-Tampa Elite U13 Upper Champs-PV Patriots, Runners Up-LaxRats U13 Lower Champs-Team 22, Runners Up-Viera Vipers U11 Upper Champs-Team 22, Runners Up-LB3 Tampa Tarpons U11 Lower Champs-Tampa Elite,  Runners Up-Braveheart U9 Champs-LaxRats, Runners Up-Generals Look for hundreds of more photos later this week!