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IMG Academy to Be Well Represented at FIL U 19 World Championships

Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in .
Above – Tehoka Nanticoke is playing for the Iroquois National Team The Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) U19 Men’s Lacrosse World Championships are set to get underway soon, and a host of IMG Academy coaches and players will be representing the Ascenders. New Logos from Lacrosse.com!
Ben French and Dad
Ben French and his father, Dean
On the coaching side, Jason Levesque, who recently joined the IMG Academy staff as the Varsity Team Defensive Coordinator, will serve in the same role for Team Canada at the event. Levesque is a native of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, and came to IMG Academy after serving as head coach of Adams State University, but this is not his first stint with Team Canada, having worked with three other Canadian National Teams. Notably, he was part of the Senior Men’s National Team in 2014 that upset the United States to earn Canada’s third FIL gold medal since 1967. Levesque will get to work with two recent IMG Academy grads who are playing with Team Canada, attackman Ben French and goalkeeper Drake Porter. French and Porter, who signed with Vermont and Syracuse, respectively, helped lead the IMG Academy National Team to a 12-1 overall record and a #4 national ranking in the final USA Today Super25 poll. Meanwhile, IMG Academy Head Varsity Coach Mark Burnam will serve as an assistant coach for the Iroquois National Team. Burnam guided the IMG Academy Varsity Lacrosse team to a 14-1 overall record in 2016, and has developed hundreds of athletes to national and international prominence. Burnam has coached extensively at the International level serving as the assistant coach for the Iroquois World Cup National team in the past, and served as head coach of Charlotte Christian and served as Co-Director of CSL/Carolina Select Lacrosse. Burnam will be working with a large contingent of IMG Academy players in Canada. Leading the way are attackmen Tehoka Nanticoke and Mitch Laffin, who both committed to Albany. Notably Nanticoke made a splash nationally when his incredible in-between-the-legs goal shot against Don Bosco (N.J.) earlier this year made it on the ESPN SportsCenter top-10. Joining them from Albany will be IMG Academy alumnus Colyn Lyons, a member of the class of 2015. Also on the Iroquois team are Ascenders Liam Anderson (class of 2018, uncommitted) and Chase Scanlan (class of 2019, Syracuse commit), and Percy Booth (class of 2017, uncommitted) is listed as an alternate. The FIL U19 World Lacrosse Championships will take place in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, July 7 – 16. Other participating countries include the United States, Mexico, China, England, Ireland, Australia and Korea, and numerous others.  

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