By Lars Bennett Nothing like the first real sideline sunburn of the summer tournament season.  I really should have worn the hat before day three. We all love Inside Lacrosse; great magazine, creator and promoter of very cool DI events, and now promoter for the crazy, should I rephrase, insane recruiting monster that is gobbling up ever younger laxers . . . . Sure, I can choose a college/university that will shape my entire life at the age of 15! Palm Beach Revolution, the new hybrid of Palm Beach Storm and Blue Devil Elite, represented Florida at Session I of the inaugural Inside Lacrosse Recruiting Invitational.  And at the end of three sun baked Baltimore, sorry Towson days, PBR repaid the IL promoters for their generous invitation. The format was fairly simple; invite a small number of the top club teams from around the country to represent their respective recruiting markets in one of the two sessions.  Each team would play based upon their graduating year and face only a handful of other teams.  It turns into a concentrated three days of showcasing your skills, being reviewed and commented upon by IL’s editorial staff via Twitter, Facebook and the IL website, oh . . . . . and 50 plus coaches from some of the nation’s top programs were there also. Small.  Friendly.  Beautiful Goucher College campus. With really easy parking.  And great food trucks.  Genius! Sunday evening was check-in at the dorms for the overnighters, and featured a talk with Ryan Boyle (Co-Founder Trilogy Lacrosse, ESPN commentator, oh and he won a national championship at Princeton and with the Cannons).  For the rest at the Marriot and Sheraton, Monday started at 8:30 AM with ADVNC 2017 v. LB3 National 2017 and didn’t look back until mid-day Wednesday. ADVNC, who I mistakenly told people was a team from North Carolina, hails from Northern California, the Palo Alto area.  LB3 National is Liam Banks’ organization based in GA but pulling kids from all across the country.  MESAfresh is sponsored by a restaurant, but if you paid any attention you knew it was a Philly outfit comprised of Haverford, Malvern Prep and a few others (yikes).  Gtown Prep really needs no introduction, while Bluff City Blues probably does . . . . Memphis, hence the “Blues”.  The field of teams was rounded out by the Tar Heels . . . no explanation needed. MESAfresh be it 2017, 2016 or 2015 was the program to beat.  At one point watching the PBR 2015 match up, all three MESA attackmen and all three middies wore the gold helmets adorned with an “H” . . . . hard to match up against six Haverford rising seniors who have probably been playing together since middle school, if not before and are all headed to top DI programs. Gtown Prep was hardnosed, ADVNC clearly was there to put Northern Cali on the map, while LB3 was establishing itself as a major program on the rise.  The Tar Heels only sent a 2015 team but certainly made a good show of it. On Tuesday morning, the event featured the Warrior/Brine Uncommitted Showcase, the TDI Razor Face-Off Championships and the Warrior/Brine All-Star Game.  The rosters for the Uncommitted and All-Star Games where voted on by roving IL editors and writers sporting really nice Warrior collared shirts (white and navy), and the various coaches on hand. It wasn’t quite Jake Reed or Showtime, but the sidelines were well represented by coaches from a host of top (Johns Hopkins) and up and coming (High Point) programs.  Hey, if I’d been picked to play I would have been d*$% proud to wear the Warrior/Brine colors! After all was said and done, IL hosted a unique and user friendly event.  Where else would each team have a “media day” opportunity? In the end, our Florida recruiting market was well represented by PBR.  The 2015 and 2017 teams won some, lost some but always pushed it to the limits.  However, the PBR 2016’s put their stamp on the competition with an unexpected win over the heavily favored, and at that point undefeated MESAfresh 2016’s, 3-2 putting PBR into the finals against LB3 National. After being up 5-0, then down, and with the seconds ticking off the clock our Florida boys ripped the necessary G, and made two amazing saves (well done Tyler Kendrigen!) to win a very, very exciting game. Thanks IL, thanks PBR, and we can’t wait until next year . . . I hope they invite us back! My only question is after three days of hard play, how do you end up in a game where if you win you get to go home, and if you lose you have to play another game (in the mid-day scorching heat)?  Just askin’.  Check this link for a gallery of photos from the event thanks to FLN photographer Lisa Erdmann.