June 13^th and 14^th were two great days for lacrosse in the Palm Coast area.  The weather was beautiful, albeit scorching hot, which allowed over 110 boys lacrosse teams and 33 girls teams to display their skills on 21 fields across three locations in the “PDQ Father’s Day Invitational to Benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.” There is no word yet on how much money was raised this year, but last year the event raised over $14,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project, so I’m sure the lacrosse community once again did good.  Kudos to the event organizers for that and keeping the tournament running smoothly. In the spirit of being a gentleman, I’ll talk about the ladies first.  At Wadsworth Park, the girls competed across four divisions; middle school A, middle school B, high school JV, and high school varsity. The high school varsity division had some great talent.  In the first game I watched, I was impressed by Upstate Lacrosse which was lead by a trio of St. Andrew’s players in rising senior Amalie Jorgensen, and rising sophomores Emma Braden and Ally Ellerstein.  All three players created space and opportunities for their teammates. Braden had the quickness and stick skills to be dangerous from anywhere on the field.  Upstate finished 2-1 on the first day, an identical record to LB3 Wave from Jacksonville and behind only KHAOS Lacrosse from Georgia, who finished the day 3-0. The final in the girls’ varsity division was a rematch between KHAOS and LB3 Wave.  KHAOS got there by defeating the PV Ice handily while LB3 defeated a strong Southern Rage team from Oviedo 5-6. KHAOS won by a final of 10-3 to capture the championship, repeating the result from the previous day. Congratulations to the KHAOS program and players! In the girls’ JV division, the final came down to PAL Starz and Beast Lacrosse Club.  PAL Starz won a tight one 5-4 to capture the championship.  In the middle school A division, it was an all LaxManiax final as LaxManiax “All Stars” was pitted against Laxmaniax “Ballers.”  The All Stars came out on top 5-8. LaxManiax also had a team in the middle school B division final, LaxManiax “Young Gunz,” but that team was defeated by Pipeline 7-9.  Congratulations to all the winners and all the players on the girls’ side!  As always, it’s great to see such enthusiasm for lacrosse in the great state of Florida!   Most of the boys’ lacrosse action took place at Indian Trails Sport Complex, a great facility that I love returning to every year.  In the U19 A division, the pool play on Saturday was very exciting.  West Florida Lacrosse and LCO Black led the pack by finishing Saturday undefeated, while VK Lacrosse, Bold City, and the Brantley Bulldogs all finished 2-1. On Sunday, the brackets were set and, despite their day one dominance, LCO Black was upset in their first Sunday game by the PV Possums after PV topped the Tallahassee Terror to make it into the playoff earlier that morning. The final four pitted West Florida against VK Lacrosse and Bold City against the PV Possums. In a very tight game with plenty of great players, West Florida fell to VK 6-7.  Midfielder Enrique Marnotes of Plant was a standout for West Florida in the loss.  The PV Possums took the other semifinal to win their third game of the day and earn a spot in the final.  PV scored the first two goals in the final and, despite constant pressure from VK, held on to win the game 5-7 in their fourth game of the day.  Congrats to the Ponte Vedra program for their championship! The Ponte Vedra program had success across multiple divisions; on top of capturing U19 crown they reached the final four in U9 as well as both U11 groups, and reached the finals in U13 and U15.  Looks like that area will continue to develop great lacrosse players for a long time. Monsters Lacrosse also had a great showing.  They won the U9, U11, and U13 divisions! They must be putting something in the water over there! Kudos to those coaches.

Towards the end of Sunday, I took great pleasure in watching the U15 final between LCO and the Ponte Vedra Possums.  LCO won by a final score of 3-2 but the joy came from watching great talent from such young players.  Their lax IQ was great for their age and they made such few errors that I had to double check that the kids were actually under 15.  They had me wishing I was that good at that age.  A great job by both coaches and programs! The Father’s Day Invitational was yet another great showing of lacrosse in Florida!  Next on my docket is the girl’s 7v7 Heat Wave tournament back in Palm Coast on July 11^th and 12^th. You can check all the results from the tournament here.