Eastern Shore Lacrosse Club shuts down short season
The Eastern Shore Lacrosse Club kept the two youngest teams down home in Lewes for the Beach Blast Tournament at Cape June 23-26 and sent the older teams 130 miles north to Bel Air, Md., for the National Recruiting Showcase.
Entry fees per team in each tournament are $1,500, which guarantees four 50-minute games on regulation fields with top notch officials. Each player pays in the neighborhood of $1,000 dollars to be on a team. There are no Buicks in the parking lots of summer lacrosse tournaments and few socialists. Lacrosse is not played by the “privileged class,” but most families have education and disposable income to spend on their kids. These players are not chasing need-based scholarships monies, they are chasing the dream of playing college lacrosse and being a part of a next-level program.
ESLC elected to play in the top echelon Red Division, figuring may as well see how they level up against the best in the country.
The 2018 team with many of Cape’s talented rising junior class on the roster went 1-3 over two days.
June 26, the 2018 girls lost a close game to Pennsylvania Pride at 10 a.m., then got “housed” by Florida Select in the 1 p.m. getaway game. Florida Select is a combo team, meaning they are 2018, but also has younger kids on the roster.
“They were the fastest team we’ve ever seen; you couldn’t win a draw or beat them to a ground ball,” said Dave Frederick, who coaches the team along with Steve Judge. “We played them tough in the second half, but by then we were way gone.”
Florida Select Lacrosse is located in Boca Raton and does not have tryouts. Players are selected from other teams based on in-person scouting.
The 2017 ESLC also lost twice on Sunday, colliding with Crash in the 10 a.m. game, then losing to ULAX in the 1 p.m. getaway game.
The ESLC season is now over and most Cape players will transition to the more relaxed Lewes Lax Thursday night at Champions Stadium and perhaps attend a camp at a college they’d love to attend if offered a roster spot and a percentage scholarship.
