Face Off, Get Gold


With Alec Barnes in control, 3d Select made history at the USL U15 Championship


By Paul Krome A


lec Barnes has been facing off since he started playing lacrosse in second grade. Most recently, he sparked Regis Jesuit (Colo.) High to the state semifinals as a freshman and earned second-team All-City honors


from The Aurora Sentinel. But a summer of work on his craft took his game


to the next level — and helped his club team make a bit of history along the way. Barnes won 14 of 18 faceoffs to lead 3d Select National to a 10-4 win over Long Island Express Barracudas in the gold medal game of the US Lacrosse U15 National Championship, powered by Lacrosse Unlimited, July 28 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Combined with a stingy defense that held Express scoreless for 30-plus minutes, Barnes’ ball-hawking efforts allowed 3d Select — with 12 of 23 players from Colorado and another three from California — to become the first Western- based program to win the national championship in its five-year history. “This is huge, knowing that the


West is rising and we’re making a huge impact on lacrosse,” Barnes said.


After the session, 3d director Jamie Munro, the former University of Denver coach, asked Schomburg who had potential. Schomburg pointed to Barnes, who knew how to keep his weight balanced and had the competitiveness required of the position. Barnes devoted substantial time over the summer to his new pinch-and-pop maneuver and the drills to perfect it. “I had to tell him to slow down a couple times. You try to go 1,000 miles an hour, you can develop bad habits sometimes,” Schomburg said. “I told him to learn the technique, turn it into muscle memory and then start speeding up.” The results showed in the U15 final. Barnes won six of eight


faceoffs in the first half and eight of 10 in the second half against the Barracudas’ combination of Sam Nadjari and Kyle Portera. He added two assists in the first half. 3d Select’s defense took care of the rest. Defenseman Will Weitzel joined goalie Otto Bohan on the Lacrosse Magazine All-Tournament Team. “We got all the ground balls, and that’s what wins games.” said Weitzel, a sophomore at Roxbury Latin and one of six players from Massachusetts on the predominantly western team. 3d Select jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the final


that was all but insurmountable the way Barnes hoarded possessions. “I would estimate that in the 40-minute game,


we had the ball maybe seven minutes,” Barracudas coach Mike Chanenchuk said. At the buzzer, 3d Select players stormed the


field and celebrated their national championship. They completed a 7-0 run through the field that included two wins over For the Love of the Game (N.Y.), a 10-7 defeat of third-seeded Dukes HHH (Pa.) in the semifinals and a victory over the 2012 champion Express in the final. Teams from 13 states participated. “This really shows the growth of the sport,” 3d Select co-


coach Kevin O’Brien said. “It’s not just the hotbeds anymore.” What’s next for 3d Select? Proverbial home-field advantage.


The US Lacrosse U15 National Championships move to the Aurora Sports Park near Denver July 21-26, 2014. LM


“We’re as good


as everyone else.” Or better. In early June, Barnes and


the other midfielders in the 3d program welcomed four-time Australian national team member and two-time Adelphi All-American Matt Schomburg for a four-hour, faceoff-specific clinic. Schomburg led the Panthers to


the 1995 NCAA championship and graduated as the school’s all-time leader in faceoff winning percentage. In 2005, he founded Fogolax, a company that provides instruction on the craft. “Within the four hours, [Alec] kept getting


better and better,” Schomburg said. “He bought into the system and the technique.”


50 LACROSSE MAGAZINE September 2013>>


LACROSSE MAGAZINE ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM


Henry Adams, A, 3d Select (Colo.)


Matt Gavin, A, Long Island Express Barracudas (N.Y.)


Ryan Rogers, A, Long Island Express Barracudas (N.Y.)


Alec Barnes, A, 3d Select (Colo.)


Steve Cuccurullo, M, Long Island Express Turtles (N.Y.)


Tyler Will, M, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (Md.)


Daniel Confort, D, Long Island Express Barracudas (N.Y.)


“Keeper of Lacrosse” Sportsmanship Award Brady’s Bunch (Calif.)


Tyler Will A Publication of US Lacrosse


Will Weitzel, D, 3d Select (Colo.)


Jordan Young, D, Dukes HHH (Pa.)


Otto Bohan, G, 3d Select (Colo.)


©SCOTT MCCALL (ALL)


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