Central Team Goes 3-0 in “New York State Shootout”

The Empire State Games always served as a major recruiting tool for college coaches to get a glimpse of New York’s top lacrosse talent.  After the the games were canceled this year (for the first time since 1978) due to budgetary problems, Tom Hall, the Chair of New York State Lacrosse, decided that the show must go on.

Hall got together with coaches from around the state, and Joe Taylor from Nike Lacrosse, to put together a showcase of high school lacrosse talent and named it the “New York State Shootout“.

While the Empires historically featured six regional teams, the Shootout brought in eight teams, including: Buffalo, Albany and St. Lawrence, Rochester, Nassau County, Suffolk County, Central, Hudson Valley and the Southern Tier.

The format was a 1-day tournament that started at 10am, and wrapped up around 6pm.  Since each team would only play three games, they opted not to crown a champion, unlike the Empire Games, which granted medals at the end.

Each team held tryouts among players that were nominated via coaches’ recommendations.  Nike Lacrosse outfitted the teams and coaches with the Six Nations uniforms that Hopkins, Virginia, North Carolina and Syracuse wear.

The Central team seemed to be the dominant team, even though having one of the most difficult schedules.  They went 3-0 after come-from-behind wins against  two Long Island teams, Suffolk (Central won 12-8) and Nassau County (Central won 13-9), and pulled off a 9-7 victory over Rochester.

Other Shootout scores:

Suffolk 8, Rochester 7
Southern Tier 10, Hudson Valley 4
Rochester 9, Nassau 7
Hudson Valley 8, North Country 3
Buffalo 7, Southern Tier 6
Buffalo 10, North Country 0
Nassau 9, Suffolk 6
Buffalo 8, Hudson Valley 4
Southern Tier 12, North Country 3

More on the New York State Shootout can be found at: http://www.syracuse.com/today/index.ssf/2009/07/central_new_tork_lacrosse_team.html