LouisvilleCatholicSports.com

St. Xavier senior vying for spot on U19 National Team

St. Xavier High School lacrosse senior Bobby Schmitt was a member of a high school state championship team for all four years with the Tigers.

Now the defensemen has earned a chance to be a part of another team: the United States Under-19 National Team.

US Lacrosse has announced the 122-player tryout pool for the U.S. men’s national U19 team that will travel to Turku, Finland, in 2012 for the Federation of International Lacrosse U19 World Championships. The tryouts will take place July 7-10, 2011, at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in Catonsville, Md.

Schmitt made that cut and is one of 27 players representing a Catholic school from around the country.
 
“We have assembled an excellent group of talented, strong players,” said Team USA Head Coach Tim Flynn. “It is a deep and versatile pool that will make the tryouts very competitive, and enable us to assemble an outstanding team to contend for the seventh-straight world championship title for the United States.”
 
Flynn (Mountain Lakes High School, N.J.) and assistant coaches Jack Crawford (Loyola Blakefield, Md.), Tom Duquette (Norfolk Academy, Va.) and Tom Rotanz (Shoreham-Wading River High School, N.Y.) will lead the selection of the final 23-man roster, which will be announced July 15.
 
This year, US Lacrosse received 273 high school and college applicants from 32 states for Team USA tryouts. 
 
“This is a truly impressive group, including All-American, all-state, and all-conference players from all over the country,” said Nathaniel Badder, US Lacrosse director of national teams. “We had record interest in the team this year, and to whittle the pool down this far was challenging enough. Our final team selectors certainly have their work cut out for them.”
 
Schmitt was also named to the 2011 All-State Lacrosse Team after leading his squad to a 9-5 win over Trinity last week and a fourth consecutive state championship for the Tigers.