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NYC And Citylax: The 2010 Mayor’s Cup

On April 11th and 12th, Citylax, in conjunction with the NYC Sports Commission, Nike and a number of other partners, put on the 3rd annual Mayor’s Cup of Lacrosse.  The event was held on Randall’s Island and once again, was a huge success.

Early action between Stuyvesant and Hunters High Schools.

The girls took over the 4 fields on Saturday the 11th and then on Sunday the 12th, the boys took to the field and lax’d it up something fierce.  Almost every boys’ team in NYC made the event and there were public, private and parochial schools in attendance and at least one team from every borough.

Another good public school match-up. STICKS UP ON D!

Some of these teams have been around for decades but the vast majority have only been started in the last 5-10 years.  Hunter HS is actually in its first season in 2010 and they certainly had some kids that could play the game pretty well.

Trinity and Fordham Prep did some serious battling. Good talent level in this game.

Overall, the talent level was higher this year than it was last year and that goes for the public school teams as well as the private schools, even though a lot of the private schools had graduated top classes last year.  For example, Forrest Sonnenfeldt (all 6’4″ of him) was at Fieldston last year and now he’s playing for the Princeton Tigers.

Players will improve rapidly with MLL guys like Peter Vlahakis as their coaches!

Pete Vlahakis, FOGO for the LI Lizards, and Spencer Wright, former Cuse star could be seen patrolling the boundaries and offering words of encouragement to their guys.  This bodes well for the future!

I saw some excellent goalkeeping from the Trinity keeper and was incredibly impressed by the goalie play for Hunter HS as well.  The kid in goal had been playing lacrosse for a total of 3 weeks and he must have had 20 saves in the two 35 minute games I saw him play in.  Fearlessness is a quality that just can’t be coached!

Sweet gear. I think that’s Latin for “lax is life”.

The weather was great, the lax was pretty darn sweet but the best thing was seeing the game continue to spread in NYC and the talent level continue to improve by leaps and bounds.  It was also nice to see some pretty recognizable faces on the sidelines as coaches.

Overall, it was a great event put on by a great organization that really benefits a bunch of hardworking kids who just want to play some sweet lax… does it really get any better than that?

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About the Author: Connor is a life-long lacrosse player who doesn’t know when to give up on the game.  He played and coached at Wesleyan University and now plays for the Southampton LC in NYC.  Connor lives with his fiance in Brooklyn and thanks her for allowing him to keep the dream alive.

Contact him at connor@lacrosseallstars.com.