DAY 1 RECAP - DICK'S SPORTING GOODS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS 2009
(January 02, 2009)
(Pasco County, Fl.) - Sunny skies and warm temperatures greeted the 35 teams that converged on Wesley Chapel District Park on Friday morning, as the Dick’s Sporting Goods Tournament of Champions began with Toyota Pool Play in the elite and rising stars divisions.
ELITE DIVISION
The 2009 elite division, which features 27 of North America’s top all-star club teams (up from 21 a year ago), afforded each team two Toyota Pool Play games to determine seeding in the Toyota Championship Bracket.
In a bid to become the first repeat national champions, the New Westminster Salmonbellies (British Columbia, CAN) did not disappoint, defeating Steel City Select (Pa.), 11-5, and the Tampa Bay Fire, 18-3.
The Salmonbellies are one of eight teams to finish the day with a 2-0 record. Mesa Fresh 2010 highlights the undefeated teams, as the Malvern, Pennsylvania-based squad is the lone unbeaten with a roster that doesn’t include a single senior. The six additional teams that finished the day 2-0 include Team Headstrong (last year’s runner-up), the Connecticut Seminoles, Rebel Elite (Pa.), Maryland Lacrosse Club, LB3 Blue (Bucks & Montgomery Counties, Pa.), and Edge Junior Select (Ontario, CAN). Four of the eight unbeatens are from greater Philadelphia.
On the flip-side, the Connecticut Hurricanes, which finished in fourth-place a year ago, lost both of it games today (11-8 finals to both LB3 Blue and Burnaby Mountain Senior Selects [British Columbia]). The Hurricanes, the 22-seed, will meet the 11-seed, Edge USA (Md.), in the first round of the championship bracket.
For a complete list of Toyota Championship Bracket elite division seeding, click here.
HEADSTRONG FOUNDATION
Three members of the Colleluori family (Cheryl, Pat and Michael) are in Florida to support Team HeadStrong in its quest to win the national championship and to promote the HeadStrong Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in honor of Nick Colleluori who lost his battle with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2006.
FOX 13 Tampa was at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Tournament of Champions on Friday, covering the national championship. A moving and emotional story about the HeadStrong Foundation aired earlier this evening on FOX that featured interviews with Cheryl and Pat, Nick’s parents. Click here to view the complete story.
RISING STARS DIVISION
Double its size from a year ago, the eight-team rising stars division features teams that hail from five states and one Canadian province.
With two of the three Toyota Pool Play games completed on Friday, two teams remain undefeated: the Kanienkehaka Krunch (Akwesasne Mohawk Nation) and Team Georgia. Each has won in drastically different ways, with the Krunch winning its game by a combined score of 31-8; meanwhile, Team Georgia has needed overtime in each of its two contests, defeating Black Dog Lacrosse (British Columbia), 8-7, and the Connecticut Cardinals, 4-3.
Black Dog Lacrosse’s other Friday contest was also an overtime effort, defeating the local host organization, the Tampa Tribe, 11-10.
Five Toyota Pool Play games remain in the rising stars division before the Toyota Championship Bracket seeding is unveiled early Saturday afternoon.
For a complete list of rising stars division tournament results, click here.
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