Two Home Grown Alumni on Opposing College Teams Score Back-to-Back

Recently, at the Catamount Classic Tournament at Thayer Academy in Braintree MA, a bunch of D1, D2, and D3 teams were playing. The last game of the day was Merrimack vs Siena. Merrimack was up 5-0 when Dylan Parlee, a Freshman for Siena and a Home Grown alumni dodged down the left alley, took a left-handed jump shot and scored top right. It was a really pretty goal.

And then the very next play, Merrimack’s faceoff middie popped a forward on a fast break and gave it up to Freshman, Tim Towler, also a Home Grown Alumni. (Dylan and Tim played together in their Home Grown days.) Then Tim scored the next goal, which put us up 6-1.

It was a high level D1-D2 lacrosse game, and we got to see back-to-back scores by Home Grown alumni. Merrimack wound up winning 15-9, against the big bad D1 boys. Having coached both players at Home Grown and coaching at Merrimack, it was especially fun to watch.

Tim Towler, #22 posting up for a left handed jump shot.

Champ Camp 2012

 

 Champ Camp 2012

Champ Camp is a 4-day recruiting showcase and tournament down in Baltimore, MD. The tournaments are played throughout Johns Hopkins University, Townsend, Loyola, and a bunch of local prep high schools which make up all the host fields. Close to a hundred teams attend. It’s a huge recruiting extravaganza with players and coaches everywhere, so it’s pretty cool.

Homegrown, along with tons of other club teams from all over the country, showed up to have the opportunity to play in this huge tournament where college coaches watch kids play. They’re trying to find good fits to recruit for their lacrosse programs. While most of these types of events are just showcases, this one is an actual tournament in a playoff format, so you can win all of Champ Camp. The further you make it through the tournament the more coaches start showing up on the sidelines. By the time the championship game happens there are about 75-100 coaches on the sidelines. But every game has at least 5-10 coaches just looking at kids–it’s a giant lacrosse meat market. It’s really fun for all the kids!

Home Grown’s Got What It Takes to Play in the Top Tournaments

This was our fourth showcase of the summer for our Blue Team–our oldest, most select group of players. They’ve already done the UMass Midsummer Classic, the Yale Bulldog Bash, and Harvard’s Crimson Classic. There are a ton of coaches all over those. These are the best tournaments, so  we make sure we always get to those. But there are a lot of bad tournaments out there- it’s a really saturated market. We’ve been doing it for seven summers now and we know all the good ones to go to. UMass is awesome, tthey call it the zoo. It’s a two day tournament with 16 fields and 32 teams playing at a time. There are about 90 teams there, and it all takes place on this one enormous field that’s just split up into these 16 regulation sized fields with a hill that overlooks all of it. It’s so cool.

 There have to be 50-77 high level programs there looking to recruit kids, all jammed into one area. It’s really cool because they get to see everyone quickly and easily. And the kids can really see that there are a ton of coaches there.

What makes a good tournament? The three elements I look for are: they have to have a lot of coaches there, the tournament has to be well organized. and you have to be playing appropriate ability teams. You don’t want to blow every team out because then you’re only drawing about half the coaches that you can that will be interested in your kids. You want to be in a dogfight with every team. That way, the other team has some solid players who are being looked at by X college and Y college, and then they happen to notice one of your players as well. So you really want well-matched competition.

Players Have a Great Experience

Champ Camp is the best of the best. There are only a few others in the country that can be in the same conversation. There’s Battle of the Hotbed, Champ Camp, and the Gate Cup. Those are probably the three biggest tournaments in the country. So Champ Camp is definitely one of the big boys.

There aren’t a lot of Massachusetts teams that go down there because most of them couldn’t hang. We do pretty well down there. It always takes us a game or two to adjust to the speed of the next level, because everyone is playing harder and faster than we’re used to.

Our Blue Team was coming off of the Yale tournament last weekend and we finished third in the most elite division in about an 80-team tournament.

Home Grown Beats Black Rhinos!

We had one really pretty thrilling game at Champ Camp where we beat the Black Rhinos Lacrosse, team, which is one of the best club teams in the country. They’re Ryan Powell’s team and he’s one of the best players to ever play the game. It’s his club team from Oregon. We played them and beat them handily by two. We were in control for the entire game and at one point we were at 4-0. Their only other loss came in the final 4 of Champ Camp and they lost by 1 to the team who wound up winning the entire thing.

It was very cool to see our guys just dominate every facet of the game against one of best club teams in the country.

Played on Homewoods

Aside from that, the trip was just great because the kids had a blast. They played on Homewoods Field, which is one of the three most storied fields in lacrosse. With Maryland’s field, College Park, and then UVA’s field. Homewoods Field is John Hopkins field and the kids were just so thrilled to be playing there. We wound up playing a fantastic team from Vancouver Canada and we were in just a barn-burner with them.

Had a Great Time Bonding

The lacrosse was cool but the bonding was awesome—that was the best part of the trip. The kids just had a blast.  We had 12 kids in this 15-passenger van that we drove back and forth to all the games. And the rest of the kids were down there with their parents. We called the van “The Van Clan.” The Van Clan would go out and get what the kids called snowballs, but they’re just slushies, and we’d get snowballed after every game.

We were driving around and there was this huge billboard of this guy that looked exactly like one of our face-off middies. So everyone poured out of the van and took a picture with everyone pointing at it. They all had a great time.

All 22 Kids Recruited by College Coaches

We started off with 22 un-recruited, unsigned athletes and now every one of our players is getting recruited somewhere! No one has signed or committed yet, but every single one of our players has at least one or two colleges interested. And some kids are getting heavily recruited by a couple of colleges.

That’s what I call a great Champ Camp experience!

NEW! We’re Adding a Junior Academy Team!

Junior Academy Team being added by request!

U-15 players now have the chance to be a part of our prestigious Academy Team Program. This team will have all the benefits of our regular Academy Team, with everything geared to serve this younger age group.

A few spots left on the High School Team

We also have a few openings left on our Boys High School Academy Team. If you missed the earlier tryouts, here’s your chance to grab a spot on the team.

Free tryouts:  April 3rd, Tuesday

Junior Academy Team (U-15) 8th and 9th Grade 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

High School Academy Team Sophomores and Juniors  8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

Tryout Location:  Home Grown Lacrosse Facility| 400 Osgood St. | North Andover, MA

This is an incredible opportunity to take your lacrosse game to the next level. There’s simply no other program in the state that gives you as much. Here’s what sets us apart:

• Each player gets a ton of individual focus, to help take their skills and lacrosse IQ to the next level.
• Each player gets individual lessons taught by Bryan Brazill, Peter Smyth and the rest of the Home Grown staff at their team owned indoor facility. These lessons focus on developing lacrosse IQ through film analysis, chalk talks and drills.
• Personal training by Dan Boothby (Strength and Conditioning Director at Northeastern University)
• Year round tournaments
• Year round league play in the North Shore Lacrosse and Home Grown Lacrosse Leagues
• Year round team practices
•  Head to toe gear (helmets, gloves, uniforms, bags)
• Head Coach Bryan Brazill, offers college recruiting and scholarship guidance from start to finish.

 Players, have your parents visit our Lacrosse Academy Team page. It provides a side-by-side comparison of what we offer over other programs.

Hope to see you at Tryouts!

 

A few spots left on the HS Academy Team! Free Tryouts Apr 3

We have a few openings left on our Boys High School Academy Team. If you missed the earlier tryouts, here’s your chance to grab a spot on the team.

Free tryouts:  April 3rd, Tuesday

High School Academy Team

Sophomores and Juniors

 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

Tryout Location:  Home Grown Lacrosse Facility| 400 Osgood St. | North Andover, MA

Thanks to the 2011 Homegrown Lacrosse Academy Team

As 2011 comes to an end we would just like to thank the teams we had during the past year. We had some of the best teams in Homegrown history this past season. Our players were not only talented but all around good kids and created an atmosphere that was very enjoyable to coach.

The improvement from the beginning to the end was amazing and their competitive attitude is what made the season so much fun. I wish all our seniors the best of luck in all of their future plans and hope to see the younger players next year.

HG Academy Tryouts!

Do not miss the opportunity to elevate your game!

Schedule:

• Academy All Stars (Elite High School) Jan. 24th 7-8:30pm
• Academy (Rising High School) Jan. 24th 7-8:30pm
• Girls Academy Team (Elite High School) Jan. 24th 8:30-9:30pm
• Junior Academy (Middle School Boys) Jan. 24th 6-7pm

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For more information follow the HG Academy Teams link at the top of the page