Camps
STA Lacrosse Program Mission Statement and Philosophy Regarding Lax Camps:
We believe that summer lacrosse camps provide players with great opportunities to improve their skills. Attending camps and playing in tournaments provides the following benefits. It allows our players to: 1) Improve skills during the off-season; 2) Experience top lax competition; 3) Receive instruction from good college coaches; 4) Spend time with STA lax teammates; 5) Work under tutelage of STA lax coaches; 6) Have fun; 7) Travel and see college campuses.
Recommended Camp “Dosage” For St. Albans Upper School Players:
We recommend that varsity players participate in our two team camps (Georgetown Top Gun Shoot-out and The Shootout) and then attend at least two other camps. Specific information is listed below. In addition, we will be going to a JV team camp, which we encourage all of our JV players (even the high-level ones) to attend. Players who are not involved with the team camps are encouraged to attend 3-4 camps, if possible.
Word of Caution - Lacrosse is a great sport and it should be played in the summer. However, given the physical demands of the camps, as well as some of the bumpy playing surfaces, injuries may result if players attend too many camps–especially when they attend camps back to back. Camps that are marketed as instructional camps are less taxing than the “games only” camps, which take their toll. Be careful about doing too many camps within a short amount of time. Also, STA lax players should use the summer months to participate in their fall sport (e.g. football, soccer, etc.) and possibly their winter sport as well. Participating in other sports–and not specializing solely in lacrosse–will make our athletes better lacrosse players.
“Friday Night Lights”- On Friday evenings from 6-8 p.m, STA will host “Friday Night Lights” pick-up lacrosse on Satterlee-Henderson Field. See the attached sheet for the specific dates. This features Upper School players, alums, and Lower School players. All are encouraged to attend. Friday Night Lights, under the watchful eyes of the STA coaches, can be just as beneficial as summer camps (and it’s a lot cheaper, too). We don’t actually have lights, but….
Camps We Recommend For Upper School Players
We do not receive commission or kickbacks from any camps; however, the camps listed below are ones that either our players have attended over the years and have benefited from, or ones that we have worked at personally. There are certainly other “good” camps out there–this is merely one list. We are reliant on feedback from our players so we can keep this list current.
If no information is given, a simple web search should yield results
The Jesse Hubbard Experience Lacrosse Camp - St. Albans’ own Jesse Hubbard ‘94, Potomac Lacrosse Hall of Famer, hosts his annual summer camps.
July 6-9, 2010: Day Camp (9 am-3 pm) for ages 8-14, at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.
July 11-14, 2010: Overnight/Extended Day Session for ages 9-17, at Episcopal HS in Alexandria, VA.
June 27-30, 2010: Overnight/Extended Day Session for ages 9-17, at Canterbury School, New Milford, CT.
Visit www.hubbardexperience.com to register or for more information. Email info@hubbardlacrosse.com or call (410) 205-9705 with any questions.
UVA - Great camp. Fills up early. Usually in mid-June. For dates and a brochure, check the UVA web site, call 434-295-3285, or e-mail STARSIALAX@aol.com.
Georgetown Top Gun - 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m., June. Since this is not a “games only” camp and seeing as it’s not an overnight one, this camp would be a good one in terms of avoiding excessive wear and tear. July is a busy lax camp month, and it’s good to get in a camp in June, if possible. Register online at www.guhoyas.com (go to “Men’s Sports,” “Lacrosse,” and then “2008 Camp Information”).
College Challenge Defenseman Camp - Roanoke College. Usually in late June. Camps often have an offensive focus, and this is one of the few that is catered exclusively towards defensemen. Coach Pilat at Roanoke does a great job with his camps. Call 540-375-2383. Another good June camp to attend.
Navy - 410-293-5539, access www.navysports.com, or e-mail Lacrossecamp@usna.edu. Great camps, including specialized “position” camps. Camps throughout the summer, through early August.
Tier 1 – At Haverford College, June 14-17. For varsity players. Fairly advanced camp that provides good instruction and is relatively small. Contact Coach Lester for an application.
Brown - With an STA pipeline at Brown, many of our players have attended camps there. Check the Brown website.
Other camps: Don’t have dates or contact info on these camps, but our players have also enjoyed camps at Maryland, Gettysburg, and Johns Hopkins, among other cmaps.
“RECRUITING”/INVITATIONAL CAMPS:
There are a number of camps that are labeled as “recruiting” camps. These are mainly for rising seniors. If our players are going to attend a Top 205, Peak 200, STX Top 75, Blue Chip, Top Star, or NE Top 150, to name a few, we recommend attending just one or two. The competition is great, but the camps feature games only, which creates an intense 3 day experience with about 10 lacrosse games. Keep in mind that our two team camps will feature about 16 total lax games, so our players will be experiencing no dearth of activity and competition.
STA VARSITY TEAM CAMPS:
We will be going to the Southern Sticks JV team camp, but the two camps below are for varsity players. We will initially invite returning varsity players to sign up for these team camps, followed by first-year varsity players. A handful of JV players may be asked to participate based on positional needs and roster space.
Because these two intensive varsity team camps occur within a two-week span in July, it is important that our players not overdo it in the weeks leading up to the tournaments by attending camp after camp in July.
Georgetown Top Gun Tournament (July 6th) - Tournament is put on by Georgetown University and will be held there. We will practice on Thursday, July 3, and Saturday, July 5th). Information on the tournament will be distributed in the late spring and early summer. Entry fee is approximately $50.
STX Shootout, at Univ. of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC), Sunday, July 20–Wednesday, July 23 (sleepover). Families and players will be contacted this spring about the Shootout. Players are expected to attend all of the practices for this tournament.. If you know that the practice dates present a conflict, please contact Coach Lester to see whether it makes sense to register.. The practices will be held on Thursday, July 17 (6-8 pm), Friday, July 28 (6-8 pm), and Saturday, July 21 (time TBA, probably early afternoon pending field availability.).
Champ Camp - We used to participate in “Champ Camp” in Baltimore instead of the STX Shoot-out. Champ Camp usually begins the day after the STX Shootout ends. Some of our players may be invited to join all-star teams that are participating in Champ Camp. We do not recommend playing in both the STX Shoot-out and Champ Camp, because the camps are back-to-back and 16+ lax games in 8 day is a recipe for disaster. We would prefer that our players play with the team in the STX Shootout.
JV TEAM CAMP
For the first time, we plan to bring a team of 8th and 9th graders (rising 9th and 10th graders) to a team camp. We may add in a handful of 10th (rising 11th) graders. This camp is a high-caliber camp that is designed to give our younger players the same team camp experience that our older players receive. We encourage all of our freshmen to consider signing up for this team camp. The camp—called the Southern Sticks JV Lacrosse Tournament– will be held at the Blue Ridge School in Dyke, Virginia, from June 13th through June 15th. We will play at least 7 games. The cost is $300. Checks should be made out to “Southern Sticks” and should be given to Coach St. Germain at STA. First-come, first-serve.
TRAVEL TEAMS
There are a few outside travel teams—MadLax, Team Advantage–that our players may be contacted about through connections they have, or there may be open tryouts for other travel teams. We encourage playing on these teams (as long as the STA players can stay play in our team camps). We will pass on information to players and families once dates and logistics become known to us (which is usually not until May).
LOWER SCHOOL CAMP PHILOSOPHY:
At this age, there is less risk of injuries at the camps because there is usually more focus on instruction and there is less contact. Also, the demands of preparing for fall football, soccer, and X-C at the lower school level is usually not as great as it is in the Upper School. Therefore, we don’t have the same reservations about # of camps that we do with Upper Schoolers. Here’s what our Lower Schoolers should be doing:
1) Attend Friday Night Lights in June and July
2) Attend STA Lax Clinic for 1 or 2 weeks (June 9–13, June 16-20, 4-6:30 p.m.) -
3) Attend 1-4 other camps, aside from STA
4) Have stick in hands as much as possible
RECOMMENDED CAMPS FOR LOWER SCHOOLERS:
St. Albans Lacrosse Camp. Run by the St. Albans lacrosse coaches and staffed with current and former STA players–including many still playing at the college level–this is a fun, instructional camp that offers a great camper to counselor ratio. For boys just finishing 8th grade, the camp is an opportunity to be coached by their future coaches–the varsity and JV coaches. For younger players, it is a chance to learn, have fun, and play a lot of lacrosse. Call the Summer Programs Office at 202-537-6450 or visit the STA website for registration information.
UVA - See info above.
Jesse Hubbard Lacrosse Experience - See info above.
Georgetown
Brown
Gettysburg
Navy
Princeton - 609-258-4978
Other Camps: In addition, some of our LS and US players have attended camp at Hopkins and have enjoyed it. The lists above are merely a few selected camps. Please let us know if you have had a great camp experience and feel that we should add that camp to our list.
GOALIE CAMPS:
Goalies may want to mix it up at regular camps. That’s fine. They are needed at those camps. However, St. Albans Upper and Lower School goalies should also attend at least one goalie camp, if not more. STA varsity assistant Tony Russo will be a good resource for ideas about which goalie camps to attend. Here are a few camps
Bill Pilat’s Goalie School - Roanoke College, VA. 540-375-2340
Peak Performance Goalie School - At Springfield College, MA.
Point Blank Goalie Camp – Good goalie camp held somewhere in MD (site has rotated).
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