The Great Chicago Shoot-Out was held in Chicago on September 11 and 12. This year’s tourney, again organized by Rich DeLeo, brought in teams from Cincinnati, Kansas City, St. Louis, Nashville, Detroit, Minneapolis as well as the NYPD and NYFD teams. Local contender Lakeshore Lacrosse Club pulled out on the Friday before the tourney, setting the brackets into disarray.

The title finally went to hometown Lincoln Park Lacrosse Club, who advanced by beating Motor City 8-6, Music City 6-5 and then came from behind to overcome the Cincinnati club, 12-11. It was Lincoln Park’s first tournament title, even though they had been to the title game before. Lincoln Park started off slow and fell behind 6-2 at the end of the first quarter. They changed their defensive strategy withdrawing from attempting to strip the ball from the Cincinnati attack and resorted instead to riding hard the bodies of the attackers. This strategy and some patience helped Lincoln Park the gap to an 8-7 deficit at halftime. Lincoln Park’s goalie, Mike Julius (Ohio State) stepped up his play in the second half, getting beat only 3 times, while also stopping a number of point blank shots and fast breaks.

This tournament attracts club teams from Chicago and the Midwest, with an occasional visitor from out East. Although neither the Crease Monkeys nor Team AST showed up, both of the New York City public service teams showed up. One of those teams is the New York City Police Department “Finest” club lacrosse team and the other team was the New York Fire Department "Bravest" club lacrosse team. The tourney began on September 11 and a moment of silence was held before the Finest's first game on the main field at 1:30pm in order to commemorate the anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

The withdrawal from the tournament of Lakeshore lacrosse prevented a possible early round match-up between the NYPD and NYFD teams. Nevertheless, the were placed in opposing sections of the brackets so that they might meet in the title game on Sunday. That was not to be the case, as the NYFD fared better than their police counterparts in competition, winning their first two games over St. Louis and Chicago to advance to the semi-final game against Cincinnati, and then falling in a close game 8-6. They then met Music City (Nashville) and battled for third place and losing to take fourth place. This was the first appearance for the NYFD squad and there was some debate within the team as to whether they should come to the tournament or stay back home on the job at memorial services for their fallen comrades. Their entire team did not make the trip and the Bravest replaced them with a few select friends from Long Island so that the Bravest could field a solid team.

In their first game, the NYFD overwhelmed an undermanned St Louis team, who brought only 12 players to Chicago. The Bravest worked their attack area well, with Mike and Rob McKeefrey leading the scoring and luring the St. Louis goalie out of the goal circle, and then quickly passing across the crease for a number of back door scores. The NYFD next faced the Chicago Lacrosse Club and used another patient attack, capitalizing on fast breaks and relying sometimes on pure luck to beat Chicago 6-2. Chicago took many shots in the game, three of which were pipe saves. The goalie for the Bravest, Tom Sykes, was phenomenal in stopping Chicago’s shots, many of which were rebounds off an initial save. The Bravest led 4-1 at halftime and added two acrobatic goals in the second half to seal the victory. They had to play a third game on Saturday and were noticeably tired, losing to the Cincinnati Lacrosse Club in a close game 8-6. Cincinnati’s close defense was outstanding the entire tournament, forcing many teams to shoot from outside or up top. The NYFD then played Music City on Sunday for third place and could not get into their game, falling behind early and down 6-2 at halftime. A late charge by the Bravest did not overcome the 4 goal performance of Eric Clapp and the 3 goals of Nate Tutt. Even though the Bravest and Finest were in two different brackets, they did not meet in the title game, as many wanted.

The NYPD team had a tough opening loss to Music City, 7-6, running out of time after coming back from a three goal deficit to narrow the margin to one in the waning minutes of the game. They fared better later on Saturday, beating Motor City (Detroit). On Sunday they were treated to back to back games in which they beat a hometown Windy City squad 12-7 in one of the two eye-opener games early in the morning and then lost to Chicago 9-8 after falling behind early on.

The Ron Kloepfer Tournament MVP award was given to Lincoln Park’s Mike Julious for his play in the nest over the weekend. Kloepfer is a high school friend of organizer Rich DeLeo and the founder of the NYPD Finest team, who was killed in the collapse of the second tower