BALTIMORE -- US Lacrosse announced Monday the final roster for the 2010 U.S. men’s national team. The training team roster of 41 was narrowed down to the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL)-mandated size of 23 players after three fall exhibition weekends in West Point, N.Y., Annapolis, Md. and Stony Brook, N.Y. All 23 players, selected by the coaching staff, will compete in the FIL World Championships in Manchester, England from July 14-24, 2010.

“I want to congratulate the entire pool of players on their efforts, attitude and stellar play over three tremendous weekends this fall,” said Team USA head coach Mike Pressler. “Without question, this was the best way to go in this thorough and, at times, exhausting process. We feel these 23 men give us the best chance to win the gold at the 2010 world championship in Manchester.”

Pressler added, “I want to thank all 41 players for their professionalism, their attention to detail and their sacrifice. We took these guys away from their families, jobs and children to compete in three additional weekends that have never been done before. Speaking for our coaching staff, we are very grateful to each of them for all their efforts.”

“We are extremely pleased with the selection process,” said Howie Borkan, chair of the US Lacrosse men’s national teams committee. “The tryouts, the fall clinics and games have been well received and have provided the coaching staff with the opportunity to select the best team possible.”

The 2010 U.S. men’s national team includes five members of the 2006 U.S. men’s team that finished as runner-up to Canada at the world championship: Ryan Boyle, Kevin Cassese, Ryan Powell, Matt Striebel and Kyle Sweeney. Boyle, Cassese and Striebel were also members of the gold medal-winning 2002 U.S. men’s team.

Since the first recognized international championship in 1967, the U.S. has won eight gold medals, most recently in 2002.

The team’s first appearance together will be at the 2010 US Lacrosse National Convention in Baltimore, Md., Jan. 15-17, followed by their first on-field competition together at the 2010 Champion Challenge at Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Fla. against Duke and Army, Jan. 30-31.

2010 U.S. Men’s National Team

A Ryan Boyle - Boston Cannons (Princeton ’04)
M Kevin Cassese – Boston Cannons (Duke ’03)
D Joe Cinosky – Toronto Nationals (Maryland ’08)
M/A Ned Crotty – Duke ’09
M Kyle Dixon – Washington Bayhawks (Virginia ’06)
G Brian Dougherty – Long Island Lizards (Maryland ’96)
D DJ Driscoll – Chicago Machine (Notre Dame ’06)
G Adam Fullerton – Denver Outlaws (Army ’08)
A Mike Leveille – Chicago Machine (Syracuse ’08)
D Eric Martin – Denver Outlaws (Salisbury ’04)
D Ryan McClay – Boston Cannons (Cornell ’03)
A Brendan Mundorf – Denver Outlaws (UMBC ’06)
D Shawn Nadelen – Washington Bayhawks (Johns Hopkins ’01)
M Stephen Peyser – Long Island Lizards (Johns Hopkins ’08)
A Ryan Powell – Big Foot LC (Syracuse ’00)
M Paul Rabil – Boston Cannons (Johns Hopkins ’08)
M Chris Schiller - Sailin’ Shoe LC (Penn State ’99)
M Max Seibald – Denver Outlaws (Cornell ’09)
M Alex Smith – Washington Bayhawks (Delaware ’07)
M Matt Striebel – Chicago Machine (Princeton ’01)
D Kyle Sweeney – Boston Cannons (Georgetown ’03)
A Drew Westervelt – Denver Outlaws (UMBC ’07)
M Matt Zash – Long Island Lizards (Duke ’06)

Team USA Conference Call Notes

For Ryan Powell this is his second time making the Team USA Roster. SInce being on the 2006 team that fell to Canada in the ILF championship, Powell is part of a crew of veterans eager to erase old memories and put USA lacrosse back on top. He shared some of his thoughts with the media in a conference call Monday:

On the accomplishment of making the team:
This is definitely the greatest honor that I’ve accomplished in my lacrosse career to this point. Being back on the 2010 squad is obviously very, very special for me. Without coming home with the gold in 2006, you can definitely say that I’ve been on a mission to get back on this team and make the trip to Manchester to get the gold back. [It’s] very, very rewarding, and like I said, this is a huge accomplishment and a huge honor to represent the United States of America in the sport of lacrosse, and I’m very excited about the opportunity and the trip next summer.

About how this team stacks up against Canada:
I think that we’ve, the coaching staff did an unbelievable job choosing 23 guys that are going to form a great team. It’s kind of our job now to take those next steps and become the best that we possibly can be. I don’t want to throw any comparisons out there about 2006 compared to 2010. The 2010 team is completely different. Different talent, different types of human beings on the squad, and it’s going to be much different.

On preparation for the 2010 games, and what he will do over the next year
Powell:
The next step for me, I don’t have much of a break here, I’ll get right into indoor…I’m playing for the Colorado Mammoths now, so I’ll do that this indoor season. I’ll join up with Team USA in January and go down to Florida, and play in those events. I have put some thought into getting back into the MLL this summer. I’m not quite sure on that yet or not, but you know lacrosse is my life, and I basically have a stick in my hands every day whether I’m out teaching on the field or running around or playing wall ball, or what have you. I’ll be playing a lot of lacrosse and getting geared up for Manchester.

This is Mike Pressler’s first term at the helm of Team USA, though he was a coach on Jack Emmer’s gold medal winning squad in 2002. After firing up spirits and changing the attitude around the team early during tryouts, Pressler had the daunting task of slowly whittling down his roster from 83, to 41, to 23, after three days of open tryouts, and then three Team USA events. During Monday’s conference call with the media, he explained some of his selection process, and his vision for this 2010 team.

What are your expectations going into this world championship?
I think if you look at our team, our 23 guys, we went into it saying, we’re not going to pick the “best player” at each position, but the best player at that particular roll that gives us the best chance to win, and maybe that is where this team is going to be different. It’s about everybody accepting whatever roll or responsibility that the coaching staff gives them, in the ultimate goal or direction of winning. It’s about winning…I think what you’ll see on this team….we’ve got tremendous veterans at the top….Guys that are two and three time guys…but then on the bottom you have just some great, great youth….and then you have some solid veterans kind of in between as well. I think if you look at the team, there’s great diversity in age and experience, but I think the common denominator for the 23 for me was just their selflessness. They’re ability and the desire just to win.

What did it take to trim down the roster? How hard was it to go from 41 down to 23?
You know this was probably the most difficult decision in my professional career regarding players and certain personnel. I promised the 41 guys in the training squad, you gotta look back at the commitment they made, away from their families, away from their jobs and so forth, to come on three different weekends a couple weekends apart, guys fly all around the country, and I wanted to make sure that when we did get down to our 23-man Team USA that they heard from me in person, so yesterday I made 41 phone calls. I got to everybody in the afternoon, and there were some great calls…and there were some very, very difficult ones. Some players that were so close, that at the end of the day, you were just splitting hairs. There’s no real reason why you selected one over another, it came down to just picking somebody, which is even more difficult.

How much of the selection process was based on creating a team that can stop Canada?
A lot of what we discussed, all the way from the tryouts to the training team and then finally to the team of 23, amongst the five coaches that selected the 23, was our plan, not only to win the gold but certainly, we’re the underdog this time around. Canada has it. They’re the champs from ’06. So in our planning, a lot of who made the team had a lot to do with our plan to play Canada.

What do you expected from Canada, defensively or offensively in the tournament? Will it be about stopping certain players like John Grant Jr., or styles like the pick-and-roll?
I haven’t really got that far and that specific yet. I know a lot of their personnel…But unlike ourselves who are down to 23, Canada has a pool of 30, so they haven’t really got to their international roster number yet. I think once they get to that number, you gotta believe [John Grant] Jr. is going to be in the mix, and some other great, great players. Fortunately we have a lot of time to take a look at that and prepare up until July of 2010.

Faceoffs seemed to be a big deal from the last world games, particularly game planning for Canada and Geoff Snider. This year’s team has one true faceoff guy in Alex Smith, though several tried out. How difficult was dealing with faceoffs, particularly with such a limited roster?
We added a position, a coaching position in Paul Cantabene. We added him, he’s coached in a lot of different things, but his expertise is at the faceoff X. He was a great one himself. He knows that position thoroughly, and that became kind of Paul’s baby. We brought Chris Eck and Alex Smith, they made it to the training pool of 41, and also John Glynn and Stephen Peyser, as kind of, ‘the hybrid guys’, guys who could face off but play a full time position.
At the end of the day, it was such a close battle between Chris Eck and Alex Smith, I mean Alex Smith won by a nose at the end there. The play of Stephen Peyser on the last day, Saturday [Oct. 31] at Stony Brook, he won the spot. He won it on the field, and not only at the faceoff X, but his complete game as well. So going into the world championships, we’ve got a pure faceoff guy, one of the best ever in Alex Smith, but without question a guy that can back him up and take some of the load off him in Stephen Peyser…Those two guys we are counting on to carry the brunt of the faceoff load.

A number of former Duke players tried out, and about half made it, and half didn’t. What were you’re feelings on seeing some of those guys again and being able to possibly coach them again?
They knew this going in: they were going to make it on their own merit here, regardless of my relationship with any of those guys, and then I had relationships with other players as well that I didn’t necessarily [factor in] and strong ones. These decisions were made by the five coaches collectively, and never once did that type of bias or relationship come into our selection process…Where they played in college had nothing to do with if they made this team or not. We took those three weekends, and that was my word to the players, and evaluated all three equally, and what those guys did on those weekends determined what we did in the end.

About the defense in terms of personnel and style?
One particular position, it’s not a defenseman, but pure defensive middie, we went with Chris Schiller. And even though he’s got a short-stick, his specialty is at the defensive end…Then we decided with the addition of Chris Schiller [we would] go with six polls instead of seven….The six we selected are very, very versatile, and if you’re going to go with one less, you better have guys that can do a lot of things, and I think we have a number of guys that can play close defense, that can play pole. We’ve got some lefties in there; we’ve got some righties in there; we’ve got some young guys; we’ve got some veteran guys…we’ve got some big strong guys that can play those big lefthanders. So I think the close defense or the polls very much mirror Ryan [Powell]’s group on attack and certainly our middies. We’ve got a lot of different guys that can do different things, and that’s when you talk about the team meshing together, the more versatility you have, the more diversity you have, the more options you can go with.

On selection of Ryan Powell and Mike Leveille to the attack:
They were very, very deserving. Ryan being the ultimate veteran. Been through the war in the pro game, the indoor level, the out door level, certainly his great career at Syracuse, and Ryan going through that disappointment in ’06, and he came into the training sessions in the fall on a mission so to speak, and Ryan was very deserving of making this 23-man roster.
Mike is one of those up and comers. He has yet to reach his peak as a player. I remember Mike fondly. I recruited him unsuccessfully out of high school, but he had a great career at Syracuse, and I remember him a couple years ago putting that Syracuse team on his back after a 5-8 season, and leading those guys to a national championship.
I think that Mike and Ryan are certainly very different players, you just take the age out of it for a second, and will compliment each other along with those other attackmen very well.