Article contributed by Southlake Carroll Lacrosse Association
Thebrsummer recruiting season kicked off with the annual Texas Top 99 (a.k.a. T99) lacrossebrshowcase in Dallas. The event signals the start of a busy summer of events forbrtravel teams and players. These prospects seek to catch the eyes of the collegebrcoaches who attend these events to select players for their future squads.
T99 wasbrstarted by Notre Dame Assistant Head Coach Gerry Byrne as a way to showcase thebrgrowing talent level in Texas. Byrne has seen the explosion in Texas lacrossebrfrom his days as a Houston high school coach in the early 1990s to his currentbrposition. Running more than a decade, more than 300 T99 players have continuedbrtheir careers in college.
Nearlybr100 coaches, representing 29 Division 1, 10 D2, 43 D3 and 15 MCLA schools descendedbrupon the Metroplex to observe the players selected for this event. Thesebrcollege coaches also provide hands-on coaching and training, and ultimatelybrselect the all-star players.
Severalbrplayers, who all grew up playing lacrosse as Dragons in the Southlake Carroll Lacrosse Association (SCLA) earned All-Star honors. Lead by the strong defensebreffort of Ryan Thompson, a Varsity Junior defenseman and a two-goal, two-assistbrgame of A.J. Van den Dyssel, a Varsity Senior midfielder, the 2017/2018 WhitebrAll-Star team prevailed in the final.
Thebr2019/2020 bracket saw several other SCLA youth program alums earn All-Starbrdesignation including Harry Blake, who contributed last year as a VarsitybrFreshman Attack, Mitchell Gruenewald, a defenseman/long-stick middie, andbrrising freshman Drew Wasserman. Wasserman's older brother Casey, a past T99brparticipant and attackman for the Varsity Dragons, recently announced his collegebrcommitment to play for Division 1 Towson.
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