NOTRE DAME SUMMER IRISH CHALLENGE 2002Tom Paulius7/2002 |
NOTRE DAME BEGINS SUMMER IRISH CHALLENGE
Notre Dame's Kevin Corrigan has been running a post-Thanksgiving tournament at Notre Dame for a few years in order to give players from the Midwest the opportunity to demonstrate their talents. He moved this "camp" up this year and held it July 19-21. Eleven teams from the Midwest and one team from the South attended this year's Irish Challenge. Some of the teams entered in the tourney were composed of an entire high school team (varsity level players), while others consisted of the best high school players from an area.
This year's attendees were: Team Atlanta, Brother Rice HS (Birmingham, MI), Dublin Scioto HS (OH), East Grand Rapids HS (MI), Hudson HS (OH), St. Ignatius HS (OH), Team Illinois North, Team Illinois South, Team Indiana, Lafayette HS (MO), Sycamore HS (OH) and Wooster (OH). Corrigan's hopes are to make this effort a Midwest-style of "Champ Camp", which is more suited to attendance by Midwest players insofar as travel is concerned. The teams were assigned to various pools and moved up and out of their pool based upon wins in the pool. On Sunday, the teams played to the Challenge title. In the championship game, Team Illinois North defeated Brother Rice HS, while Dublin Scioto HS defeated Hudson HS for third and fourth places.
Around 250 players attended this first summer Challenge, laying a foundation to Corrigan's aim. "Our goal is to get the best players and the best teams out of the Midwest coming to South Bend every year to compete with each other and for us to look at these kids," noted Corrigan after the Challenge. The quality of lacrosse in the Midwest is improving and many Midwest players have shone in their efforts in Division I schools, such as Todd Rassas, Chris Dusseau to name a few. Corrigan considers the rise in quality of Midwest lacrosse as a "natural evolution". "The number of players playing the game at the youth and junior high level is staggering compared to where it was five or ten years ago" added Corrigan," and there is no question that you will continue to get better players from this area, and as the number of players and the attraction of the game grows, the best athletes in the schools will choose lacrosse because it's a great sport"
