By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 11/19/17
More than 180 coaches attended the NXT Philly Showcase and Philly Freshman Showcase Saturday, capped today by the Philly Invitational. Below is reaction from the MVPs and King of the X champions from Saturday’s showcase at United Sports and Downingtown West High.
2021 MVP and King of X champion Alec Vaccaro of Culver Academy/True Lacrosse
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One player, 2021 face-off/midfielder Alex Vaccaro of Culver Military Academy (IN) and True Lacrosse (IL), claimed both the 2021 MVP and King of the X titles. Vaccaro said he wanted to show his all-around versatility.
“I really just wanted to focus on showcasing my overall athleticism, not just taking faceoffs but playing offense and defense and contributing to the team and showing coaches I am more than a faceoff guy,” he said. “A lot of it (success) today was doing well on groundballs, and I felt that was monumental to my success. Obviously, if you can’t pick up the ball your chances of getting the faceoff are a lot less. ”
“The competition was great; we had a really great group of face off guys so it was fun to go against old buddies and meet some new faces.”
2020 MVP Ryan Mackenzie of Christian Brothers/Upstate
Vaccaro said the elite talent helped him raise his game. “I think just to have a lot of confidence in my teammates and relying on them to be there to get groundballs when needed was big. I just wanted to contribute to the team.”
2020 MVP Ryan Mackenzie, MF, Christian Brothers, Upstate (NY)
On the event: “My goal coming in today was to work hard, and play team ball and it worked out great. The competition as great and it raised my level. To have kids so good it made me work hard and it pushed me.”
On the All-Star Game: “there was terrific talent. It was unreal; a heck of a game. I would say I learned that these events are meant to be 1-on-1 events, but you always share the ball and help your teammates.”
2019 MVP, ATT Kevin Pimental, Chaminade, LI Express (NY)
2019 MVP Kevin Pimental of Chaminade and the LI Express
On the event: “I am late on the whole recruiting thing. This was the best opportunity I had all fall to show myself. I was less than 6-foot last year and I am 6-1 now and I have gotten stronger. The competition was the best I had all fall; every defenseman was very good and it was a really good experience. Our team played pretty well and we had a pretty good faceoff man who got us the ball a lot. I tried to make the best of my opportunities; don’t try to do too much and not do too little and it worked out well.”
On what he learned about his game: “Sometimes I forced it, but I have to keep working on my weaknesses.”
2019/2020 King of X Champion and All-Star Matthew DeSouza, Oakton/Top Caliber (VA)
2019 King of the X champion Matt DeSouza of Oakton and Top Caliber
Dealing with the rainy weather in the morning session: “On the turf fields it wasn’t much of a factor, but on the muddy fields it was kind of hard to pop the ball out because the ball got stuck in the mud. I couldn’t get any leverage; other than that it was not too bad, it kept me awake. I think I warmed up from my first game and I did pretty well and then got better throughout the day.”
On the King of the X competition: “I just took a deep breath and didn’t let anything get to my head. I just focused on winning the clamp. I would just change it up a little bit; if something was not working I would punch harder or rotate more. My goal was to come out with some highlight material and I ended up winning the championship.”
All-Star Collin Loughead, 2019 DEF, Episcopal Academy/NXT LC (PA)
On the Fab All-Star game: “Coming in one of my goals was to make the All-Star team so I was happy with that. Once we got to the All-Star Game everybody stepped it up. I was a little tired by then, but on turf I had footing and it was easy to step it up.”
2019 All-Star DEF Collin Loughead of Episcopal Academy and NXT LC
On the morning session: “In the second and third game it was super slippery on the grass from the rain, but I managed to hold kids back and keep my footing. You come here and there are kids from California, Georgia, Texas, California … it’s a great experience to play kids from all over.”
On what he learned about his game: “Just always work hard. If a ball is going out, you never jog. You sprint after it.”