USA Select Players Take Aim at Next-Level National Teams

James Whitehorse III is as familiar with some of his Brogden Cup opponents as he is with his new teammates.

Whitehorse, whose family is from the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States, grew up playing with his Indigenous brothers. He competed for the Iroquois Nationals in the 2021 World Series of Youth lacrosse event.

Now with the USA Select U18 team, Whitehorse will play against teams from Ontario and the Haudenosaunee Nation to help decide the 2024 Brogden Cup this weekend at USA Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md. The USA Select U16 team also plays the same teams at their level.

“At the end of the day, I know what they're going to do and then how they're going to play,” Whitehorse said of the Haudenosaunee. “I've been playing with them for a long time.”

Whitehorse is the first in his family to play lacrosse, but his Native American background has helped shape him as a person and a player. He grew up playing field lacrosse and then box lacrosse with fellow Indigenous players.

“I grew up with a lot of the Six Nation guys from Onondaga and Seneca,” he said. “Growing up with a lot of them and playing with a lot of the guys just developed my game. And also, that's where the game comes from.”

Whitehorse takes a special pride when he hears land acknowledgements now frequently announced ahead of lacrosse events. He appreciates the awareness and recognition being raised each time.

“I feel like that's a big part of my family, a big part of me,” he said.

Whitehorse is playing for the USA for a new opportunity. A Virginia commit, the four-star Class of 2026 attackman from Woodlands, Texas, is part of a National Team Development Program pipeline USA Lacrosse first established in 2019. An injury derailed his first attempt to try out two years ago, but Whitehorse is looking forward to his first go around with the USA U18 Select team.

“I did it exactly for the experience, getting out and playing with players I've never met before,” Whitehorse said.

The Brogden Cup carries additional significance for him because of the inclusion of the Haudenosaunee. The event simultaneously offers a chance to play for USA Lacrosse while also honoring the game’s Indigenous heritage.

“There’s a whole community coming together to play lacrosse, the sport that's meant for a medicine game,” Whitehorse said. “It's a good feeling.”

Whitehorse brings size and skill wrapped up in uncommon smoothness.

“He looks very comfortable,” said Steven Brooks, co-head coach of the USA Select U18 team. “Especially when the ball’s in his stick, the most impressive thing is how comfortable he is when pressure is on him.”

Whitehorse joins a melting pot of talent from around the country with NTDP players coming from such states as Washington, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Florida and Texas as well as more traditional hotbeds like Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York.

“You have nontraditional areas that actually embrace this a little bit more than I think some of the traditional hotbeds,” said USA Select U18 co-head coach and former U.S. Men’s National Team midfielder Drew Snider, who is from Seattle. “It's still a new program, relatively young compared to every other offering that USA Lacrosse has, so we understand this is going to be a process. It's going to grow year by year with more awareness.”

USA Lacrosse launched the National Team Development Program five years ago, selecting U18 and U16 teams from an NTDP combine each year to play in the Brogden Cup.

“We want it to be a ladder and they're just working their way up from U16 to U18 to U20 and then ideally the senior team,” Snider said. “We're running some offenses that we ran in 2018 in Israel, which is cool.”

Familiarity with systems and international rules are a big plus according to Sean Creter. The Maryland faceoff specialist currently plays for the U.S. Men’s U20 Training Team after playing for both the U16 and U18 select teams.

“If your goal is to make the U20 team and your goal is to play for the senior men's team, U16 and U18 is an essential part of that process. It's called the development program for a reason,” Creter said. “They're developing you to understand how to play for the next step. It was a huge advantage for me.”

Last year, Grant Mauldin was part of the U16 team for the Brogden Cup-winning USA side. This year, the goalie from Georgia is back for another chance to win with the U18 team.

“It was absolutely fantastic,” said Mauldin, a 2025 committed to UMBC. “I mean, it's always a dream for any lacrosse player to be able to represent their country, much less the USA. Putting on the red, white and blue was an awesome opportunity. The coaching and the different aspects of lacrosse you learn while at the program, it's another level and I’ve absolutely loved it.”

Mauldin’s closest friend on the U18 team is Anthony Grassi, an attackman from Washington who is committed to Rutgers. He’s also a 2025. Whitehorse is one of six 2026s on a team that has bonded quickly.

“The relationship's a lot different than last year,” Mauldin said. “Last year we were there to play lacrosse and just beat the other teams. This year we're looking for relationships that we can carry into college.”

USA Lacrosse added an extra training weekend to the National Team Development Program schedule this year — a camp focused on sixes, the 6v6 format that will be used in the Olympics in 2028.

“As the day and practices went on, it got better and better and better,” said Brooks, a New York Atlas assistant who has experience coaching the discipline in the PLL Championship Series. “The product was really good. The benefit of doing that is getting the kids comfortable because honestly, the 16s and mostly the 18s are going to be that class that are going to be potentially playing in the Olympics in 2028. The gist of it was to try to get them acclimated and comfortable in that type of system.”

AJ Yeung is in his first year with the USA Select U16 team. He’s trying to absorb all he can, and the sixes weekend was a big challenge.

“That was like two full days where I was just training — middie, offensive and defensive skills, getting to develop those skills outside of the faceoff,” Yeung said. “It was really good.”

Yeung is a 2026 FOGO committed to the admissions process for Princeton. Born in Canada, he moved to New Hampshire when he was 4 and picked up lacrosse two years later. He has seen his Tomahawks club improve greatly, and his NTDP selection provides another chance to grow.

“We’ve got three really good college coaches,” Yeung said of co-head coaches Michael Gongas and Mark Glicini and assistant coach Tim O’Branski. “It's not like anything I've experienced before. You’re playing on a team for these coaches, not like playing for a showcase for college coaches. They want to be there and you're playing for these coaches that care about this. It's neat.”

The only 2028 on the U16 team, PJ Kennedy, is an attackman from Tennessee. The son of Syracuse alum Pat Kennedy, who coaches him at Pope John Paul II (Tenn.), he was confident in his ability to make it despite being from a non-traditional area and being young.

“I feel like I've improved by far the most from just adjusting to the speed of the game,” Kennedy said. “Sixes is very fast compared to field lacrosse, and especially with older guys, they already play faster than my grade level. So just adjusting to that, it's really improved my game.”

Kennedy wanted to get an early start in developing his game. Like others on the USA Select teams, his goal is to eventually play for the U20 and senior national teams. He sees the Brogden Cup as a first step.

“I'm just looking forward to competing against the national teams like Ontario and the Iroquois,” Kennedy said. “I feel like it’ll be just really cool to play and compete against those guys — the younger versions of the teams I've been watching on TV — and live out that experience.”

Playing in the National Team Development Program can provide an advantage at the older levels of USA Lacrosse tryouts.

“It was way easier just knowing some of the coaches there, the familiar faces,” said Ben Firlie, a Georgetown freshman in the U.S. U20 pool who played U16. “Being able to represent USA and putting on that jersey, there’s a feeling that you're at home.”

The Brogden Cup is the next step for the USA Select U16 and U18 teams as they look to work together to take on Ontario and the Haudenosaunee in an event that ultimately has only winners.

“If you play the game the right way, you could help put a smile on someone's face and make a day better,” Whitehorse said. “That's what our goal is to play for, and that's what helps somebody get better and helps individuals become better. It makes you better as a person.”