SPARKS, Md. — Cormac Scane retrieved the ball near the end line, sprinted past one defender, split two more and casually cleared the midline. Wearing the maroon helmet with white lettering he’ll don next year as a reclassified freshman at the national powerhouse Culver Academy in Indiana and a reversible No. 22 USA Lacrosse pinafore, Scane passed the ball off and sprinted to the substitution box.

Another shift. Another chance to make a lasting impression.

“The skill out here is pretty amazing,” Scane said. “Compared to the other showcases, this is more like team building.”

Scane, 15, is one of the younger players vying for a spot on the USA Select teams this week at the National Team Development Program Combine. The three-day event includes on-field, strength and conditioning, nutrition, recruiting and sport psychology training to help players prepare for higher levels of play and introduce them into the U.S. national team pipeline.

More than 100 of the nation’s best high school boys’ lacrosse players are training in Sparks this week with hopes of qualifying for the USA Select U16 and U18 teams that will participate in the Brogden Cup here in October.

If Scane looks unusually comfortable in this highly competitive setting, his DNA might have something to do with it. His sister, Izzy, starred for the gold medal-winning U.S. U19 team in 2019 and was a member of the U.S. senior training team before a torn ACL took her out of the mix for 2022. Their brother, Griffin, will be a freshman at Penn in the fall and was the USA Lacrosse Midwest Player of the Year at Culver.

That’s not to mention James, the oldest of the four lacrosse-loving siblings out of Clarkston, Michigan. He played at Robert Morris.

“James was a really good lacrosse player. But when Isabelle came along, he kind of fell into her shadow,” Scane said. “Then there was Griffin. Now I’m trying to step out of his shadow.”

Scane missed the June 13 regional tryout at Northwestern while recovering from a leg injury. He broke his fibula playing for Detroit Country Day in the state playoffs but earned a spot at the combine using the virtual application.

“That was one of the things I was looking forward to during the summer, to try out for the U.S.,” Scane said. “I sent in my film and I got invited to come out here and play.”

An attackman at Detroit Country Day, Scane is transitioning to midfield at Culver. In that regard, he’s absorbing all the information he can from evaluators like Mark Glicini, Zach Goodrich and Drew Snider — three players who carved professional careers out of the versatility they brought to the position. Goodrich, fresh off a strong performance with the U.S. Sixes team at The World Games, and Snider, who played for the gold medal-winning 2018 U.S. senior team and retired this year after a decade in the pro ranks, are assistant coaches for the U18 and U16 teams, respectively.

And then there’s big sis. While the entire family was in town to watch Griffin play in the Under Armour All-America Game at Johns Hopkins, only Izzy stuck around for the week. She advised Cormac to play to his strengths — he had 57 goals and 28 assists as a freshman starter at state runner-up Detroit Country Day — and minimize careless errors.

Most importantly, she said, soak it all in.

“So far it’s been an amazing experience,” he said.

FAMILY TIES

Scane isn’t the only USA Select hopeful with a family connection at the combine.

Boden Bounds, a midfielder from Chappaqua, New York, is trying out for the U18 boys’ team. His sister, Bae, will compete in the U16 girls’ event next week.

Named a USA Lacrosse Impact Athlete for his volunteer work with Bronx Lacrosse, Bounds graduated from Horace Greeley (N.Y.) and is preparing for a post-grad year at The Hill Academy (Ontario).

The National Team Development Program also features a husband-wife coaching duo in U16 boys’ head coach Brian Phipps and U16 girls’ head coach Caitlyn McFadden Phipps. Both have extensive experience as players in the U.S. pipeline.

WHAT’S ON TAP

Three NTDP Combine sessions are in the books with two more to go Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The coaches will meet Wednesday and identify the 44 players who will constitute the 2022 USA Select U16 and U18 boys’ teams that will compete against international competition in the Brogden Cup the weekend of Oct. 14-16.