Four years ago, Nick Myers and his staff set out to find 23 of the nation’s best young lacrosse players to represent the United States in the U19 men’s world championship.

The result?

A gold medal, and a talent-laden roster featuring 17 future All-Americans at the collegiate level.

On Friday, Myers begins another quest for a gold medal when 104 players will come to US Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md., for a three-day tryout to begin selecting the U.S. team that will represent the country in the 2020 World Lacrosse Men’s U19 Championship in Limerick, Ireland.

Myers’ approach won’t change.

“You win with people,” Myers said. “These first three days are about laying the foundation for who we are.”

The staff will be looking for outstanding players, but also players that are willing to embrace the process.

“Talent gets you in the door, but the guys that take this opportunity to commit to Team USA is the differentiator,” Myers said.

Myers looks back to his 2016 team for examples. Austin Sims was a bona fide offensive star at Princeton, but he played the role of defensive midfielder on the U.S. team.

Recent Penn grad Tyler Dunn was an attackman on the 2016 U.S. team, but willingly picked up a long pole at one point during the world championship when asked to do so by the coaching staff.

There’s no shortage of adjectives to describe the talent of recent NCAA champion Dox Aitken from Virginia, but what Myers remembers was his attitude.

“Right away, you could tell he was all in,” Myers said.

The task ahead is not an easy one. This weekend’s tryout, which will include five sessions over three days, is the first stage of the process. Following this tryout, a selection committee consisting of the current U.S. U19 staff, previous U19 coaches and high school coaches will select approximately 50 players to attend a second tryout weekend from July 12-14 at US Lacrosse.

“I hope they make Sunday night for me and my staff next to impossible,” Myers said. “It’s an incredible challenge, but that’s the process. Regardless of what happens, I want these three days to be a remarkable experience for these young men.”

Following the second tryout, approximately 30 players will be selected to participate in training weekends in November, January 2020 and June 2020 leading up to the naming of the final 23-player roster, the maximum number of players allowed under World Lacrosse regulations.

The U.S. has won all eight World Lacrosse Men’s U19 championships conducted since the beginning of the event in 1988.

The 2016 championship was a thriller. The U.S. rallyied from a six-goal halftime deficit and a three-goal deficit with under nine minutes left to beat Canada 13-12 on Ryan Conrad’s game-winning goal with eight seconds remaining.

The U.S. men’s national team trains and plays using best-in-class products provided by Nike (apparel and footwear), Cascade (helmets), Warrior (equipment), SISU Guard (mouthguards), The Pearl by Guardian (balls) and DJO (sports braces).

In addition to these partners, Greenfields, Krossover, MedStar Sports Medicine and Sports Performance Tracking are official sponsors of Team USA. Team training is also aided by products from Motive Pure, NormaTec Recovery and Athletic Republic.

Notes

• The 104 players invited to tryouts include one college freshman (Lehigh’s Cole Kirst), 55 high school seniors and 48 high school juniors from the 2019 season.

• Players have to be under 19 as of Aug. 31, 2019 (the year before the championship) to be eligible per World Lacrosse regulations.

• Players from 20 different states were invited to the tryouts.

• The U.S. coaching staff consists of head coach Nick Myers (Ohio State) and assistant coaches Pat Myers (Lafayette), Stan Ross (Oxbridge Academy) and Andrew Stimmel (Marquette).

Updated Tryout List