Manatee Express lacrosse club finds itself atop Florida league as sport’s popularity surges

The Manatee Express club lacrosse team exists in a strange, constant limbo. Success for the team, which draws players from high schools across Manatee County, is a contradiction. If the Express plays well enough, respect will follow and so will further interest in the program. And then the team will vanish.

“Our goal,” team administrator Scott Sweetin said, “is to not exist.”

The Florida Gulf Coast Lacrosse League (FGCLL) exists in the vacuum created by the absence of lacrosse as a widely sanctioned Florida High School Athletic Association sport. The 14 teams stretch from as far south as Bradenton all the way up to Ocala and east to the Orlando area. The teams are all associated with high schools that lack varsity lacrosse — like Manatee High School. If these teams find the popularity most in the lacrosse community expect, the FGCLL’s lifespan is limited.

And right now the Express, who play their home games at Palma Sola Park, stand above everyone else in the league. Manatee is off to a perfect start against FGCLL competition and sits atop LaxPower.com’s computer rankings of Florida club teams. The Express’ most recent win was a 16-9 romp against the Mitchell Mustangs on Saturday in New Port Richey. On Tuesday, Manatee will travel north to Clearwater searching for a 3-0 start with a first-year coach and a new, high-powered offensive system.

“We’re going to play fast because it’s fun,” said head coach Tim Holden, who is the lacrosse program manager at IMG Academy. “They get the most out of it, I get the most out of it as a coach because it’s fun to watch, and the parents get the most out of it because it’s fun to watch.”

He’s helped by a strong infrastructure that was already in place, and a handful of players with talent and experience. Rob Wilson, a senior midfielder from Braden River High School, is a senior committed to Marian University, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics in Indianapolis. There are 26 players on the team, giving the Express one of the largest rosters in the FGCLL.

Right now, Manatee draws players from all over the county. The bulk of the roster is from Manatee, but Braden River and Lakewood Ranch High School are well represented, too. Southeast High School, Bradenton Christian School and Inspiration Academy make up for their lack of programs with players on the team, and there’s even one from Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School, which has a varsity team of its own.

There is a groundswell, though, for the Hurricanes to add lacrosse as a varsity sport, which would fundamentally shift the landscape in the county. The Express views it not just as an inevitability, but as its ultimate goal, even if it means the program would vanish.

“Every year that I’ve been here we’ve been able to get more guys in the freshman classes. That’s been big on growing the sport,” said Wilson, who has been playing since his sophomore year. “Public schools are trying to get it, and I think it’s going to take off soon.”

Sarasota regatta

The Sarasota Invitational Regatta is one of the year’s first showcase events for the area’s top rowing clubs — and for Nathan Benderson Park in the year it will host the World Rowing Championships — and the Sarasota Scullers led the way for local clubs with 13 medals and three golds Saturday and Sunday.

The Scullers’ women’s masters 2x and girls high school novice 8+ teams both won gold by themselves, and one rower from the Scullers and one from the Sarasota County Rowing Club teamed up to win the mixed masters 2x. Sarasota County also won gold in the mixed inclusive adapted 2x and women’s masters 1x.

Manatee County Rowing Club’s mixed high school 4+ won Manatee County’s only gold medal.

LWR slugfest

An impressive showing for Bradenton’s Florida Meteors ended in the final of Suncoast Travel Ball’s Lakewood Ranch Slugfest with a 9-0 loss to Tampa Arsenal 14U on Sunday at Lakewood Ranch Little League.

The Slugfest only included 14U teams in an open division. Other Suncoast Travel Ball (STB) teams traveled to Lake City and Newberry for the North Florida Super NIT, although no Manatee County teams won the 13U, 12U, 11U, 10U or 9U major divisions which competed from Friday through Sunday.

Sarasota and Bradenton will host another STB tournament this coming Friday through Sunday. The Spring Gold Glove Championship NIT will include pools for 8U-14U.

This story was originally published February 27, 2017 at 5:59 PM with the headline "Manatee Express lacrosse club finds itself atop Florida league as sport’s popularity surges."