Manatee Wildcats girls lacrosse caps perfect season

Growing lacrosse in Florida starts with getting sticks in players’ hands when they are young. In Manatee County, it seems, the future is bright.

The Manatee Wildcats U-10 girls capped a perfect season Saturday with a regional title at the Battle of the Bay in Tampa.

The Manatee Wildcats played a 17-game regular season against teams stretching from Sarasota up to Trinity and shrugged off every challenge to enter the league’s de facto championship as the favorite. Two more wins during pool play handed the Wildcats an automatic berth to the tournament championship, where they reeled off a 20th straight win to finish the spring season unbeaten.

“They did whatever we asked,” Bartz said, “and they did it with a passion.”

Manatee came together quickly for a team without much experience. The roster is entirely made up of players aged 7-9, meaning they can all be back together with the U-10 team next year. More than half the roster, Bartz said, had never picked up a lacrosse stick before this season.

“This is, for some of them, their first introduction to sports period, so I think in terms of growing the sport it’s important,” Bartz said. “These girls love it. We’ve got the foundation for the youth level.”

The Wildcats are one of the primary driving forces behind adding lacrosse as a varsity sport at Manatee High School next year and the booster club will be hosting another fundraiser next week with a golf tournament being billed as the first annual Manatee Lacrosse Golf Tournament. The four-person scramble tournament will be held at IMG Academy Golf Club on May 5. Entry is $75.

Late Manatee tennis coach honored with memorial tournament

The first Brian McAllister Memorial Tournament will be held at United Tennis Academy from May 4-7. The tournament to honor the former Manatee High School head tennis coach includes five divisions and will raise money for Tennis Education and Mentoring, The Panda Foundation and Manatee’s student-athlete fund.

McAllister was a three-time state champion at Bradenton Academy, and went on to play tennis for Tennessee and South Florida. After graduating, McAllister spent 19 years as the head coach of the Hurricanes before cancer forced him off the sidelines in 2016. He died last March at 47.

Registration closes Sunday. The tournament includes fields for National Tennis Rating Program 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0 and open divisions.

This story was originally published April 24, 2017 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Manatee Wildcats girls lacrosse caps perfect season."