Storm Lacrosse Boys Spring 2022 White and Blue Level Player Evaluations will be on the following dates and times:

• 01/23/22 from 8-9:45am: 5th and 6th Grades
• 01/30/22 from 8-9:45am: 7th and 8th Grades
• 02/06/22 from 8-9:45am: 4th Grade

You must arrive 15 minutes early to check-in, get dressed, and warm up as evaluations will start promptly at 8am.

Please register for the Spring 2022 Season PRIOR to attending player evaluations as your US Lacrosse membership must be active for participation.

All Players in the age groups listed above that were not selected for a Red Level Team must attend the White/Blue Player Evaluations so they can be evaluated for proper team placement.

Location:  Foothills Sports Arena, 3608 S. Kipling Parkway, Denver, CO 80235, 303-409-2444

Full equipment is required for all player evaluations including legal stick, helmet, gloves, arm guards, shoulder pads, cup, and mouthguard.  Rib pads and cleats are also recommended.  Goalies must be dressed in required goalie equipment for evaluations including a legal goalie stick, helmet with throat guard, chest protector, goalie gloves, cup and mouthguard.  Arm guards, rib pads, cleats, and shin guards are recommended but not required for goalies.

Note: Players in grades younger than 4th grade are placed on teams through a coach selection process.

PLAYER EVALUATION PROCESS

The purpose of these evaluations is to place individual players with other players that have similar lacrosse skills and athletic ability.  The boys' youth league, the AYL, has three basic divisions or levels of competition:  Red (most competitive), White (intermediate competition) and Blue (recreational competition).

Players will be required to check in at the start of the evaluations and receive a scrimmage pinnie.  The evaluators will use the numbers on the pinnie to assess each player's skill level.  Evaluators will be impartial judges with numerous years of playing and coaching the sport of lacrosse.

Players will be put through a series of drills to assess their skill level.  Skills will be rated on a scale of 5 (highest) to 1 (lowest) on the proficiency of their lacrosse skills.  A score of (5) indicates the player does the following skills correctly 80% of the time, can do them with the left hand and right hand (if applicable), and on the run (if applicable). The following areas will be covered:

Cradling: proper hand placement, protects stick adequately, cradles at eye/ shoulder level, avoids flat cradle in a group
Ground Balls: player gets low with two hands properly placed on stick, pops ball into stick, follows through, runs through
Passing: player has proper mechanics, foot placement, follow-through, consistent accuracy
Catching: player presents target, calls for ball, accepts pass with soft hands
Dodging: player shows proper set-up, footwork, stick orientation for split dodge, face dodge and roll dodge
Defensive Footwork: player is able to run hip-to-hip, stick-on-stick with opponent, takes drop-step to adjust to changes of direction
Stick & Body Checks: player uses a variety of stick checks, poke, lift, slap and knows how to bump-and-recover with body
Team Offense: players sees the field, creates 2 v 1 opportunities, moves without the ball to create opportunities
Team Defense: player picks up opponent quickly (inside-out), positions to see man and ball, makes adjacent slide, talks & listens
Specialties:  Goaltending will be assessed separately, evaluators will also consider face-off, long-stick middie, etc. specialties
Following Directions and Moving to Stations:  Players will be rated on their ablility to follow instructions and move to drill stations

Evaluators understand that all players may not have been taught all of these skills, or taught them properly, and will take into consideration a player's effort, potential and enthusiasm. 

While team rosters will be made from these player assessments, players will still be evaluated the first week of practice to make sure they are placed on appropriate teams.

First year and beginner level players are encouraged, but not required, to attend evaluations. We will make a quick assessment of those boys’ skills and do one of two things: 1. If they appear to be handling the drills adequately and not getting frustrated, we will leave them with the group. 2. If they are very new and don’t yet have the very basic skills to keep the drills in the evaluations moving, we will pair those boys up with a very experienced coach that will put them in more of a clinic environment and teach them the basics.
 
Scoring will be done immediately after evaluations have completed for that particular grade.

Players will be required to turn in evaluation pinnies upon completion of the evaluation or will be charged a replacement fee.

GO STORM!