By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 8/31/15
Brett Manney said the expansion of the popular Summer Showcase Camps by NXT’s Showcase Lacrosse was a huge success.
“We see kids as rising freshmen to rising seniors that are looking for exposure and we’re providing that exposure and showing them what it’s like to be on a Division 1 campus,” said Manney, the Director of Showcase Lacrosse. “They stay in dorms, eat the food and get exposure to all those types of things. We’re thrilled with the results and the expansion.”
NXT Showcase Lacrosse Southern Summer Showcase Camp at Mercer University
This summer Showcase Lacrosse held two Philly Showcase Camps at St. Joseph’s University, a 2016-17 camp in June and a 2018-19 camp in July. Also, earlier in June NXT launched its first Boys Southern Showcase Camp at Mercer University in Atlanta. Previously, Showcase Lacrosse held just one camp each summer at St. Joe’s. In all this summer, more than 400 players from around the nation attended the camps, which featured elite instruction from college coaches, box infusion training by USboxla, recruiting and highlight film seminars, position skill sessions, strength training and nutrition training, and Fab 40 All-Star games.
A major highlight was the box infusion training led by USboxla’s Matt Brown, the assistant coach at Denver. Also involved in the training were Manney – recently named to the US National Team – and, in Philly, St. Joseph’s coach Taylor Wray, the Canadian U-19 assistant coach and a former captain of the Philadelphia Wings (NLL franchise now located in Connecticut).
Click here for a story recapping the Southern Showcase Camp.
Click here for the 2016-17 Philly Boys Showcase Camp Fab 40 rosters
Click here for a story on Fab 40 player reaction from the 2016-17 Philly Boys Showcase Camp.
Click here for a story on Fab 40 players from around the nation at the 2016-17 Philly Boys Showcase Camp
Click here for the 2018-19 Philly Boys Showcase Camp Fab 40 rosters
Click here for Fab 40 player reaction from the 2018-19 Philly Boys Showcase Camp.
Manney answered these questions about the camps:
Southern Boys Showcase Camp Fab 40
Was the expansion to two camps in Philly successful and why?
Why was the new camp so successful in Georgia?
Manney: “Everything went well thanks to the Mercer coaching staff and the top-notch facility. They have a large projection screen where we could break down X’s and O. The stadium is remarkable and they have a great weightroom. Their box rink was 10 to 15 minutes and Matt Brown was part of an excellent group of coaches down there.
“We were really pleased with the talent. Some of the kids have already committed to Yale, Brown, Johns Hopkins, Rutgers and Villanova. The players were very skilled and I am looking forward to watching them at some of our fall showcases. We had kids from Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas and other states besides Georgia.”
Why did you expand from one to three showcase camps?
Manney: “It came about when the one Philly camp sold out. We started getting more players from all over the country and we read the surveys and found the Southern kids wanted the same exposure (80 attended). We split our Philly camps into 2016-17s (120 attended) and 2018-19 (220 attended) and that gave us two age groups to compete against each other. It served as the best way for college coaches; some wanted to see 2016 and 2017 players and others wanted to see 2018s and 2019s. Working with Taylor Wray – a former Wings teammate of mine – at St. Joe’s is great, the exposure in those camps is high.”
Philly Boys Summer Showcase 2016-17 Camp Fab 40 All-Stars Colin Cahill of La Salle (left) Dan Fisher (St. Joseph’s Prep)
What the biggest highlights of the camps?
Manney: “I think the kids get to do much more than player games. You have a guy like Matt Brown teaching box skills. His sessions on stickwork is a unique experience; he is a big reason Denver won the National championship, because of the infusion with the box game. His players are gifted and smart and have such good sticks. It’s no coincidence that all their kids have a box background. The cool thing is so many college coaches are watching kids play box lacrosse. With coach Brown as well as my background and Taylor Wray’s Canada roots, you have a lot of guys heavily invested with box lacrosse. With the seminars and X’s and O’s, it makes a more well rounded experience.”
What sets your camps apart from other camps?
Manney: “Our camps provide so much more than playing games and sleeping in dorms. There are activities throughout the day. Kids meet other kids from all over the country and experience box skills, how to make a highlight film, college recruiting talks and so many other things. The rosters are a little shorter – with 20 kids – and they personally get to know coaches. They have practices and individual skill breakouts with their position college coaches teaching them. It’s unique, we pack a lot into three days. They are coming to learn and also to get exposed to college coaches. Hopefully, they’ll get to attend one of our showcases in the fall.”