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Sports

First Pikesville Lacrosse Tournament Scores Big

The inaugural recreation lacrosse competition drew 500 players from various areas.

Several of those who made the inaugural Pikesville Lacrosse Tournament come to life stood under trees late Saturday afternoon after a long day of work.

They were stuck in shirts still somewhat damp from the storm earlier in the morning, but tournament organizers were feeling rather refreshed at the successful event they had produced.

This winter, the Pikesville Lacrosse Tournament was only an idea, but a whole lot of planning this spring made it a reality.

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Approximately 500 boys and girls came to Pikesville Middle School to play, and they stayed throughout the day, building a tournament that’s expected to take off and grow bigger in the coming years.

The tournament had a few hurdles to overcome from the start. Many confused it with the Lax Max competition that’s been in Pikesville in recent years, but this is a whole different ballgame.

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That confusion was the biggest issue the organizers needed to deal with. Now that they’ve gotten the first year under their belts, they're hoping for more in the future.

“It was a great first year,” said tournament co-chairman Bruce Scherr. “I thought it was just great. The energy was there.”

Scherr was one of the organizers who stood under those trees as he worked on coordinating the final rounds of the tournament—organizing and making sure everything went in the right order, and putting out some organizational "fires."

Tom Crompton, co-chair, stood with Sherr. Crompton has worked with a variety of lacrosse tournaments in different states over the last 20 years. He said that the key to this tournament was to simply get started and for people to know it exists.

“What we wanted to do here is ... to start small,” Crompton said. “It’s not about making a profit. We wanted to have a nice venue, be very organized and keeping teams playing with parity.”

Eric Benzer is an assistant coach on two Pikesville Lacrosse teams. “It was a great day," he said. "I think the one-day tournament really hit the mark. The kids loved it, and it’s great for Pikesville.”

For those who made the tournament happen, it was a long day. The tournament began at 8 a.m. and ran until around 6 p.m., but Scherr is among those organizers who arrived very early.

He found his way to Pikesville Middle at around 5:50 a.m. But nearly 12 hours later, he was still standing, overlooking a few of the lacrosse fields, and smiling at the outcome—how one small idea grew into reality—and how the tournament will be held again next spring.

“The best part about it was every team loved it,” Scherr said. “The kids were tired but they loved the one-day thing. It’s growing.”

Here’s a list of what happened in the different divisions:

Girls Tykers:

  • Tie for first: Lady Vipers (Sparrows Point) and Overlea were the co-champions.

Boys Tykers:

  • Winner: Pikesville
  • Runner-up: Towsontowne

Boys Lightning

  • Winner: Overlea
  • Runner-up: Pikesville

Boys Midget

  • Winner: Pikesville
  • Runner-up: Overlea

Boys Junior

  • Winner: Overlea
  • Runner-up: Jarrettsville
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