SPARKS, Md. — The Seth Tierney era starts Friday at USA Lacrosse.
Forty-two of the nation’s best men’s lacrosse players are headed to Sparks, Maryland, for the first U.S. Men’s Field National Team training camp under Tierney’s watch.
The United States has won 11 world championships in the discipline dating to 1967, including gold medal finishes under Hall of Fame coach John Danowski in 2018 and 2023.
An assistant coach and offensive coordinator under Danowski, Tierney was hired as his successor in April 2024. He retained Charley Toomey from the 2023 U.S. staff and added Bobby Benson and Kevin Warne to the mix.
Now it’s time to figure out which 22 players will join them at the 2027 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship in Japan. This weekend marks the first of several training opportunities over the next 20 months that will go toward determining the roster.
“Although the games are in 2027, you could say they’re a month away. Because we’re only going to be together for maybe a month’s worth of days before the games start in 2027,” Tierney said when he was hired. “You need to maximize your opportunity to build this culture.”
The schedule includes performance testing Friday, two practices Saturday and a scrimmage Sunday. Here’s a primer.
1. Experience matters. Roster continuity was a big theme during the Danowski regime and something Tierney likely will carry forward. Among the 42 players are seven who won the gold medal in San Diego two summers ago. Trevor Baptiste, JT Giles-Harris, TD Ierlan, Brennan O’Neill, Blaze Riorden, Jack Rowlett and Ryan Terefenko all have world championship experience.
Several other San Diego staples who were unavailable this weekend due to injuries or other conflicts should also rejoin the mix at some point. That’s not to mention those who trained with 2023 team in the buildup to the world championship or have played for the U.S. in the box, U20 field and sixes disciplines.
All told, 31 of the 42 players have played internationally in some format.
2. The rules have changed. One of the biggest challenges previous U.S. coaching staffs faced was reconditioning professional lacrosse players to go from run-and-gun to slow-and-steady. That’s no longer necessary. World Lacrosse has adopted an 80-second shot clock effective January 2026.
There are nuances, of course. Faceoffs and penalties are adjudicated differently than in the United States. And 80 seconds could still feel like an eternity for those accustomed to Premier Lacrosse League (52 seconds) and National Lacrosse League (30 seconds) rules.
But it’s the tempo at which all of them played in college.
3. Sixes to field. Speaking of reconditioning, several players are coming off a rigorous sixes cycle that included a weeklong training camp and a pair of international events — the Atlas Cup and Super Sixes — in the last month. And that came on the heels of the PLL season.
Load management is a factor, but this is not the first nor only impression these players will make on these coaches. Note also that Tierney is the head of competition for the PLL, giving him many points of reference beyond the national team setting.
4. There’s one less spot. Roster construction got trickier when World Lacrosse reduced the team size from 23 to 22 players. Four of those spots are guaranteed to go to goalies and faceoff specialists. In 2018, the U.S. took one extra offensive player. In 2023, the U.S. went heavier on defense.
With just 18 slots for field players, the calculus matters. That conversation won’t happen this weekend, but it’s always in the background.
How stacked is the training camp lineup? Well, it includes the reigning PLL MVP (Connor Shellenberger), the reigning world championship MVP (Brennan O’Neill) and the last three Tewaaraton Award winners (O’Neill, Pat Kavanagh and CJ Kirst).
5. Welcome to the show, college boy. Short-stick defensive midfielder Aidan Maguire is the only college player competing among the pros this weekend. He won the MacLaughlin Award winner as the most outstanding midfielder in college lacrosse this year, joining Jared Connors (2021), Zach Goodrich (2019) and Trevor Baptiste (2017, 2018) as the only specialists to earn the honor.
And if this 66-inch box jump from Duke’s fall performance testing is any indication, Maguire will hold his own just fine.
AloJapan.com