With beautiful weather and plenty of trees in the background, families traveled from Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania to attend the inaugural two-day event.

The majority of athletes hailed from New Jersey. Programs represented include Seton Hall Prep, Mount Olive, Morristown-Beard, North Brunswick, Montville, and Millbrook.

The event started Saturday at 9 a.m. Athletes ranged from eight to eighteen in age.

At the start of the event, athletes were introduced to DeBartolo Sports University, Head Instructor Andrew DeCicco and staff, and had their photo taken.

Participants then went through an extensive physical evaluation conducted by Exact Sports (http://www.exactsports.net). President Garrett Kramer spoke to the parents and athletes beforehand, and then testing followed.

Athletes had their forty yard-dash and agility electronically timed, upper body strength determined, wingspan and height measured, and vertical jump tested.

Tim Laffey and Brittny Boyd represented Athletic Edge (http://www.athleticedge.net) in preparing athletes with an active dynamic warm-up, and followed with plenty of speed and agility based off the movements involved in lacrosse.

All the meanwhile, athletes received film room instruction from Coach DeCicco. Film ranged from the NCAA highlights to Major League Lacrosse highlights.

Coaches followed with a variety of shooting drills on the field. There were at least four stations running at all times instructed and supervised by a coach. Coach DeCicco, considered a shooting authority by many in the sport, spent time with all athletes. There were no more than eight athletes in a group at one time.

Everyone then broke for lunch, and athletes concluded the afternoon with a different rotation of shooting drills and speed/agility work.

Athletes returned to the field Sunday at 9:30 a.m. They had an open invitation all weekend to receive additional instruction by either arriving early or breaking early from lunch.

Right away, athletes filtered through new shooting and performance training stations. For example, participants were asked to throw away jump stops, taught how to properly shoot on the run, given the proper mechanics in effort to improve their right-handed and left-handed shot, and concentrated on methods to improve overall athletic ability.

It was also “Sunday Fun Day” as athletes participated in a skills challenge where shooting accuracy and improvement made during the weekend earned recognition.

Next, Coach DeCicco took 25-minutes to provide insight and answer all athlete/parent questions relating to the (collegiate) recruiting process.

Participants learned all they could before they broke to enjoy lunch. Youth athlete Kyle O’Keefe showcased his appetite by eating the most of the bunch.

After a window of time to get extra shooting in on the field, athletes returned to the cafeteria to receive film study instruction.

The remaining two and a half hours of the event, were spent with athletes taken through a variety of new shooting drills with great improvement displayed from Saturday.

The weekend was a tremendous success for all involved.

DeBartolo Sports University would like to thank athletic director Kevin Stansberry and men’s lacrosse head coach David Gallucci of Mount Olive High School for their hospitable efforts and commitment to provide such a wonderful facility. Twelve athletes from the lacrosse program participated, and Coach Gallucci provided additional insight and instruction to all athletes on the field.

Make sure to continue to check-in with DeBartoloLacrosse.com all week for updated content!