Adrenaline Challenge to Determine Western Club Champion

By Nathan Max
WSL Executive Editor

SAN DIEGO -- The Western United States’ club lacrosse championship will truly be on the line this weekend when Robb Field hosts the 9th-annual Adrenaline Challenge.

Started in 2002, the Challenge has grown from a small gathering of a handful of teams to one of the most meaningful club lacrosse competitions in the country. This weekend, 64 teams from 10 states and two Canadian provinces will face-off in three divisions to determine who is the Best in the West.

The Boys Elite Division will have a 36-team field, led by defending champion NorCal Fog City and 2008 champion Brady’s Bunch. Last year, Fog City edged Brady’s Bunch, 7-6, in a thrilling finale.

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San Francisco-based Fog City is expected to once again be comprised of mostly players from St. Ignatius College Preparatory School, which uses the event as a springboard to its season. Fog City enters the tournament on a seven-game Adrenaline Challenge winning streak after having run the table last year.

Fog City will be going for its third title in the last four years. It also won the Adrenaline Challenge in 2007, when the event was staged in frigid Lancaster, Calif.

Brady’s Bunch, which used to be called Wild Card Starz, is generally an all-star team of free agents from several different regions. Wild Card changed its name to Brady’s Bunch in honor of Coach Mike Wein’s young son Brady, who was stricken with leukemia.

In an intriguing twist, the St. Louis Samurai Blackbelts will be making their return to the event after sitting out the last few years. St. Louis advanced to the championship game at the 2007 event in Lancaster but were smoked by a Miles Suter-led Fog City team (which was then called the NorCal Starz) in the final.

Adrenaline Challenge tournament coordinator Rory Doucette said he expects the Arizona Burn, formerly known as the Arizona Starz, to also be among the contenders.

“It will be interesting,” Doucette said. “There are a lot of teams we’re not sure of how good they’ll be.”

Aside from the Boys Elite Division, there will also be an 18-team Boys High School Division (Division II) and a 10-team Girls Elite Division, Doucette said. Tournament wide, there will be teams from California, Arizona, Utah, Washington, Missouri, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Texas, Colorado, British Columbia and Alberta represented.

Tournament coordinators also anticipate numerous NCAA and MCLA college coaches to be in attendance.

“I think it’s going to be the best group of talent we’ve assembled,” Doucette said. “Everyone’s just getting better and better. These are among the first groups of guys who have been playing since they were in first, second, third, fourth grade. It’s just a natural progression. It’s going to keep getting better.”