Nick Zoroya is not only the coach of Ann Arbor Skyline’s young lacrosse program, he also runs Delta Lacrosse, a summer travel team. I asked him a couple questions about Delta, and he glad to respond:
For those who don’t know, what is Delta Lacrosse?
Delta Lacrosse is a select team that consists of elite local area lacrosse players. All of the players live within 15 minutes of Ann Arbor, most of them go to school in Ann Arbor, and all of the coaches have ties to Ann Arbor lacrosse.
What led you to start a summer club team?
I’ve always toyed with the idea of having a summer team, primarily to give me something to do in the summer after the high school season. Last summer the players from my high school who played at Champion were dissatisfied. Seeing a need for a team that caters to Ann Arbor players, I got with Cy Abdelnour, and the two of us decided it was time to start a team.
What kind of kids come out for your team? Do you get a lot of overlap with your high school team?
On our team we have 20 players, from 8 schools: Pioneer, Greenhills, Gabriel Richard, Saline, Salem, Skyline, Huron, and Catholic Central. There’s some overlap with the Skyline team but I think it’s helped us because my guys can help teach the new guys our offense.
What are some of the events you guys will be taking part in this season?
This summer we’re playing in primarily regional tournaments. We feel that you don’t need to go to the east coast to find good tournaments. Our guys are primarily looking at D2/D3/JUCO schools, which are well represented in the midwest tournies. This weekend we’ll be at the Lax-n-nati tournament in Cincinnati. Its sponsored by Warrior and the winner gets to participate in the Dick’s Sporting Goods national championship. July 9th & 10th we’ll be in Kalamazoo for the Great Lakes Lacrosse Tourney, and at the end of July we’ll be in Traverse City playing in the Cherry Bomb lacrosse against some of the best teams in canada and in the midwest.
What are your overall goals with Delta? To help kids play at the next level, to grow the game, etc?
Our goals with Delta are to show the rest of the region that the Ann Arbor are has legitimate talent, and that there is good lacrosse outside of Oakland County. We want to help each of our players learn to play at a high level, and to improve individually. We also want to give Ann Arbor Area players a place to play and practice with out driving to Wixom/Birmingham/Pontiac where the other teams are. Lastly, and ultimately, we assist each of our players with the recruiting process and try to find them a home playing college lacrosse.
Thanks, Nick. I’m sure we’ll be checking in with him again this sumer.