Release courtesy of Denver Athletics
BRADENTON, Fla. (Denver/U.S. Lacrosse) – University of Denver men’s lacrosse senior faceoff specialist
Trevor Baptiste has been named to the 23-player travel roster that will represent the United States at the 2018 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championships in Netanya, Israel, July 12-21. Baptiste is a three-time BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year.
Baptiste becomes the first active Pioneer selected to represent the United States at the FIL Men’s World Championships and joins 2001 alum Mike Law (selected to 2002 roster) as the only two to ever be named to the senior national team. Team USA head coach John Danowski’s roster includes players from 13 different colleges, but the Denver senior was the lone active college player picked to the 2018 team.
“It’s a blessing and an amazing opportunity to be able to represent my country playing the sport I love,” two-time Denver captain Baptiste said. “I know I’m playing with and against the best of the best, and it’s truly a dream come true. This will be an incredible year of lacrosse with my last season at DU this spring and Team USA this summer.”
The travel roster was selected from a group of 48 players that participated in a Blue-White scrimmage at the Team USA Spring Premiere on Saturday at the IMG Academy. Baptiste led all faceoff men in Saturday’s exhibition, going 7-for-11 with four ground balls. The Denville, N.J., native was one of two faceoff specialists selected, joining veteran Greg Gurenlian on the roster.
Since 1967, the U.S. has won the gold or silver medal at every men’s international world championship in field lacrosse. The U.S. won gold in 1967, 1974, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2010. The U.S. finished as the runner-up to Canada in 1978, 2006 and 2014.
“Trevor continues to amaze,” Denver head coach
Bill Tierney said. “Knowing how hard this process is and the level of competition he faced makes this achievement even greater. I am so proud of Trevor and I’m sure he will represent his family, DU Lacrosse and his country with great effort, passion and a drive to succeed like no other.”
Baptiste was Denver’s third Tewaaraton Award Finalist in the last three years in 2017, finishing first in faceoff win percentage (.744 – 4
th best in NCAA history), second in faceoffs won (297 – 7
th most in NCAA history) and second in ground balls per game (10.47 – 10
th in NCAA history). Denver’s faceoff specialist enters into his final campaign with the Crimson and Gold third in NCAA history in career faceoff wins (879) and fifth in career ground balls (481).
The team will have a final training weekend in late June before heading to Israel in early July for the world championship.
Name - Position - MLL Team - College
Trevor Baptiste - FO - none - Denver '18
Jake Bernhardt - SSDM - Ohio - Maryland '12
Jesse Bernhardt - D - Chesapeake - Maryland '15
Ryan Brown - A - Charlotte - Johns Hopkins '16
Ned Crotty - A/M - Dallas - Duke '10
Matt Danowski - A/M - Chesapeake - Duke '08
Steve DeNapoli - SSDM - New York - Hofstra '11
Tucker Durkin - D - Florida - Johns Hopkins '13
Michael Ehrhardt - LSM - Charlotte - Maryland '14
Joe Fletcher - D - New York - Loyola '14
John Galloway - G - Dallas - Syracuse '11
Greg Gurenlian - FO - New York - Penn State '06
Kyle Hartzell - LSM - New York - Salisbury '08
John Haus - M - Charlotte - Maryland '13
Marcus Holman - A - Ohio - North Carolina '13
Jack Kelly - G - Denver - Brown '16
Rob Pannell - A - New York - Cornell '13
Paul Rabil - M - New York - Johns Hopkins '08
Tom Schreiber - M - Ohio - Princeton '14
Drew Snider - M - Denver - Maryland '12
Kevin Unterstein - SSDM - New York - Hofstra '08
Joel White - LSM - Dallas - Syracuse '11
Jordan Wolf - A - Dallas - Duke '14
At the 2014 FIL Men’s World Championships in Commerce City, Colo., six Pioneers were on Team Canada with associate head coach
Matt Brown. Denver also had two players with the Iroquois and a former Pioneer with Team Japan.