Wall ball is a simple lacrosse drill that players all across the continent do to keep sharp. Obviously with seasons postponed and/or canceled, they’ve been doing a lot of it.

So Avon (Conn.) High School Coach Adam Cost, a West Genesee graduate, decided to turn that drill into a competition.

“Each team designates 20 players to do a 20 second wall-ball routine. Simply put, they throw the ball against the wall for 20 seconds and they count how many times they can do it. Whoever gets the most reps wins,” he said.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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Didn't want to leave anyone out that did the work. Thanks to these guys for putting in the effort with a positive attitude: Ben Blea - J - Midfield - 20 Derek Thompson - F - Attack - 20 Nolan Lynch - F - Midfield - 19 Reid Mather - F - Midfield/FO - 18 Tanner Cote - F - Midfield - 17 • #teamwallballchallenge2020 ・・・ #usclublax #lacrosse #laxteam #lacrossehighlights #lacrosseplayer #lacrosseseason #lacrosseboys #lacrossegirls #boyslacrosse #girlslacrosse #boyslax #collegelacrosse #highschoollacrosse #collegelax #highschoollax #lax #lacrossecamp #laxcamp #ncaalacrosse #lacrossemom #lacrossefamily #lacrossegame #lacrosseislife #clublacrosse #clublacrosserankings #lacrosserankings ‬

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Cost reached out to Sergio Salcido, a former SU star who's now playing in the Premier Lacrosse League, to see if he wanted to be involved. With Salcido’s help, the contest exploded within a week, with 57 squads competing from California to Canada to Florida, and everywhere in between.

Cost couldn't believe how quickly things escalated.

“We started to see some teams from Wisconsin, from Ohio, the Canadian team, teams we had no connection with,” Cost said. “Even the California teams … that’s when we knew it was turning into something special.”

Of course, getting Genny involved wasn’t difficult, especially since Cost played against Wildcats coach Shaun Smith when he was the coach at Corcoran. Cost talked about that initial phone call with Smith.

“I was like ‘Coach, we’re doing this thing, you want in on it?’ ” Cost said. “And like three hours later, he was like ‘I’ve got 30 videos, what do I do with them?’

“It just goes to show what the culture is at West Genny.”

Smith's players were excited to be up against some competition in this time of isolation.

“At least it’s something. Something to be competitive,” he said. “Our thing this year is you need to compete every day. Every day in life, every day in school, everything you do, you need to compete. So it was just another form of competition.”

The videos for the competition started rolling in, and so did donations of prizes that would go to the winning teams.

For Salcido, giving out his training sessions was a no-brainer.

“I was one of those kids from Florida, it’s a non-traditional hotbed, and obviously I had aspirations to play at a really high level,” Salcido said. “Now that I’m there, I’ve worked hard and I’ve gained all that knowledge and experience. Why not give it back and see if it’ll benefit one of those kids in that group?”

Longmeadow, Mass., won the competition, with West Genny taking 10th place.