The uniform colors were similar to high school: dark blue shorts and white top.
When Howell’s Anthony Bonjavanni first put them on, he thought back to his lacrosse days at Howell High School. Then he saw the letters on the front – USA- and it was no longer high school.
“It was pretty cool,” he said. “To have the opportunity to represent your country is great.”
Bonjavanni was a member of the USA Amateur Athletes International lacrosse team that competed in Europe last month. The team spent six days in Berlin, Germany, and six in Prague, Czech Republic. The Americans won the Berlin Open and the Czech Cup.
The USA team drew its players from colleges around the country. There was no pretourney camp for the players to become familiar with one another. The first time that Bonjavanni met his USA teammates (with the exception of his Richard Stockton College teammate Sean Haugh) was at the airport en route to Germany. Yet it did little to hold the team back. They were a combined 11-0 in their two tournaments.
“We were very relaxed, but we took the game seriously,” he said. “It was good to play with other guys. It was unlike anything I’ve done before. When we turned it on, we were very serious.
Lacrosse is a developing sport in Europe, and the results showed it. Bonjavanni’s team beat another American team, based on the West Coast, theGlobal Starz, in their two finals. However, that doesn’t mean the other games were a cakewalk or that they didn’t get to see a different style of play.
“There were some pretty good teams,” he said. “They like to play physical. They’re not afraid of contact.”
The biggest difference between the Americans and the Europeans was the pace of the game. The Americans like to bring the ball up the field quicker than the Europeans, who preferred a more deliberate, possession game.
The USA players were reminded by the coaching staff that they were doing more than playing lacrosse. USA International is a nonprofit group whose goal is to provide college and high school athletes with the chance to compete around the world in a number of different sporting events to promote sportsmanship and international unity through sports while also providing a cultural and educational experience for the athletes.
Bonjavanni, who had never been to Europe before, made the most of the cultural and educational opportunities the tour gave him. One of the highlights was playing in the historic Olympic Stadium in Berlin, site of the 1936 Olympics where Jesse Owens put to rest the Nazi myth of Aryan supremacy with his four gold medals.
“To be there with all its history as an athlete was pretty neat,” he said.
While in Berlin, the players went to see what remains of the Berlin Wall. In Prague they toured a castle.
“It was a great experience. I got to meet new people and to see two beautiful cities,” he said.
Bonjavanni learned something else: how much lacrosse means to him.
“The two weeks showed me how much fun lacrosse is and how much I’ll miss it,” he remarked. “It’s motivated me to make the most of my last season [at Stockton].”