Lacrosse brings excitement to Lake Placid

Aug. 5—LAKE PLACID — The future has a run-in with the present and past in Lake Placid.

High school students with their paths set on notable lacrosse universities, and players who've been part of the Lake Placid Summit Classic lacrosse tournament for years, converge on Lake Placid for a week long of events and reunions centered around the sport.

"It's been great. You know, it's always great," Event Director Kevin Leveille said. "It's tons of hugs, tons of smiles. Just a generally positive vibe amongst everybody here.

"To see the camaraderie and the respect and just the friendships is really rewarding. So it's been a positive week as it always is, and definitely energizing from just a human being standpoint."

The tournament rotates to a three-day tournament for various divisions. Arguably the most competitive division, is the scholastic division which is held during the first three days of the tournament.

This includes a girls tournament, where teams are composed of girls planning to attend a college in the fall, with girls who have given a verbal commitment to the same school. This added a little extra competitiveness to this group as girls teamed up with future teammates and faced future opponents.

Leveille said that Virginia topped the group of University of North Carolina commitments in the championship game, in what he called a great competitive match of future Cavaliers and Tar Heels getting a taste of the rivalry.

The next division was age groups of 50, 55, 60 and so on. Leveille said they do their best to accommodate the age groups in five-year increments. Especially, for those that keep coming back.

Leveille said the tournament, entering its 34th year, began in 1990. He said his father started the tournament, not as a business opportunity but rather to invite people to the area.

What started as just seven teams, as it rained the entire weekend, Leveille's father wondered if people would come back.

"But basically as no surprise to us, everyone fell in love with Lake Placid," Leveille said. "The word of mouth kind of just got around there were no cell phones back then or anything like that.

"And the word got out and I think the tournament just grew organically over the years and you know, after about 15 years or so, it became quite significant and the focus of operating it more like a business came into play."

And it grew and grew.

Leveille said a study was done over the last couple of years, where the economic impact of the Summit Classic on Lake Placid was $17 million. It provided Summit Lacrosse with a detailed look on the direct impact the tournament has over the course of the week it is held.

You know, all of our folks are going to be here one way or the other, whereas normal tourism may have an issue with people attending or coming into town if the weather's not looking good in the forecast," Leveille said. "So yeah, the lacrosse demographic is a great one in a lot of ways.

"People come here with their families, it's more than just individuals coming to participate. They come with their families. I think we estimate two and a half folks per player and it adds up quickly. It's a great stimulus for the local businesses here, which is an awesome situation."

Leveille said there is a vendor village nearby the playing fields of North Elba Athletic Fields and the Lake Placid Horse Show Grounds. In this area, booths are set up with items endemic to lacrosse, he said.

But, it's not just around the fields that draw the attention. Leveille said when games aren't going on, the Olympic Center, shops, restaurants and ice cream shops are continually busy.

With the success of the Lake Placid Summit Classic, one has to wonder if the tournament can get any bigger. Leveille believes the tournament has reached its max based on the time and space they have. They don't want to overwork themselves or the town.

That doesn't take away from what the tournament does for both the players, spectators, Lake Placid and Summit Lacrosse.

"We've been just trying to manage the balance of the interest and demand to be here, and also a proper impact to the local community," Leveille said. "You know, obviously, bringing a lot of people to a smaller town like Lake Placid changes that dynamic, but a lot of our folks here have been coming year after year and really do appreciate Lake Placid the local community, and want to do their best to be proper guests here.

"You know, for the most part we've been pretty fortunate with minimal negative impact to go along with pretty sizable positive impact."