BALTIMORE – US Lacrosse and its Youth Council will honor eight individuals from around the country for their service to youth lacrosse as part of its annual Youth Lacrosse Awards program. The group will be honored at the sixth annual US Lacrosse Youth Council Awards Breakfast during the US Lacrosse National Convention in Philadelphia in January. Jack Emmer, the winningest coach in men’s college lacrosse history, will be the keynote speaker at the awards ceremony.

Highlighting this year’s award honorees are two recipients of the Outstanding Contribution to the Game Award – Joseph Nazzaro from Randolph, N.J., and Cathy Samaras from Annapolis, Md. A complete listing of honorees follows:

Outstanding Contribution to the Game
Joseph Nazzaro – Randolph, N.J.
Nazzaro founded the Randolph (N.J.) Township Program in 1991 and was instrumental in starting lacrosse at Randolph High School. He currently serves as the vice president of the New Jersey Junior Lacrosse League and has served on the executive committee for 12 years. The former Rutgers player has served as the US Lacrosse New Jersey Chapter Youth Coordinator for seven years, was the head coach of the chapter’s U-15 team in the 2006 US Lacrosse Youth Festival in Orlando, Fla., was a charter member of the New Jersey Lacrosse Hall of Fame and received the chapter’s Unsung Hero Award in 2004.

Outstanding Contribution to the Game
Cathy Samaras – Annapolis, Md.
Samaras has created numerous opportunities in the sport for nearly 20 years. She started Quick Stix for girls in 1989, a program that now features year-round play in leagues, tournaments and special events. In 2000, she launched womenslacrosse.com, a Web site devoted to women’s lacrosse and the organization publishes The Draw, an annual college preview publication, and runs numerous tournaments, including the National Draw, which featured 285 teams in 2006, and the All-Star Express, which had 300 teams last year. Samaras also helped start Chesapeake Club Lacrosse (CC Lax), which had 350 girls from 72 schools competing in 2006. Samaras was inducted into the US Lacrosse Chesapeake Chapter Hall of Fame in 2005.

Program Administrator of the Year
John Downey – Cary, N.C.
Downey has played a leading role in helping develop lacrosse in North Carolina. Downey helped start the Triangle Area Lacrosse League in 1999 and most recently has served as the program administrator for the North Carolina Lacrosse Academy (NCLA). Over the last four years, NCLA has grown from 75 boys’ players to over 300 boys’ and girls’ players aged 7 to 18. His work has helped fuel the growth at the high school level in the Raleigh area from just a handful in 2000 to nearly 20.

Exceptional Double-Goal Coach
Robert Cappelletti – Durham, N.C.
Cappelletti was the co-founder of Triangle Select Lacrosse and now serves as the president of the organization into which it has been incorporated, FUSION lacrosse. From its inception in 2000, FUSION has grown into a three-county organization that serves over 800 boys and girls, offering instructional leagues, camps an select travel teams on a year-round basis. Cappelletti is the head boys' lacrosse coach at Cary High School and has also coached at C.E. Jordan High School and East Chapel Hill High School. Cappelletti’s 10-plus years as a coach and administrator have been marked by selfless acts to aid his players. His coaching includes an emphasis on the history and tradition of the sport to help his players learn about more than just winning.

Kevin Von Graham Award
Adora Curry – Washington, D.C.
Curry is the inaugural winner of the Kevin Von Graham Award, named in honor of the late founder of the Brooklyn Admirals, a charter US Lacrosse BRIDGE program. Curry has served as the executive director for WINNERS Lacrosse, a US Lacrosse BRIDGE program based in the Washington D.C. area, since 2004. A player for Howard University’s first varsity team, Curry is the head girls’ lacrosse coach for the School Without Walls team and serves on the board of the Potomac Chapter for US Lacrosse.

Excellence in Growing the Game Award
Cori and John Distler – Redding, Conn.
Cori and John Distler started a youth program in Redding, Conn., with 23 elementary school aged players and helped the RELAX program grow to include three levels of play for girls and boys as well as incorporating players from the neighboring town of Easton. When the first players reached the high school level, funding was not available to start programs at Joel Barlow High School. The Distler’s stepped in as the respective head coaches and have developed programs that have each won state championships. More than 1,000 players have gone through the RELAX and Joel Barlow programs over the last decade and they are now beginning to follow the examples of the Distlers by coming back to the program as youth coaches.

Boys’ Youth Coach of the Year
Matt Flynn – Ridley Park, Pa.
For more than 20 years Flynn has been a coach with the Folsom Boys’ Club and since 1987 has served as the director of the lacrosse program for grades 2 through 8. His coaching has instilled the character traits that have allowed numerous players to go on to achieve success at the high school and collegiate levels. Since 1996 he has served as on the Southeastern Pennsylvania Youth Lacrosse Board of Directors and he has been involved with youth lacrosse in various other capacities.

Girls’ Youth Coach of the Year
Wendy Kridel – Baltimore, Md.
Kridel has achieved tremendous success as a coach at the high school level and has parlayed her experience into leading the U.S. Under-19 program to two world championships. She will go for a third championship in the summer of 2007 when she serves as the U.S. Under-19 head coach for the third time. Kridel has been the head coach at The Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, Md., since 1997 and is now also the athletic director at the school. She previously coached at Towson (Md.) High School and Roland Park Country School. In 17 years of coaching she has won seven league championships and her combined record is 163-43-4.

The following awards will also be given for years of service to the sport:

10 Years
Robert Cappelletti – Durham, N.C.
Paul Ferry – Edina, Minn.

15 Years
John Downey – Cary, N.C.
Wendy Kridel – Baltimore, Md.
Joseph Nazzaro – Randolph, N.J.
Cathy Samaras – Annapolis, Md.

20 Years
Matt Flynn – Ridley Park, Pa.
Albin Haglund – Scottsdale, Ariz.
John & Cori Distler - Redding, Conn.

US Lacrosse, a 501(c)(3) corporation, is the national governing body for men’s and women’s lacrosse. To learn more about the organization, please visit the Web site at www.uslacrosse.org.