The face off in Vancouver, Canada is 351 days away, but the United State’s team is set.

After four days of tryouts at UMBC over the weekend, US Lacrosse named 23 men from across the country who will represent the United States in the 2008 International Lacrosse Federation U-19 World Championships.

The Baltimore area will be well-represented as the team vies for its sixth consecutive ILF championship. Four of the six players are recent high school graduates — Tim Donovan (Loyola Blakefield/Johns Hopkins), Nicholas Elsmo (Severn/Virginia) and Peter Fallon (Gilman/Brown) — while McDonogh’s Tyler Fiorito Loyola Blakefield’s Steele Stanwick are rising high school seniors.

“It shows the country that lacrosse in the Baltimore area is one of the top regions in the country for lacrosse,” said Dulaney head coach Jake Reed, who is also the chair of the player selection committee for US Lacrosse. There are kids from all over the country. The sport is growing and places like Ohio and North Carolina are catching up with Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia.”

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Reed was responsible for picking the 24 members who composed the selection committee, which picked a team from among the 120 players who attended tryouts in Catonsville.

“It was really jaw dropping unbelievable lax,” Reed said. “We were amazed at the size and ability of the candidates.”

Chuck Apel, who has been the head coach Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J.) High School the past 27 years, will coach the national team after spending more than two decades as an assistant.

“We were so happy with how it went,” Apel said. “ You are watching all these great players and you are trying to get a good balance of what you need, because you cant send home for somebody new if there is an injury.”

Despite the World Championships being nearly a year away, Apel said the team will not have much time to practice prior to the event. He believes they will only practice several times after the college season, but he is not worried about the players forming a cohesive unit.

“We have top kids in the country and the all have a high lacrosse IQ,” Apel said. “If we work hard we can come back with a victory.”