NTDP National Combine Brings Standout Talent from Across the Country

SPARKS, Md. — Twins Henry and Theo Adam are rangy defensemen from Houston, Texas, who display your prototypical twin-like traits.

They work well in tandem and cover each other’s shortcomings. Henry, a close defender, is stronger. Theo admits he might even have the higher lacrosse IQ. But Theo is fast and better on the clear — though the two are a sight to see when they pick the ball off the turf and push tempo up the field.

The chemistry between the 6-4 identical twins was, obviously, forged at home. They share a room and sleep in bunk beds, though they got to separate to opposite sides of the room in the hotel during this week’s USA Lacrosse National Team Development Program National Combine.

Coming from Houston, they’re hoping to spread their wings even more by making the U17 Youth National Team.

“This is my first time ever doing anything this big,” Theo Adam said. “It’s my first overnight camp ever. It’s just a lot of fun. I’m having a lot of fun. This is the highest level I’ve ever played at.”

The Adam brothers are two just four Class of 2029 players invited to the combine at USA Lacrosse headquarters, which featured nearly 100 of the top U17 players in the country.

Following the combine, 24 players will be named to the U17 and U19 U.S. Youth National Teams, and they will compete in two events at USA Lacrosse headquarters this fall — the Rivalry Challenge against Lacrosse Canada’s youth national teams on the weekend of Sept. 18-21 and at the Brogden Cup against the Haudenosaunee Nationals and Team Ontario the weekend of Oct. 24-26.

“It’s very different,” Henry Adam said regarding how the combine athletes stack up to his Houston counterparts. “There are always a few good players wherever you’re from, but up here, it’s a completely different breed. It’s always moving. It was a little hard to keep track of at the beginning.”

The U17 group, of course, featured several athletes from the typical hotbeds of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. But the group is plenty geographically diverse. There are participants from Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Washington.

PJ Kennedy now resides in Indiana (another non-traditional hotbed), but spent his formative years in Tennessee. His father, Pat Kennedy, coaches at Pope John Paul II (Tenn.) High School, where PJ played his freshman season.

He’s transfer to Culver (Ind.) Academy for the upcoming school year, though, to challenge himself against top-level high school competition. He’s familiar with Culver because his father coached there before taking the job at Pope John Paul II.

Kennedy, an attackman, was one of the youngest players last year on the U.S. U16 Select Team and gained valuable experience that gave him a leg up on the club circuit. Back again as a U17, he thinks the NTDP combine will prepare him for Culver, too.

“It’s really been awesome just to play with faster guys,” he said. “It’s really different going from Tennessee lacrosse to here. It’s high level, and it’s great to be a part of. It’s really improved my game with the pace.”

Lacrosse is growing outside the East Coast. It’s becoming less and less uncommon for high-level athletes to come from unique places. From Tennessee, for example, hails Aliya Polisky — a valuable contributor to the U.S. U20 Women’s National Team that won a gold medal in Hong Kong, China, last summer.

Polisky, an All-American attacker at Stanford, also came through the NTDP program.

Kennedy, the Adam brothers and the rest of the U17 combine invitees will find out who makes the team later this month.

“I don’t think it really matters where you come from as long as you have a passion to try out,” Kennedy said. “That’s why I’m here.”