PHILADELPHIA, PA – While most people take a vacation over Memorial Day Weekend, Head Coach for Mizzou Men’s Lacrosse Nick Anagnostis went to work. An assistant coach for the Greece Men’s National team in the 2018 FIL World Lacrosse Championships, Anagnostis was leading the way as the Head Coach this time for the Greece Men’s National Heritage team over the weekend.
Participating in the 2019 Heritage Cup, an 8-team international exhibition tournament with teams featuring a combined roster of National team players ad Heritage players representing their respective nations. This tournament has taken place the last 4 years during NCAA Championship weekend, this time being held in Philadelphia, PA. Countries competing included: Greece, Israel, The Philippines, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, Puerto Rico, and Lithuania.
Greece went undefeated throughout the tournament finishing 5-0 with wins against Israel, Poland, and the Philippines in pool play. Greece took down Hungary in the semi-finals and took down Philippines for the 2nd time in the weekend in the Championship to take home the cup. Philippines came into both contest heavily favored as they had a majority of their players from their 10th ranked finish at the 2018 World Championships. Also of note, Greece never trailed or were outscored in any half through the weekend.
Coach Anagnostis will continue his duties with the Greece National team as he will lead the team again in the Edinburgh Invitational in Scotland this July. This tournament will be featuring mainly European teams and will also be testing out the proposed Olympic rules from World Lacrosse.