The Lake Placid Summit Youth Classic kicked off the first of its three-day annual lacrosse tournament on Monday at the North Elba Show Grounds. The event originally began in 2016.

The tournament features boys lacrosse teams, aged 8 and under up to 16 and under, competing in five different divisions. There are a total of 36 teams this year, which is below last year’s numbers, according to event director Kevin Leveille.

“Usually our target is around 42, so a couple of teams dropped out at the last second,” he said. “We changed the dates a little bit, so we don’t collide directly with the horse show anymore and we avoid staying out of the Fourth of July window. So we lost some people when we switched dates, but we gained some new teams back in.”

In past years, the tournament drew around 60 teams but since the coronavirus pandemic, the number of teams has declined. After 2021, the organization decided to keep a smaller crowd to keep things more organized and under control. The last two tournaments had exactly 42 teams.

Powell X’s 2026-27 team member David Montroy, of Saranac Lake, defends during Monday’s game at the North Elba Athletic Fields in Lake Placid. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

“You kind of get to a formula where it’s the right amount of people here and it’s the right amount of people for town,” Leveille said. “The more we can set it and repeat it and have the formula built then it’s great.”

This year, there will be teams that have traveled from as far away as Houston, Texas. There are also some more local teams. A handful of lacrosse players from Saranac Lake — and Saranac Lake Placid varsity lacrosse players — competed for the Powell X team. That team is run by National Lacrosse Hall of Famer Casey Powell, through his camper base across the country.

“They needed some players, so they plugged in some local players to their group,” Leveille said. “We’ve go the NoCo Ripperz that are a local team that are here. It’s nice to have the integration of the local community as well, especially as the sport has been growing up here.”

The Powell X team suffered a 6-5 loss to the Stars and Stripes on Monday.

“The town-level has been rising,” Leveille said. “They fit in here no problem. When we first started 10 years ago there was discrepancy in the level of play, but now they hope right in and they do well.”

Saranac Lake native Scottie Nicholas, competing for Powell X’s 2026-27 team, controls the ball during Monday’s game against the Stars and Stripes in Lake Placid. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

Following the LPSYC, Summit Lacrosse will host the 35th Lake Placid Summit Classic from July 29 to Aug. 4.

The Summit Classic showcases two tournaments over the course of a week starting with the scholastic tournament — consisting of youth, high school and college-age players — followed by the adult tournament, which includes a 65 and older age group.

The Summit Lacrosse Society hosted tournaments in Albany, Saratoga, Denver and in California earlier in the year.

“This is one of our favorite tournaments, we do a lot, we go to a lot, but this one is just really awesome it’s a deep family event,” Leveille said, whose 10-year-old son is playing in the tounament for the second year in a row.

A Mountain Valley28 player celebrates after scoring a game winning goal against Lonestars TX 29 during a game Monday in Lake Placid. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)