About Carolina Miners

Lake Norman's home for boys travel lacrosse.

Carolina Miners is the boys travel program of the Carolina Lacrosse Association — built in Huntersville, played in Huntersville, coached by people who live here. Tryout-based travel rosters by grad year. Real schedules. Real standards. A staff that knows your kid's name before he picks up a stick.

3 Miners teams · 2032 Yellow · 2033 Yellow · 2035 Futures
2 Home fields in Huntersville
1.5h Every practice — built with a point
4 Seasons of optional training — all local
Carolina Miners team during a regional tournament.
The Standard

What it means to be a Miner.

Miners is a destination — not a placeholder. Boys come here because they want to be coached hard, play real teams, and see themselves get better on a schedule they can feel.

We're tryout-based and grad-year built. We add a second team within a grad year when our numbers and level of play support it — never to fill space. We don't pad rosters, don't promise playing time, and don't dress every game like a participation event. We compete, we develop, and we treat the boys like athletes worth investing in.

Built on four things

  • Coaching that develops. Stickwork, lacrosse IQ, an athletic foundation that travels. Every practice has a point — every player can name it on the drive home.
  • Competition that matters. Tryout-based travel rosters by grad year. Regional tournaments worth the trip. The kind of weekends a player remembers.
  • Respect for the whole athlete. Multi-sport boys are welcome — football, basketball, hockey, baseball. We're not the reason your son quits the other thing he loves.
  • Local roots. Practices, tryouts, and home tournaments at R.C. Bradford Park and Huntersville Athletic Park. Stay in your backyard. Lake Norman is the home base.
Your Lacrosse Year

One program. Built to fit your family.

Some families want their son in a Miners jersey every season of the year. Some want the two core competitive seasons only. Both paths keep him on the same team, with the same staff, without leaving Lake Norman. Miners is built for both.

Core Season

Fall Travel

3 practices per week · 18 practices total · 3 regional tournaments. Tryout-based teams, A and B when roster size allows.

Core Season

Summer Travel

3 practices per week · 24 practices total · 4 regional tournaments. The big developmental push of the year — same travel roster as Fall.

Included in Full-Year

Winter Training

~10–12 training sessions. Positional work and speed at Huntersville-area venues. Multi-sport athletes attend what fits around their winter sport.

Included in Full-Year

Spring Training

~6 training sessions. Skill work that runs around the high school and middle school spring seasons — school ball comes first.

Full-Year covers all four seasons under one staff. Prefer just the two core competitive seasons? Choose the Fall + Summer bundle instead — same roster, same coaches, without the Winter and Spring commitment.

What We Evaluate

How players make a Miners roster.

Tryouts aren't a stick-skill drill. Six things shape every roster decision — same six, every grad year, every season.

Skill

Stickwork, shooting, dodging, defense — position-specific fundamentals.

Athleticism & Potential

Speed, agility, body control, and the ceiling we see in the player.

Game IQ

Reading the field, off-ball movement, decision-making under pressure.

Effort & Compete

Loose-ball mentality, recovery on defense, willingness to do the hard stuff.

Coachability

Receives feedback, applies it on the next rep, lifts teammates up.

Team Fit

How the player rounds out the roster Miners is putting together for the year.

Coaching Staff

A staff that already coaches Lake Norman.

Miners coaches are head and assistant coaches at the high schools and middle schools your sons already play against. Same fields. Same standards. Same staff, every team — Fall, Summer, Winter, and Spring.

Andrew ZitoDirector, Carolina Miners
Matt LewinHead Coach · North Lincoln HS
John BellissimoHead Coach · Community School of Davidson
Bobby BennettHead Coach · Mooresville HS
Connor DoyleHead Coach · Christ the King
Matt HaleMS Head Coach · Lake Norman Charter
Mark WalgrenCoach · Running Rebels MS
Casey GrandelliAssistant Coach · Mooresville HS
Noah SteinerAssistant Coach · Chambers HS

Team assignments by grad year announced ahead of the season — pre-register for tryouts to be the first to know.

Find Your Team

Summer tryouts are open.

Two nights in Huntersville · July 14 & 15 · R.C. Bradford Park. Free to attend. Pre-registration required through the CLA tryout page.