National Lacrosse Hall of Fame Inductee Mike Burnett Opens Winston-Salem’s First Lacrosse Academy

Oct. 4, 2010 - PRLog -- WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.  — Two-time NCAA National Division 1 champion and 2010 National Lacrosse Hall of Fame Inductee Michael Burnett has opened Winston-Salem’s first lacrosse academy. Upper Shelf Lacrosse Academy (http://uppershelflacrosse.wordpress.com/ ) offers Triad youth lacrosse players a box lacrosse league and lacrosse clinics for skills training that will help players develop a competitive edge in the country’s fastest-growing sport.

“Lacrosse has traditionally been most popular in the northeast, especially in places like Baltimore, New England and New York,” says Burnett, who is originally from Arnold, Maryland. “But growth has exploded throughout the country and most definitely here in the Triad. To excel at the fast game and play competitively, particularly if kids want to play in college, they need to have the stick in their hands year-round. That is why I opened Upper Shelf Lacrosse Academy locally, so kids don’t have to travel to get professional instruction.”

Burnett partnered with Kenneth Tucker, the owner of New Town Bistro who enjoyed playing lacrosse for the University of Alabama’s club team, to form Upper Shelf Lacrosse Academy. The academy has leased the indoor field turf at the Winston-Salem Soccerplex on Phoenix Road. Clinics will focus on a variety of lacrosse skills, including shooting, intensive stickwork training, defense and midfielders, and goalie training. Private lessons are available for boys and girls. The box lacrosse league starts Nov. 6, with indoor games throughout a six-week season.

Indoor box lacrosse is six on six players — five players and one goalie.  “This is the first indoor box lacrosse league to be developed in Winston-Salem,” Burnett says. “Our kids here can become better by playing box lacrosse during the winter season. Box lacrosse will greatly enhance their stickwork skills for springtime when they are playing field lacrosse because the indoor box lacrosse goal is much smaller, 4’ x 4’, vs. the field’s goal of 6’ x 6’.

Upper Shelf Lacrosse Academy will be developing All-Star travel teams for the summer of 2011. The teams will be coached by Burnett, who has coached numerous college All-Americans, including:
•   Josh Sims, a four-time All American at Princeton recently named to the 10-year anniversary pro MLL lacrosse league,
•   Jed Prossner, a three-time All ACC at UNC-Chapel Hill, and
•   Ronnie Staines, a first-team All American defenseman and pro MLL player.

For more information, visit http://uppershelflacrosse.wordpress.com/. Or, send an e-mail to: mike.uppershelf@gmail.com or ken.uppershelf@gmail.com.


About Michael Burnett

Michael Burnett, a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, is a 2010 inductee into the US National Lacrosse Hall of Fame (ceremony is October 30 in Hunt Valley, Maryland), and has been coaching lacrosse at the high school and college level since 1985. He was a three-time high school All-American and high school All-Star at St. Mary’s in Maryland. During his four-time All-American campaign at UNC-Chapel Hill, Burnett was named ACC Player of the Year (1981) and was a three-time All-ACC team member. He is UNC’s third all-time leading scorer and remains second among UNC’s all-time assist leaders. Burnett helped his team capture two NCAA Division I National Championships (1981, 1982) and two ACC Championships (1981, 1982). As one of the Top-50 All-Time ACC Players, Burnett was voted into the US Lacrosse Chesapeake Chapter Hall of Fame in 2009 and will be inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in the fall of 2010.

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