Even at the practices he helps run for his five teams, there are always hands for Reitenbach to shake, players and parents to conference with and paperwork to sort out.

This was especially the case Wednesday evening at Ballenger Creek Elementary School, as the FASTLAX Gold team prepares for its biggest tournament of the year, the Brine Summer Sizzle, which begins today in Bel Air.

But everywhere Reitenbach goes, the message, emblazoned across the front of his T-shirt, remains the same: Quality Lacrosse.

"Bringing quality lacrosse to Western Maryland was the original FASTLAX slogan," Reitenbach said.

Sensing there was some untapped talent brewing in Frederick County and the surrounding areas, Reitenbach, a former player and assistant coach at Cornell, founded FASTLAX in 2006.

Just this year, the organization added a fifth team, FASTLAX Black, which is comprised of players under-11 years old.

"Frederick has a lot of great athletes and there's no reason that Frederick (County) shouldn't be competitive on the state level in lacrosse," said Reitenbach, who is the boys varsity head coach at Cardinal Gibbons School.

"With Walkersville and Urbana having the success that they've had, there's no question that lacrosse is getting a lot better."

The FASTLAX Gold team is proving it, having already earned three tournament medals this summer.

The team is primarily made up of under-18 players from six of the nine public high schools in Frederick County.

In last weekend's 49-team Atlantic Cup at Heritage Farm Park in Walkersville , the Gold team won the bronze medal on the tournament's highest level, the High School Elite Division.

The Gold team was the only team in the tournament to hold the eventual-champion Rough Riders from Howard County under 10 goals in a game.

The Rough Riders handed the Gold its only loss in seven tournament games, 9-5 in the semifinals.

"Playing a good team like that is only going to help us," said Simon Kinderknecht, the starting goalkeeper for the Gold who attends Middletown High School. "It's great competition and good practice for us."

During the high school season, Kinderknecht faces many of his Gold teammates as the starting goalkeeper for Middletown .

"I remember back to a middle school game where (Gold teammate and Thomas Johnson star) Ryon (Lynch) scored the game-winner, three seconds left, between my legs," Kinderknecht said.

"I was so upset about it. I was in tears. But, you know, 10 years later I finally get to meet him and we're friends."

This weekend's Summer Sizzle tournament features 206 teams from across the country, including 48 in the Gold team's division.

For many of the teams, the tournament is a World Series or Super Bowl type of event.

"We're excited. We're not satisfied just participating anymore," Reitenbach said.

"When we first started the club, everything was all warm and fuzzy. We were just happy to be involved in something like this. But that was four years ago. Expectations are higher now. We really want to come out of this thing with another medal."

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