Club Spotlight: Expectations High for Rhode Island Thunder Gold – Lotti 16U and 14U National Teams

Dave Lotti has had the Rhode Island Thunder club organization—based in Providence, Rhode Island—playing competitively on a national scale for over two decades at top events like PGF Nationals, TC/USA Nationals, Boulder IDT.

In the past, it’s been the 18U team that has made noise beating the best in the country, but last year the 14U National team had a great run at PGF Nationals and has mostly moved up to the 16U level for the 2020-21 season.

The new 14U National Team has reloaded with talent as well in an effort to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor and both can be found next year at PGF Nationals (Huntington Beach, Calif.), Boulder IDT and the DeMarini Invitational in Illinois.

Says Lotti, the organization’s founder and head coach: “Due to the uncertainty created by the COVID pandemic, we remain flexible schedule-wise and could be playing in Florida, Oklahoma, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Texas as well.”

Both National teams practice together, running through all the same drills and training, and are coached by the collective staff that Lotti has assembled.

Players for the organization come from all over the Northeast: Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine and New York.

Lotti says he strives to develop players who “progressively improve in all areas in a very competitive, disciplined, winning environment.”

“The attention to detail dedicated to footwork, different body part movements, and agility in all of our training results in smooth, fluid, explosive athletes,” the organizational head man continues.

“We prepare them to meet the highest demands in our sport at the collegiate level.  In many ways, we go beyond as we don’t have the luxury in the Northeast that others have playing year-round in warmer climates.”

Below is a closer look at both teams who should be, again, fighting for a place at or near the top of the national rankings in any event in which they compete…

Scroll down to get the scouting reports on the 16U and 14U Rhode Island Thunder National teams…

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