Gulliver Prep dominated the Miami-Dade All-County Lacrosse Team, placing four players on the squad, one of them also named the county's top player.

Coaches from the seven lacrosse teams in Miami-Dade -- Palmetto, Gulliver Prep, Ransom-Everglades, Palmer-Trinity, Coral Reef, Archbishop Curley and Miami Country Day School -- selected the players for the team and named Gulliver Prep midfielder Jordan Gruber as the county's "Player of the Year."

Gruber led Gulliver Prep to the playoffs with an 11-4 record, beating Ransom-Everglades in the first playoff game, then playing a strong game against the eventual state champion St. Andrews of Boca Raton, before losing 16-12.

"He was the captain and leader of our team," said Gulliver head coach Jim DeLang. "He was one of the highest scorers in the league and in the big games he was really dominant. Against some of the other Dade county teams, he was probably the difference between us winning and losing."

The three other Gulliver players who made all county were attackers Julio Diaz-Jane and Nick Izquierdo, and midfielder Jorge Larrauri.

Close behind Gulliver Prep with three players on the team was Ransom-Everglades. The players were attacker Brett Abramson, defenseman Dean Abtahi and goalkeeper Kyle Groves. Ransom-Everglades head coach Jim Livingston was named "Coach of the Year."

Also making All-County was attacker Eric Silver of Miami Country Day School, and defensemen Kevin Schoneck and James Palmieri of Palmetto Senior High, and Jaime Alvarez of Palmer-Trinity.

The Miami-Dade high school teams are part of the 14-team South Florida Lacrosse League, that also has teams from schools as far away as Lee County on the Florida's Gulf Coast and in Martin County to the north on the East Coast.

Miami-Dade high school lacrosse coaches say that interest in this the oldest sporting game in the United States, one that was originated by the American Indian, is on the upswing.

"The growth of the sport at Palmetto High School has really exploded in the last two years," said head coach Roy Kelly. "When I first started coaching lacrosse 15 years ago, Palmetto was the only program in the county. Now, we've moved up to seven programs, and that gives us a good base for the league. And, in Orlando five years ago they had nothing and now they have 16 teams playing."

Kelly said the attraction of lacrosse is that it is a very fast, physical sport that allows players more freedom of movement and action.

"In that regard, it's similar to soccer, basketball or hockey," he said. "There are not a lot of time-outs, not a lot of stoppage of play. It's continuous action. There are quite a few goals scored and kids get to act more as individuals than in other sports."

The Miami-Dade lacrosse coaches voted the Blake Babcock Award for Sportsmanship to Ransom-Everglades.

Gaining honorable mention for All-County lacrosse honors were John Raiffe, David Morales and Brent Martin, Miami Country Day School; John Mekras and Brad Smith, Gulliver Prep; Kevin Sanz, Randy Alonso and David Adler, Palmer-Trinity; Dan Rodriguez, Mike Militello and Mike Epstein, Palmetto Senior High, and Josh Miller and Ryan Holtzman from Ransom-Everglades.