Editor’s Note: Join us in welcoming Mike Connor to LaxAllStars! Mike will be joining LAS’s resident “Brit Abroad,” Frederic, this year as this UK native spends another year as the goaltender for Wingate University in North Carolina. He will be sharing his experiences of lax in the States all year on LAS, starting with today’s first post from Mike and second from the series. Let’s get to know Mike, the newest addition to our “A Brit Abroad” series.
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During my youth while growing up, I had never even heard of the sport of lacrosse. Lacrosse as a sport in England is extremely small; the facilities are always shared with either a cricket club or even a school. My first experience of lacrosse was in Primary School (elementary school to the Americans) I played pop lacrosse (also known as intercrosse) for the school team playing against other schools in local tournaments before advancing to regional and national tournaments.
After I finished Primary School I never really advanced anywhere with lacrosse until the age of 13. A friend of mine’s dad who played for England and coached the local youth team asked me if I would be interested in playing goalie for the team as I was pretty good in a soccer goal. I began to develop as a player and really pushed on to make regional sides and then also the national team.
I was fortunate enough to play for the England u19 Team in 2012 that travelled to Finland for the World Championships; during this time, I really found a passion for lacrosse and knew what I wanted to do. After talking to various USA u19 players, I decided that making the move across the pond is what I wanted. One member of the team really stood out to me Stephen Jahelka, he took me on and helped me with the recruitment process and what I should be looking for. Due to me having little knowledge of recruitment and what to do I had to do a lot of asking around and getting in touch with people. Luckily for me I knew Jak Wawrzyniak from my days at my local club who played at Stony Brook and Providence College and he really helped me with what I needed especially as he had the same experience as me.
This all together began my long recruitment process and many emails back and forth. Although I spent hours each night researching every college lacrosse team in the NCAA I spent much time receiving no’s from college coaches due to them not being able to see me play and only getting to see highlights on YouTube. However, I never gave up on it and after discussions with various teams, I found myself at Wingate.
Wingate is a school in North Carolina around 45 minutes outside of Charlotte. Wingate play in the NCAA Division 2 SAC conference. I knew from the moment I got here that this is the place for me. The campus is beautiful and unrivaled to what I had seen elsewhere. Undoubtedly the lacrosse is what led me here, the team who brought in 28 freshmen in my class were looking exciting and had huge amounts of talent. After arriving it was unbelievable to see how welcomed I was, most people knew that an English kid was coming so it was nice to know they were looking forward to it.
Into our first practices, it was crazy to see the difference in quality overall and how fluent the ball movement was and transition between drills. One major difference especially what brought me down south was the weather, it was a vast change in climate for me swapping a freezing cold Wednesday night practice to a 90-100 degrees practice session 3 times a week. As a goalie I cannot complain, I would take a hot practice over a cold one any day of the week!
One of the hardest things for me was being homesick and not being able to visit home whenever I wanted. Thankfully due to the advancement in technology, it makes it a lot easier than a decade ago. Missing my family and my girlfriend was always a difficult one to get over but with having the lacrosse team around who are a second family really made it easier for me and didn’t make me feel alone.
Going into my first season as a college athlete was an exciting one. Competition for places was really high and especially as a goalie, it was difficult but I couldn’t have asked for a better person to compete with, as we were so close it became a friendly rivalry. My first experience as a player came in a game which will never again happen in my career (I hope not anyway) against Mount Olive where I stepped in at half time when we were 9-2 down and eventually came back to win the game 15-14 in 3OT.
The season went by quicker than anything I’d ever experienced. I managed to play in 11 games and start 6 finishing off the year with the SAC defensive player of the week. The season was undeniably the best thing that I’d ever experienced in lacrosse especially after coming out with a 7-6 record and having the first winning record since 2008.
After finishing off the year with exams it was finally time to head home, I had an idea to run a goalie camp in the UK for youth goalies in the name of my late friend Eddie Thornber as a way to develop the levels of ability for goalies in the UK. The camp although not huge in numbers was a great day out and really helped those who attended especially making it something they had not experienced before.
As well as the camp, I had the enjoyment of coaching the English Knights Lacrosse 2015 team who will make the trip to the USA next summer. I love bringing back what I learned in the US to the kids back home and helping grow the game, I adore and am extremely passionate about.
Returning this year, as a sophomore was something I was excited about, although it was difficult leaving home after spending the summer there, I had something to motivate me to return. I’m ready to make this year a big one and make a stance for Wingate Lacrosse and have the family around me build on last year.
I’m excited for what is to come for Wingate and what else is to come in my lacrosse adventure across the pond.
