Welcome to “5-and-5,” a new series from US Lacrosse Magazine that features prominent athletes, coaches and personalities combining on-field perspective with off-field persona.

Ryder Garnsey knows better than most what makes a great highlight mixtape. The lefty attackman who led the Redwoods in scoring during the Premier Lacrosse League Championship Series consistently pulls off moves that look like they were dreamt up in a video game. The highlights from his post-grad year at Phillips Academy Andover in 2015 have garnered more than 185,000 views. The abundance of behind-the-back assists, one-handed goals and toe drags make the nine-minute compilation one of the apexes of the genre. 

“I have never been the biggest, fastest, or strongest guy on the field, so I’ve always known that my stick skills and my creativity are going to be the avenue that I have to take if I’m going to be successful," Garnsey, who’s listed at 5’9” and 176 pounds, explained during his rookie year when he led all players in scoring after the All-Star break. 

But who makes the cut when Garnsey goes down a lacrosse highlight rabbit hole? These are his words as written and excerpted from an interview with US Lacrosse Magazine’s Nelson Rice.

Mikey Powell (2006)

This video has one million views for a reason. It's the holy grail, and I could watch it on repeat all day every day. He was the guy that I wanted to be like. I got to watch him live in the Carrier Dome a couple times, including when he pulled off the front flip against UMass. The front flip isn’t in this video, but even without that, there are a bunch of moves that I could never pull off and are incredibly impressive. If I tried to bust them out in a game, it usually didn’t go too well for me, but I attempted everything, minus the flip in my backyard against my dad. 

He really made that creativity cool, and I’ve tried to bring that into my game. He definitely looked like he was having a lot of fun out there, and I try to have a lot of fun every time I take the field as well. 

When I went to the Final Four in Philadelphia in 2006, the Powell brothers were there doing a skills demonstration with a bunch of stick tricks and fakes. I remember getting totally lost and had no idea where the ball was for like 20 minutes. The goalie was in a similar boat. 

He does things that no one ever had done and that you might never see again. It’s really on another level. For my money, that’s why he's the best player to ever play the game.

Matt Kavanagh (2014)

I got caught watching this in calculus class by [Notre Dame midfielder] Timmy Phillips during the first week of the fall of my freshman year. He took a picture of me watching it and sent it into the teamwide group chat with Matt. I was so embarrassed. It's funny to think back then I didn't really know Matt, but I was so unbelievably excited to play with him. A month before school started, I got a text from a random number. It was Matt, introducing himself and saying let’s get after it this year. For one of the best players in the country to do that was pretty cool. He didn’t have to go out of his way to text a random incoming freshman. I can’t say enough about the way he’s treated me since day one. 

After we lost my freshman year against Carolina [in the NCAA quarterfinals], we were sitting in the locker room, obviously very upset and crying a little bit. Kav came up to me and gave me a hug. He then gave me his jersey and said, “I want you to wear this now.” That’s something I’ll always remember. I honestly think it’s a little bit weird now wearing the No. 50 on the same team as him. I told him if you want to wear it at any time, just let me know. I still think about it as his number. 

It’s been a blast reuniting with him on the Redwoods, and he’s probably my favorite guy that I’ve ever had the chance to play with. He’s not just this guy that I’m watching his highlights from afar. He’s an incredible teammate. Fortunately, he's now somebody who's a good friend and somebody I've learned a ton from, look up to and try to play the way that he plays. 

There's something about his game that just gets me so jacked up and excited. He plays with so much fire. There’s one clip where he scores against Maryland and gets rocked but gets right back up. That captures why he’s so much fun to watch and play with. That sets this tape apart for me and is one thing I can point to and say, “That’s how I want to play.” Scoring multiple overtime goals as a freshman is also no joke. 

Case Matheis (2012)

This came out right before I got to high school. Everyone was talking about it. I thought this guy was going to be the next Mikey Powell.

He was scoring six goals a game, breaking guys’ ankles and was the No. 1 recruit in the country. He was really dynamic, and nobody could stay in front of him. I wasn’t the only one thinking he was going to be the next big thing. That’s not to say he wasn’t a great player, because I think he won a couple of national championships, but he wasn’t on Mikey Powell’s level. No one ever has been. 

The production value is also great, so I think that helps make it such a sick tape. It has one of the higher production values that I have ever seen as far as a high school tape. It’s almost like a trailer to a movie. He’s also scoring big goals in big games where you can see the scoreboard and hear the announcer's commentary. Those aspects add to the entertainment of the tape for sure. If all other things are equal in two tapes, you’ve got to give the bump to the tape that has the better production value. 

I don't really have a preference for what music works best. I don't know if my tapes had the best music, so I don't want to throw any stones from a glass house. I do think it’s cool when during a video the audio cuts to the announcers from a certain game.

The Thompson Trio (2014)

I know I'm cheating because this one features three different guys, but they're all outstanding. It seems like every goal on the entire tape was jaw-dropping, and it's seven minutes long. The entertainment value of course is there, but that doesn't come without being a great lacrosse player. 

When someone says Lyle Thompson, who in my eyes is the second-best player of the 21st  century, this is the first thing that I think of. Funny enough against Notre Dame in that epic quarterfinal, he scored a couple incredible backhand goals. That’s something I’ve tried to add to my game. 

He scores all these incredible goals, but his footwork and his balance are something that I think gets overlooked. You can try to have the same flair and creativity that he has, but also watching him, it reminds you that stuff doesn’t happen if you’re just an average athlete. You have to take care of your body and have outstanding footwork like Lyle. You can’t just walk to the five-and-five and throw a BTB. You have to get there first. I don’t know if he gets enough credit for that part of his game. 

Shamel and Rhamel Bratton (2007)

If you look at the other tapes, they’re all attackmen, so this one is an outlier. If I am going to sit down and watch something, nine times out of 10 it is going to be an attackman. 

The Bratton twins are so dynamic and so much fun to watch, I felt like I had to include them. They were doing things that a lot of people couldn’t and still can’t do. It feels like the entire tape they’re doing stuff that is equivalent to the goal Shamel had against Duke when it seemed like he broke the defender’s ankle four times in the same clip. They took shake to the next level. 

Their confidence and swagger were so cool and something that I try to play with. I can’t shake guys and break their ankles like they could, but that’s fine. You can have swagger in other ways. 

I think if Twitter and Instagram had been on everyone’s phones back then, the type of highlight reel goals that those guys scored on the regular would have only elevated their status in the game even more than it already was. The way that they played and the highlights that they produced would have been perfect for this social media age. 

Ryder Garnsey’s Footie Favorites
5 teams to use when you're playing "FIFA" and not watching highlight tapes

1. Manchester City — My favorite team to root for and my favorite team to play with. Speed all over the field and the best player in the Premier League in KBD [Kevin De Bruyne] to tie it together in the midfield.

2. Paris Saint-Germain — The duo of Neymar and Mbappe would make any team a top 5 team, but the rest of the team is solid, too.

3. Liverpool — Probably the best front three in the game and definitely the best defender in VVD [Virgil van Dijk].

4. Bayern Munich — Enough speed with guys like Coman and Gnabry and enough skill in the rest of the team. One of those teams that is as good in the game as they are in real life.

5. Barcelona — Messi is still the best player in the world and in the game, so his team has to be in the top 5 — even if the rest of the team is slow and old.