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. PLL Archers and U.S. training team attackman Will Manny is one of the best finishers in the game. Who serves it best? These are his words.
Rob Pannell
A surgeon of the X attack position. Rob is so lethal scoring on his own and scoring in so many different ways, that’s what opens up his feeding — and he’s not afraid to do it. He’d love a zero goals, seven assists game. He understands right away what a defense is doing and goes with the flow. Capable of passing with both hands coming from X, he is more of a pinpoint accuracy guy than a throwing missiles through the defense guy.
Ryan Boyle
The first QB I got to play with in pro lacrosse. Ryan is a bulldog when he plays. Takes an absolute beating to get to a spot on the field, creates space by bouncing away and throws you open. You can see how easy the ball comes out of Ryan’s stick since he plays with zero hold or whip, which makes his passes easier to catch and see. He started my career as an off-ball player!
Tom Schreiber
The best feeder from the midfield position I have ever seen or played with. He had these abilities back when we played together at St. Anthony’s (N.Y.) and has just gotten better and better each year. Tom doesn’t just read where the slide is coming from when he dodges the pole, he picks apart the two slides that are cheating and sends the ball right through four or five defenders’ sticks right on the tape with a no-look pass. It’s hard to explain. Just always have to be ready when T has the ball.
Grant Ament
Of the younger group, a kid that has taken all of the skills from these guys and more and implemented them into his game. Changing stick levels and slicing the ball past defenders’ helmets from wing to wing before they know what’s happened. He is a tremendous talent and will continue to do so at the pro level. What I love about Grant is his ability to throw a heater through the whole defense and his finesse to throw a touch pass or BTB pass internally.