Over Memorial Day Weekend, a Major League Lacrosse player went viral for his actions off the field rather than on it.
Boston Cannons midfielder Max Seibald received a ton of Twitter love after a letter he sent to a young fan was published on the website “I Love to Watch You Play.” A young fan in California had emailed Seibald applauding his play and asking him several questions about his game, and Seibald personally responded and answered every question.
Seibald said he didn’t write the fan back for publicity. He said he typically responds to fan mail and that he knows other players do as well, and he did it because he’s been in that kid’s shoes before.
“I received this letter, I want to say a couple months ago,” he said. “It’s a part of who we are as ambassadors of a game. A fan wrote me an email, and I took the time to respond. I guess I can look at it as a work email, or I can put it in perspective of a letter from a fan, which I was.”
While Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League each have at least one hundred years of history, Major League Lacrosse is only in its 17th season.
Kids growing up playing hockey, football, basketball or baseball had professional athletes to look up to and a league to dream about playing in one day. Young lacrosse fans did not always have that luxury, at least in regards to field lacrosse.
As Major League Lacrosse continues to move forward, however, there is beginning to be an influx of players who grew up watching the game on television and attending them in person, including Seibald.
“I remember specifically going to an MLL game when it was just two teams,” he said, referring to the Major League Lacrosse Summer Showcase in 2000, which was used to promote the league’s 2001 debut. “When it came, I jumped at the opportunity to watch the best players in the world. Watching the Gait Brothers and Powell Brothers was not something a young fan like me got to do then, so to see it live was awesome.”
Already a lacrosse fan, the showcase did its job and got Seibald excited for the professional league.
“It was something I had never seen before,” he said. “I had gone to college games. I had seen a championship game on TV. To see that level on one field, it was probably the top 50 players in the world, to see that level of play was something exciting. It was a goal of mine after seeing that to get to that level and play amongst the pros.”
More players echoed that sentiment.
“I grew up going to Cannons games, looking up when they’d be on TV on Comcast Sportsnet New England,” Connor Helfrich, a second-year faceoff specialist who was drafted by the Cannons in the 2017 Supplemental Draft but waived prior to the season, said in an interview in New England Lacrosse Journal. “I grew up as a little kid going to games. I have Cannons jerseys in my house.”
“I did get to see the Cannons-Lizards game when I was younger with my PAL Farmingdale team,” said Boston Cannons attackman Will Manny. “It’s just how I developed as a person and a player, watching other people, seeing the speed and physicality. I remember Nicky Polanco, how big he was on the defensive end. The fast pace and how smart and tough the game was, was eye opening to me and sparked my interest, and it’s what kept me going, having those guys in my back yard.”
Florida Launch starting goalie Austin Kaut grew up in the Philadelphia area and was lucky to have the Philadelphia Barrage — second in league history with three championships despite ceasing operations prior to the 2009 season — in his backyard.
“It was one of the best teams in the league at one point with Brian Dougherty, Kyle Sweeney and Ryan Boyle,” he said. “Brian Dougherty was one of those guys who coached me growing up and taught me to play goalie. Watching him play and do the things he taught me was a cool experience as an aspiring professional lacrosse player.”
He specifically remembers one play that solidified what he wanted to do with his life.
“I went to watch Brian Dougherty play the Boston Cannons and one of the Boston Cannons players was coming down on a [fast break]” he said. “Dougherty reaches down, punches the ground with his stick and comes back up and the player froze and threw it right at him. He made a ridiculous save. He had the confidence to stand in there and punch the ground and taunted the player to shoot it. It stood out to me that it made me want to be a professional goalie one day.”
Kaut said watching the league as a youth player made his eventual rookie season seem even more surreal.
“My first year I got to play with Sweeney and Ryan Boyle,” he said. “Brodie Merrill is still doing it. I got to play with those guys in Boston.”
“It was a different experience getting in there as a rookie and you don’t know what to expect,” he continued. “The balls are flying 100 miles per hour. The shots are more accurate. Those guys took me under their wing and showed me the ropes.”
As league officials continue to work towards improving attendance and growing both the league and the sport as a whole, Cannons general manager Kevin Barney said the youth player aspiring to one day play in the league isn’t the only fan that is important.
“We need not only players, but guys who grew up playing the sport as fans of any team in the MLL,” he said. “We need them wanting to support it and bring their kids. That’s one of the biggest challenges of our league in ticket sales. All the youth coaches 10 years ago they didn’t play growing up. They want to come to a game, but they didn’t say, ‘I grew up a Cannons fan and can’t wait to bring our kids like I did when I was 12-years-old.’ Now, you’re not just going for the kid, you’re going because you went too.”
Seibald also credited the adult fan groups, like the Ball Busters, who support the Cannons.
“It’s pretty entertaining to hear what they have to say,” he said. “It’s nice to have fans that come rain or shine. They arrive in the parking lot to tailgate before some players get to the locker room.”
For Kaut, relating to the fans and showing them the same respect and support they give to him is what he views as the most important aspect of being a professional lacrosse player.
“Growing up, it was the same thing,” he said. “You’d hope the guys would talk to you, and it made your day. It means the world to these kids … to go over and shake their hand, introduce ourselves and ask what position they play, if they ask for an autograph. It’s a great feeling to know you can make their day. It’s a full-circle experience from doing it when I was younger.”
In the first week of the MLL season, the New York Lizards traveled to Annapolis to take on the Chesapeake Bayhawks. Despite rain, the game was the most attended MLL contest of the weekend. Fans were treated to an overtime thriller (even though the home team lost) followed by post-game autographs.
Kids shouted for the attention of all-stars such as Paul Rabil, Greg Gurenlian, Rob Pannell and Matt Abbott. They wanted autographs, selfies, Instagram follows, and a quick conversation. All players obliged to varying degrees before heading back to the locker room.
As night progressed and the stadium slowly emptied, the cacophony of screams went from multiple names to just one: Myles.
Myles Jones, the former Duke midfielder and first pick in the 2016 MLL Collegiate Draft, was the last player on the field, and by a long time as well.
Despite being tired after playing an overtime game and disappointed his team lost, Jones signed every lacrosse ball, took every selfie, and answered every question. And he did it all with a broad smile on his face.
It would have been understandable for Jones to retreat much earlier, but Jones also remembered being a young lacrosse fan, and wanted to do his part to make the evening a memorable one for those kids.
“I feel like when I was growing up playing lacrosse, our favorite stars weren’t readily available, so we couldn’t come down and see our favorite players,” he said. “All these kids here, they’re going to be those guys playing in the future, so I hope they see the way we act, and see the way I devote my time to them, and hopefully give back, and hopefully, it’s small steps for the sport to grow in the grand scheme of things.”