B
efore every game, Jordan Krug goes through the same routine, even listening to the same EDM SoundCloud remixes on his Beats headphones.
It doesn’t matter if it’s an NCAA tournament game or a Colonial States Athletic Conference clash in which Cabrini is heavily favored. Krug, a junior attackman, simply wants to win, an attitude that coach Steve Colfer said is contagious for the Cavaliers.
“Quintessential Jordan, it’s like Cool Hand Luke,” Colfer said. “He’s cool, calm and collected. It’s vanilla ice cream, but in a good way. It’s consistency, and there’s never a moment where you have to bring him down or get him up for the occasion.”
That approach, Krug asserts, comes from his youth sports days in his hometown of Marlton, N.J., about a 50-minute drive from Cabrini’s campus in Radnor, Pa. He grew up playing football, wrestling and lacrosse, thriving in each.
In football, the 20-year-old played tight end and defensive end, winning state championships as a junior and senior at Cherokee High School. In wrestling, Krug started as a “scrawny” freshman at 145 pounds, then competed in the 182-pound weight class a senior. With lacrosse, Krug didn’t fully devote himself to the game until eighth grade, and trained on Sundays only when out of season.
Given the prevailing trend of kids specializing in one sport, Krug went against the grain, said Craig Barlow, his former coach in all three sports.
“When he was in middle school, he was a actually a long-stick middie,” Barlow said. “Then we’d put him on man-up with a short stick because he shot the ball the hardest when the kids were in sixth grade. He’d do anything we’d ask him.”
We've named the four finalists for @warriorlax Division III Men's Preseason Player of the Year. Vote and read more https://t.co/lopF5ZSWkU
— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) January 4, 2018
CC: @RedDragonPride, @CabriniMLAX, @Wes_Athletics, @SalisburyMLAX
With 100 goals and 51 assists through his first two seasons at Cabrini, it’s an understatement to say Krug has come a long way in lacrosse. He was named the CSAC Rookie of the Year in 2016, earned USILA third-team All-American honors in 2017 and has been named the Warrior/US Lacrosse Division III Preseason Player of the Year ahead of the 2018 season.
Such a progression, Krug said, simply comes from devoting himself more to lacrosse now that he’s at Cabrini. Rather than suiting up on the gridiron or the wrestling mats during the fall and winter, he’s been afforded more time to work on his stick skills and shooting.
“Through high school, I wasn’t that skilled in lacrosse,” Krug said. “I was an athlete and fought really hard, but once I got here to Cabrini, it’s all changed.”
Colfer said he always knew such growth would come around, especially as he looks back upon the phone call between Krug’s junior and senior years of high school, when he committed to the Cavaliers.
“At that point, I was coaching some club and we had a meeting, so I had to step outside,” Colfer recalled. “I don’t remember much of the meeting after the phone call. He just had all the tools. What he lacked in lacrosse, we knew he would make up for it with athleticism and grow as a player.”
Krug originally thought of going to Hartford but ultimately decided upon Cabrini via some help from Bobby Thorp, a fellow Marlton native who played for the Cavaliers from 2010 to 2013. Thorp coached Krug at Cherokee and in club for South Shore Lacrosse. Krug needed little convincing.
Such assuredness also comes from Krug’s parents. His father works in regional sales and his mother at an AC Moore. They’re “regular people,” Barlow said, and shaped Krug into the type of person who returns home each summer and coaches in a six-week clinic for 8- and 9-year olds.
“Maybe I’m drawing it too far, but when you see little kids gravitate to college-aged kids, there’s something positive there,” Barlow said. “Kids are pretty good judges of character.”
Although Krug is not a team captain, he is part of a Cabrini leadership group with whom Colfer meets weekly.
“You have some guys over the years and you wonder what they’re up to in life after school,” Colfer said. “He’s a young man where I don’t wonder that one bit. I haven’t worried one day since he stepped on campus.”
What’s foremost on Krug’s mind ahead of his junior season? Getting to NCAA championship weekend. He said a bitter taste lingers in his mouth after getting bounced from the NCAA tournament by Salisbury in the quarterfinals last year.
But with a sizable core returning from a Cavaliers team that finished 17-4 — notably upsetting Salisbury during the regular season — Krug believes they have the makeup to go further. Cabrini is ranked No. 7 in the Nike/US Lacrosse Preseason Division III Men’s Top 20. The Cavaliers start the season Saturday at Haverford.
“We aren’t the young pups anymore,” Krug said. “All of us have the same goal and mentality that for us to be successful, we have to be there at championship weekend. No excuses.”