Garrett Thul took a seat on the couch in his living room not knowing the sheer elation he was about to experience.

It was Feb. 21, and Thul’s Army men’s lacrosse team faced off against a familiar foe in Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. Thul battle the Orange five times in his career and knew how important the game was to this edition of the Black Knights.

Syracuse went up 6-1 early in the first quarter, but Thul and his son, Charlie, were not deterred. The Black Knights, as they often do, roared back to take an 8-7 lead at halftime. With every goal, Thul jumped up from his seat and screamed — his daughter, Sammie, was not fond of the hollering, but Charlie joined in.

By the third quarter, Army expanded its lead while Thul paced around the living room, losing whatever voice he had left. He held Charlie on his shoulders, and the father and son watched as his alma mater pulled off one of its most impressive wins in program history.

“Every goal and stop on defense, every faceoff win, I’m jumping up and down and yelling,” he said. “I was going bananas for most of the game. I had tears running down my face, and my voice was completely hoarse.”

The result was an 18-11 victory, but it meant a lot more to the Thul family. He called his father after the game to update him on the big win.

“I basically gave him the play-by-play for the final few minutes,” he said. “He hadn’t heard me that excited in a long time.”

At 30, Thul has found his passion for Army lacrosse again. The 2013 graduate of West Point left the program as its all-time leading goal scorer, finding the back of the cage 163 times in his four seasons.

Thul spent the better part of three years pursuing a career in Major League Lacrosse and the National Lacrosse League, in addition to playing with the 2014 and 2015 U.S. national teams in field and box, while balancing his responsibilities as a West Point grad. But he decided after the 2017 MLL season to pursue his career in the Army full-time, momentarily putting aside his passion for lacrosse.

It took four years — during which Thul worked his way from a platoon leader in Fort Benning, Ga., to a company commander in Fort Bliss, Tx. — but the former star attackman is ready to try his hand at professional lacrosse once again. Earlier this year, Thul announced he’d end his service in the Army to pursue a roster spot in the Premier Lacrosse League.

He’s returning to prove to himself that he can still play, to show his children just how much he loves the game and to shine a light on a career path that includes lacrosse for Army graduates.

“You see the quality of the athletes and the men that are there playing Army lacrosse, and it makes me want to continue that tradition,” he said. “[My comeback] is a testament that you can do it at Army. You don’t have to choose. Army is a place where you can still maintain your edge. You can still be the best in the military and then turn it back on.”

Thul admitted that until this year, he hadn’t spent much time working on his craft. He’s years removed from being the strong, aggressive attackman who left a legacy in West Point, N.Y. He finished his career as a three-time All-American and scored two second-half goals in the 2010 double-overtime NCAA tournament upset of Syracuse.  

Coach Joe Alberici remembered Thul as a player who embraced contact en route to a successful career.

“He was the most physically imposing player I’ve ever coached,” Alberici said. “He was a punishing dodger, and he could shoot the ball with velocity. He was so good at using his strength. I haven’t been around too many players that sought contact like he did. He was just delivering blows.”

After Thul’s Army career ended, he stayed on campus as an athletics intern for 14 months. There, he helped with administrative duties, assisted with the Army Prep School boys’ lacrosse team and served as a second lieutenant in the infantry — a schedule that allowed him to play professional lacrosse on the weekends.

By the summer of 2014, Thul was scoring goals with the MLL’s Florida Launch and the NLL’s Philadelphia Wings. He also tried out for the U.S. national team ahead of the world championship in Denver, Colo. — a tryout process that saw him play “lights out” and earn a spot on the eventual silver-medal team.

But just a month later, Thul was headed for Fort Benning to start officer training. His road to balancing both careers got a lot more complicated.

“That’s when I turned into a pumpkin and my Cinderella clock was up,” he joked.

Thul entered training in Fort Benning almost two years behind a typical timeline of a West Point graduate, having missed a few opportunities while pursuing his pro lacrosse career. He immediately enrolled in the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course (IBOLC) for six months before heading straight to Ranger School.

He spent 85 days in Ranger School in early 2015, and he lost 60 pounds going through rigorous training. (Just about half of those who enroll do not complete the course.) Thul tried to maintain his lacrosse career despite the lost weight, playing in one MLL game that summer and finding his way onto the roster for the U.S. indoor national ahead of the 2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship.

Just days after winning a bronze medal, Thul headed to Fort Bragg, N.C., to serve as a Heavy Weapons Platoon Leader in the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. There, his team was tasked with global response anywhere in the world. With a couple hours’ notice, he would have had to be ready to literally jump into combat.  

He had just welcomed his son, Charlie, into the world, and his career had reached a new level.

“You get to go home and sleep in your bed every night,” he said. “We had to be ready because if you get a phone call any time of the night, you’d have to run in and drop parachutes and ammunition and go jump in some foreign country somewhere. We always had to be ready, always had to have a backpack.”

After 16 months on the Global Response Force, he served as an Operations Officer at the battalion level, then to the Captain’s Career Course (“how to be a captain for dummies,” he called it) before planting his boots on the ground at Fort Bliss in El Paso to work as a Brigade Staff Officer for 18 months — serving a deployment in South Korea from 2018-19 — and later a Commander for the Blackhawk Company in the Fourth Battalion, Sixth Infantry, First Armor Division.

As a Company Commander, the title he held before decidng to leave earlier this year, Thul managed a unit of 150 people, running simulated combat activities at the National Training Center and managing 14 armored vehicles. “It’s like this rolling deathtrap,” he said.

The Army experience was not entirely different from that of a college athlete. Thul said he took several lessons learned from Alberici and applied them to his time in service.

“Lacrosse is a team sport, and the thing that keeps me going is being the best I can be for the team,” he said. “The more time I spent in the Army, you get really good at team building. What’s really hard is getting people when they’re scared, when they’re tired, when they’re hungry, when they’re cold, to stand up, walk forward and accomplish a very complicated task.”

Thul’s Army resume is full of accomplishments, and it took him less than five years to rise through the ranks. However, he had to make sacrifices along the way — like giving up his MLL career after playing in just eight games from 2015-17.

For years, Thul had to put lacrosse in the back of his mind to allow him to perform at a high level in his new career. The once bulldozing attackman dropped down to 215 pounds and trained with CrossFit and half marathons. He didn’t want a lacrosse career to take away from his focus for his unit and the United States Military.

“I would think about it all the time,” he said. “When you decide to retire, especially from something that’s been a big part of your life, it’s painful. I used to avoid watching sports because it pained me to watch. Now, I realize I did that because I was running away from something I truly loved.”

While his service in the Army was the priority, Thul was becoming a better leader. He was learning how to be a better teammate. He was gaining a better perspective on what it meant to be physically fit. He was becoming a better lacrosse player without evening knowing it.

After returning from Korea, where he helped mentor some of the members of its national team while in service, Thul started picking up a stick more often than he had in previous years. When he watched Army lacrosse, he started getting that same sense of excitement and pride that he had when he played.

The man they called “The Hulk” was ready for a comeback. He told his wife, Casey, that he wanted to retire from his service and pursue a second shot at professional lacrosse.

Thul spoke with fellow Army Lacrosse alums at Fort Bliss, like Chaos LC defenseman Johnny Surdick. The two plan to meet up and train together as the Premier Lacrosse League season approaches.

“For me, having an attackman of that caliber out here to practice and get reps with is fantastic,” Surdick said. “He is absolutely in good shape. I don’t have any doubts about him or his play for this year. Having him come back, you see the light at the end of the tunnel, that it’s still possible to keep up with your skills. It could encourage more Army guys to want to play professionally and show that it can be done.”

Thul’s tenure with the Army officially ends in July, so he’s not in the clear just yet. However, he has started training with a personal speed and agility coach in El Paso, working on his explosiveness and power. He’s dropped his CrossFit regimen and long-distance running.

The physically imposing attackman is slowly coming back to form. This time, he brings a wealth of experience in leadership and team-building with him. He hopes to hear his name called during the PLL Entry Draft on March 25, but he’s excited for his potential, regardless of where he ends up.

He’s not only trying again for himself, but to give his children — Charlie, 8; Samantha, 3; and a new baby on the way — a chance to see what their father can do on the lacrosse field. That bruising dodger who could run over defensemen? That’s Dad.

“I'm just a completely different me than I was the last time I was on a field,” Thul said. “They’re still getting the same hard-nosed guy they had before. They’re still getting the same hard-working guy, but I’m more disciplined and focused than ever. I’m a better leader and team player than I was before. I’m excited for me 2.0.”