Greg Gurenlian, the 35-year-old who reinvented the faceoff, announced his retirement from lacrosse on Wednesday in a post on the Premier Lacrosse League’s Instagram page.
“Physically and emotionally, I’ve left it all on the field for the people I played for and with,” Gurenlian wrote in the letter. “This sport has given me so much.”
Affectionately referred to as “The Beast,” Gurenlian spent four years at Penn State before being drafted by the Rochester Rattlers in the 2006 Major League Lacrosse Draft. He bounced around the MLL until spending his final eight seasons in the league with the New York Lizards. In 2015, he set the MLL record for most ground balls in a season, most faceoff wins in a season and highest faceoff percentage in a season en route to earning league MVP honors. He was also a 2015 MLL champion.
He retired in 2017 to spend time with his newborn son, Jackson, but then returned to play in the PLL’s inaugural season with Redwoods LC.
At LaxCon 2020 in Philadephia, Gurenlian revealed his grand plan to revamp the faceoff. Getting involved in the rules discussion is a passion of his, he said.
“You’ll be seeing a lot of me and I can’t wait to get to work on the next chapter of my life,” he wrote.