J

ustin Anderson sat at his computer and waited for updates from his father, Kirk, on the score of North Carolina’s national championship game against Maryland last Memorial Day. He was forunate the game fell on a Monday, the only day of the week when he had an hour to communicate with friends and family via email.

Anderson, sitting in a “ciber” room in Concepcion, Chile — a town southwest of the country’s capital of Santiago — eagerly awaited each update.

“Maryland 8-7 at half,” Kirk Anderson said via the subject line of the email.

“That’s not too good!” Justin Anderson answered back a minute later.

Just over an hour later, he got the email for which he’d been waiting.

Date: Mon, May 30, 2016 at 12:46 PM

Subject: We win we win we win!!!!!!

UNC in overtime!!!!!!

While the Tar Heels celebrated the victory in Philadelphia, Anderson couldn’t stop telling his friends that his team had won the NCAA championship. He might have been the happiest person in Concepcion, where was completing a two-year Mormon mission trip.

Anderson, a midfielder, was supposed to join North Carolina’s 2014 recruiting class that included goalie Brian Balkam and attackman Chris Cloutier. Balkam made the huge man-down save on the first possession of overtime and Cloutier, who set an NCAA tournament scoring record,  scored the game-winning goal to cap the Tar Heels' unlikely and riveting title run. Anderson would have been there, too, but as part of his involvement with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he elected to pursue a two-year mission in lieu of starting his college career.

Anderson returned last summer and joined North Carolina in the fall. Now, at age 21, Anderson might be the most unique among a host of freshmen contributing in big ways for nationally ranked teams early in this season — not only because of his ability, but also because he is from Las Vegas and served his mission in Chile. He leads the 2-0 Tar Heels with five goals this season.

“He is well worth the wait,” North Carolina head coach Joe Breschi said. “He adds so much value to the team with his stories and what he’s been through. All the different elements of his journey, in faith and helping others. That adds so much to the kids around him on this team.”

Anderson said he’s just happy to be playing lacrosse again after two years away from the game.

“I love lacrosse and I think the world of this sport, but I knew at the time that the two-year mission was what I needed to do,” he said. “I feel so blessed to have done it. Looking at these guys after winning a national championship, I am so excited for them. I wish I could have been there, but at the same time I’m so grateful for the people that I was able to meet on my mission.”

When you think of the hotbeds of lacrosse, Las Vegas doesn’t sit near the top. In fact, the state of Nevada has an estimated 40 high school lacrosse teams, boys and girls combined.

Anderson grew up in an even smaller lacrosse niche. The youngest of six brothers at the time that he started playing, he followed in the footsteps of his brothers, picking up the game quickly.

Kirk Anderson got involved in lacrosse after meeting Eric Scholer, who had moved to the area from Ohio, where he previously established a lacrosse program. Scholer founded one of the first teams in the Las Vegas area at Centennial High School. They played the only other team in town, Palo Verde, for two years before other teams arose.

Justin Anderson followed his brothers throughout his childhood, always playing at age levels above his own. He’d shag balls for the Centennial teams and toss the ball with players.

“Justin is a product of every lacrosse player that played in Las Vegas for 10 years,” Kirk Anderson said. “There wasn’t a kid that played lacrosse that didn’t throw a ball to Justin on any team, on any field. From a young age, he was comfortable playing lacrosse with kids that were bigger and older.”

COURTESY OF KIRK ANDERSON

While Anderson grew up playing lacrosse in the Las Vegas area, he traveled the country for West Coast Starz as he got older. By the time he got to sixth grade, he was ready to compete for the renowned club team, which pulled talent from all over the West. There, under the guidance of coach Gary Campo, Anderson began to emerge as a nationally recognized talent.“No one even on the West Coast knew anything about Las Vegas,” Campo said. “When we would go to tournaments in California or wherever, people were surprised that there was even lacrosse in Las Vegas. We tried to preach to them to play as hard as they can.”

The West Coast Starz program has produced recent Division I players like Anderson, Nick Wendel (Cleveland State) and Jake Seau (Duke) that attracted attention from coaches across the country. It was time to start the recruiting process.

Although the Starz had caught the eyes of coaches, many still had no idea about the Las Vegas lacrosse scene.

 “‘Do you live in a hotel?’ Do you gamble?’” fellow recruits asked Wendel, a 2016 commit who scored the first goal in Cleveland State history Feb. 4 against Michigan.

“The players were pretty surprised by it,” Anderson said of his Las Vegas upbringing. “But I think they were more surprised when they found out that I was going to be serving a two-year mission.”

By the time the 2014 Under Armour All-American game rolled around, Anderson had more than a handful of schools vying for his services. However, he made sure to be up front with every coached that called.

He was going on a mission trip — the only decision that had to be made was when.

“The college coaches really accepted what I was asking of them,” he said. “I just feel so blessed by that. It was something that I had always planned on doing, but I was just nervous as to how the college coaches would react to it.”

Anderson took a liking to North Carolina and Breschi, who gave him his blessing for the trip, which he decided would occur before he started school. So while Cloutier and the 2014 class headed to Chapel Hill for their freshman year, Anderson was headed to a missionary center in Mexico for training and then to Concepcion, Chile.

There, his mission was to spread his faith to the people of Concepcion, teach the word of God and help in humanitarian efforts throughout the town. He was paired with a fellow missionary and worked six days a week, from early morning to night, allowing just 30 minutes to work out in the mornings. Sometimes it was a 30-minute run, other times it was an Insanity or CrossFit workout.

He brought his lacrosse stick just in case he had the chance to play, but the sport was unknown to the people of Chile.

 “When I first got to Chile, I was so excited because I was thinking that I could show all these people that I was going to go play a college sport and it was lacrosse and I was pretty good at it,” he said. “I was telling these people about lacrosse and they would just think, ‘What’s lacrosse? We’ve never heard of it in our lives in Chile?’”

If Anderson wasn’t playing lacrosse, he certainly was keeping up with it. Every Monday, he’d jump on the computer and read about how his Tar Heels were doing. His father provided the detailed updates and Anderson sent back images of him in his Carolina gear to share with Breschi.

Anderson said he was thrilled to see North Carolina end its final four drought and win its first NCAA championship since 1991. It gave him even more incentive to get right to work as soon as his mission trip ended.

When Anderson returned to Las Vegas on June 18, all he wanted to do was play lacrosse.

The day after he got back, he hit the field with his father and a bucket of balls. He was two years removed from playing lacrosse, and he hit the corners of the goal with his first 10 shots. Then he dominated in scrimmages with UNLV club players.

“I’ve never seen that kid,” Kirk Anderson said. “He was a monster. He was a great player before, but I had never seen someone play like that. He was in so much better shape now than what he would have been if he went during his freshman year.”

Anderson wasn’t home for more than a few hours, and he was already impressing his family and coaches.

“He was here 12 hours and he was working on his game,” Campo said. “It’s just Justin. He wants to prove everyone wrong. I envision him two, three years down the road accepting the Tewaaraton. I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t or shouldn’t.”

COURTESY OF UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

First, Anderson would have to begin his North Carolina career. After recovering from an injury in the fall, he made his much-awaited Tar Heels debut in style — scoring three goals and adding an assist on the starting midfield line in North Carolina's 17-6 season-opening win against UMBC.

After scoring twice in another win over Furman on Saturday, he’s North Carolina’s leading scorer. Not bad for a guy that hadn’t played the game for more than two years.

“He was nervous early because he hadn’t played in two years,” Breschi said. “I told him it’s just like riding a bike. Once he started learning the offense, from January, he’s just gotten better and better and better.”

The absence of lacrosse made Anderson’s heart grow fonder for the sport.

“It was something I’d been waiting five years for, to come to campus and put that jersey on, that Carolina jersey. I was able to do it and I just love playing the game,” he said. “It was just a dream come true for me.”