In 2015, Saint Joseph’s men’s lacrosse coach Taylor Wray received a call from St. Andrew’s (Fla.) coach Tony Seaman about a goalie that could change his program — St. Thomas Aquinas (Fla.) rising senior Mike Adler.

Adler had just single-handedly shut down Seaman’s team in the Florida state semifinals. Wray listened to Seaman, but he couldn’t figure out how Adler had gone undetected by fellow Division I coaches. 

“‘Why is this kid still out here as a senior?’” Wray pondered then. “He’s got some great hands in high school. Then you hear the backstory.”

On May 4, 2013, ahead of an incoming tropical system, Adler, an avid surfer of Fort Lauderdale, and his friends went to Sebastian Inlet, a local hotspot. Riding one last wave, Adler felt a sharp pain he likened to rocks falling on his foot.

“Holy crap, I’m getting bitten by a shark,” he recalled thinking. “I knew it right away. It grabbed me and tried to pull me under the water, but thank God I was strong enough to rip my foot out of its mouth. Its tail swung up on its way out of biting me.”

In shock, Adler paddled to shore, where a former Army medic tied his board leash around his leg as a tourniquet. Then he spent five days in the hospital, where his story made national news.

Adler needed 50 stitches and tore five ligaments in his leg, which resulted in months of physical therapy.

Adler’s story then set his lacrosse journey apart from any other prospective student-athlete in the nation. Not only had Adler found his love for lacrosse late in his high school career, but he also missed the marquee recruiting events that summer.

Now, Adler is the starting goalie for the Hawks as a redshirt sophomore and is slowly becoming one of the best in the country. In 2018, he finished with a 59.6 save percentage, good for third in Division I. 

“As a lacrosse goalie, I’m always trying to find different ways to improve, whether that’s just playing ping pong or having someone throw something really fast at me,” Adler said. “That’s what the whole shark attack taught me — that you can do things in completely different ways. [Through the recovery,] I fell in love with lacrosse again.”