Parallel Paths: PLL All-Stars Sowers, Teat Inextricably Linked

Michael Sowers got the scouting report for the upcoming scrimmage opponent, The Hill Academy. At the top of the list was the name “Jeff Teat.” When the U.S. U19 team watched film, the coaches consistently focused on Teat.

“I didn’t know who he was before that,” Sowers said. “I just remembered thinking like, ‘Jeez, we’re giving this guy a lot of attention.”

The Hill Academy not only beat the U.S. — which would go on to win the world championship in 2016 — but Teat also scored at least five goals in the 16-11 victory.

“That was the first time I had really seen him play,” Sowers said. “But I just remember being like, ‘Holy [crap], this guy’s really good.’”

From then on, the careers of Sowers and Teat were connected, traveling parallel paths on their lacrosse journeys, from competing for team wins and individual honors in college to going first and second in the Premier Lacrosse League draft in 2021 and quickly becoming two of the best players in the league.

Both Sowers and Teat played in the Ivy League, Sowers at Princeton and Teat at Cornell. As freshmen in 2017 they immediately made an impact and set records, Teat breaking the Cornell freshman scoring record with 72 points and Sowers breaking the Princeton single-season points record with 82 points. Both were three-time USILA All-Americans. Both were team captains.

Both also were almost teammates with the Boston Cannons in Major League Lacrosse. Kind of.

The 2020 MLL Draft was held May 4, months after the college season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were several uncertainties facing MLL teams heading into the draft. The league had not yet announced plans to play that summer, eventually opting for an abbreviated bubble season in July. College players were deciding whether they were going to return to school and use another year of eligibility or not. Also, once again, the MLL was competing for potential players with the PLL.

Despite all the uncertainties, Boston coach Sean Quirk was ready to gamble. Teat and Sowers slid deep into the draft until the Cannons selected Teat with the first pick in the fifth round and Sowers three picks later.

“Speaking with the other coaches, mostly coaches and few GMs in the MLL at the time, they were convinced that their organizations would not be able to land either of those players, that they were going to the PLL,” Quirk said. “With our front office of Ian Frenette, who was our president, Mark Drago, who was our vice president, and Rob Hale, our owner, I spoke to all those guys, and they were like, ‘Yeah, we want to win. We want to be the best team in this league.’ If there ever was a merger, we wanted to show that we were ready to go to the PLL, so we thought we had a shot at you to get those guys to Boston, fit them under the salary cap and have them do some marketing things in the Boston area that that could have them play here.”

Feeling strongly that the other coaches were going to avoid using draft capital on Teat and Sowers, Quirk waited until the later rounds to select them. While he didn’t know for sure if they would play for the Cannons, he was already envisioning how to use them together.

Quirk felt the team needed an X attackman, and that’s where Sowers would have played. Quirk loved his quickness, vision and tenacity going to cage.

Teat would have played on the left wing. The Cannons already had Mark Cockerton in that spot, who was lighting up the scoresheet with 29 goals in seven games in 2018 and 43 goals in 16 games in 2019. But Quirk was confident Cockerton would have run out of the box as a midfielder and work two-man games with Teat.

Cockerton felt like they would have formed an unstoppable trio with the Cannons.

“I love to have different guys being very good at different things,” he said. “You would have Michael Sowers being the initiator, the dodger, the speedy guy who could beat any matchup. You would have Jeff working two-man games —sgreat feeder, can dodge for his own, great team guy. And then you would have myself being the inside guy, outside shooter, doesn't need to hold the ball to take it away from them, to complement their games and feed off of them. Always moving to occupy defenders and get open. They’re two of the best feeders in the game. That would have been an absolute treat.”

Sowers was sitting on his couch scrolling Twitter when he saw the news he was drafted by the Cannons. He already knew he was going back to play college lacrosse, but when he saw the Cannons also drafted Teat, he couldn’t help but entertain the idea for a minute.

“You think, ‘Oh, I know I'm going back to school, but that would be pretty cool to be able to play with him and finally be on the same team together,’” said Sowers, who played his graduate season at Duke. “Even though I kind of figured at that point he was going back to school, too.”

Even without Sowers and Teat, the Cannons went on to win the 2020 MLL Championship with an attack of Cockerton, Randy Staats and league MVP Bryce Wasserman.

Sowers and Teat entered 2021 as the top two prospects in a deep draft that included JT Giles-Harris, TD Ierlan, Jared Conners, Mac O’Keefe, Connor Kirst, Jack Kielty, Jake Carraway, Danny Logan, Ryan Terefenko, Tre Leclaire and Charlie Bertrand. Despite the cornucopia of talent, Teat was selected first by Atlas and Sowers second by the Waterdogs.

“I landed in what I think is probably the best possible situation with the Waterdogs,” Sowers said. “Do I wish that I went one? Sure, I think that there's like a little part of you that's like, ‘Man, it would be cool to go number one.’ But at the same time, I was just telling myself, ‘Wherever I go, it's going to be for the right reasons.’”

The turnaround for the Atlas was immediate. In addition to Teat, the team drafted Carraway, Logan, Dox Aitken and Peter Dearth, who all became contributors on a team that went from 1-4 and last place in 2020 to 6-3 and tied with the Waterdogs for the best record in the league. Teat finished second in the league in scoring with 16 goals and 32 points. He won the Rookie of the Year award and was a finalist for league MVP.

Carraway, who stood out in his own right with 16 goals, was impressed by Teat.

“He's a phenomenal player,” he said. “Watching him, he kind of moves in slow motion. He is not the quickest or most athletic guy. He's not going to do some crazy move and blow past you, but he's just the silkiest player and always is in the right spot, always making the right play. Predominantly being an off-ball shooter as a rookie and him being on the left side, me being on the right, I just camped out and all of a sudden the ball was in my stick without having to move too much.”

Cockerton, who joined the Atlas in 2021 and again in 2023 and played with Teat for the Canadian national eam, formed a good chemistry with him and saw early on how good he could be.

“I was kind of blown away,” he said. “The game really slows down for him. He doesn't panic. He always has his eyes up, and he just makes the game really look easy.”

Sowers wasn’t around much to experience the Waterdogs’ success that season. In the second half of the opener against the Cannons, he suffered a concussion and missed the remaining eight regular season games. He returned for the PLL semifinals against the Whipsnakes, where he scored two goals in the Waterdogs’ 14-10 loss.

Sowers bounced back in a big way in 2022, however, tallying 21 goals and 11 assists while only missing a single game during the regular season. Then, in three playoff games, he had eight goals and four assists and was named PLL Championship MVP after helping the Waterdogs beat the Chaos in the championship game.

Not only has he emerged as a leader of the Waterdogs offense, the third-year pro is also becoming a leader in the locker room. Carraway joined the Waterdogs as a free agent in the offseason, and he said Sowers was the first person to reach out to him, enthusiastically welcoming him to the team. Whether it’s a text or in-game motivation, Carraway said Sowers is always there for his teammates.

“He is so humble and selfless and truly cares about the guys,” Carraway said. “I pulled my hamstring this past weekend in Baltimore and got a text from him earlier today just checking in, seeing how I’m feeling. Another example, mid-games, if someone’s in a slump, he'll come up to you in the huddle and just be like, ‘Yo, do your thing. You're good enough. You know what you need to do,’ and just give you a little motivation.”

In addition to his PLL Rookie of the Year award, Teat has earned an All-Star nomination all three years in the league. Sowers, along with his championship MVP, has been selected to two All-Star Games. Both played for their respective countries in the World Lacrosse Men’s Championship and were named to the All-World Team.

If Sowers and Teat had both played for the Boston Cannons, Quirk thinks they could have been another pair in the long line of great Boston sports duos like Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski or Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. Instead, as opponents, they’re star rivals that will always be linked and compared like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning or Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

Just like those famous adversaries, Sowers and Teat have different playing styles and personalities, but they also motivate each other to be the best they can be while appreciating each other.

“When you're along the same journey with somebody every step of your career, and you're the same age, naturally, you're going to be be compared to each other,” Sowers said. “Me and him going one and two in the draft and then going up for accolades against each other, inherently as an athlete that's definitely a thing.

“We both just have an appreciation for the game and a love for the game,” he added. “We're both just out there on our own journey trying to be the best version of ourselves, and we just so happen to be going along at the same time.”