Most Division I college athletes grew up playing various sports. For a lot of lacrosse players, that means winters on the ice and falls on the gridiron.

But not all lacrosse players go the traditional route. A handful of current athletes grew up testing their athletic limits in sports that don’t get much time in the spotlight, but helped boost their lacrosse careers.

From the indoor gyms to the slopes to the water, plenty of lacrosse players grew up improving their skills far away from any turf.

The lacrosse-volleyball connection isn’t often discussed, but it’s prevalent in Maryland. Marquette’s Brendon Connolly used a lot of skills he learned on the gym floor to get better on the lacrosse turf.

“I couldn’t find a fall sport that I enjoyed,” he said. “I tried football, cross country and soccer, and it wasn’t really for me. My mom played volleyball growing up, and a coach said I can jump, so I might as well come out. I fell in love with it right away.”

Connolly, a junior defenseman for the Golden Eagles, began playing volleyball as a high school freshman at St. Paul’s and had success from the get-go. He looked into playing volleyball in college, saying it’s one of his favorite sports.

“I looked around, but it wasn’t really in the cards,” he said. “Lacrosse is what I played since I was 3.”

Unlike a lot of other states, boys’ volleyball is a fall sport in Maryland, so it doesn’t conflict with lacrosse. It’s an alternative to playing football for laxers who want to stay active, but not get as banged up.

“There’s a lot of movement and quick reactions,” Connolly said. “There’s a lot of talking because you all have different jobs.”

Rutgers’ Casey Rose ran into a dilemma: His sports had intersecting seasons, meaning he had to choose. For a while, the Salt Lake City, Utah, native was able to get away with both skiing at the national level and playing lacrosse.

Little did he know that switch would give him a collegiate career in lacrosse.

“My coach wouldn’t let me play and ski,” he said. “I got recruited to Rutgers through the other high school I switched to. In Utah, lacrosse is club and not sanctioned, so I went to a high school and played for another. The coach my senior year wouldn’t allow me to play, so I choose skiing, but then played for another high school, where Rutgers was looking at two other players.”

Rose competed from the time he was 12 until he was 18 as a freestyle skier, traveling from Utah to Wyoming to Montana and Canada. At 14 years old, he won the North American age division, and at 18 as a senior in high school he placed fourth.

Trading the slopes for the lacrosse field altogether would be too much to ask of Rose, a redshirt junior midfielder for the Scarlet Knights. He still spends his winter breaks skiing, getting it out of his system before the lacrosse season begins again.

“If it’s a three-week break, I’ll go for 19 or 20 days,” he said. “Then I’ll come back and play lacrosse.”

While Rose was on the ice and snow, Maryland’s Justin Shockey was on the water. A whitewater kayaker, he trained on the Potomac River navigating Class V rapids.

There weren’t many options to go too far in the sport, and lacrosse was always in Shockey’s blood, but he always has a passion for getting on the water.

“I always loved it,” said Shockey, a freshman faceoff specialist for the Terps and the 2017 Washington Post All-Metro Player of the Year for Landon (Md.). “Lacrosse was always for me, but I loved being on the water.”

Shockey also cited endurance and the motions of moving in the river as helping his upper-body strength when taking faceoffs.

Marquette’s Alex Malitas also played a water sport, starring in water polo in high school.

“It’s a lot about teamwork and cohesiveness,” said Malitas, a freshman defenseman out of Penn Charter (Pa.). “You have to move the ball and work together in a short amount of time because it is a very quick shot clock. If you’re not in tune, it all breaks off, and lacrosse is like that too.”

Malitas didn’t play football in high school, and he had a friend who was a captain of the water polo team and got him involved.

“I never swam,” he said. “It was kind of a transition, but it was awesome.”

A few coaches approached Malitas about playing water polo in college, but he decided not to pursue it when it looked like he had a chance to go further in lacrosse.

Being a goalie in water polo, Malitas cited the preseason practices and building his endurance — “training different muscles incorporated in lacrosse” — as factors helping his lacrosse career.

While volleyball isn’t as uncommon, and plenty of players might ski or kayak in their free time, Malitas’ water polo background isn’t matched in the lacrosse community.

“I never met anyone who played water polo,” Connolly said. “I didn’t even know he played water polo.”