When the Denver Outlaws won their first championship in franchise history in 2014, midfielder Drew Snider was happy to have played a part in it. Despite his own sense of fulfillment, however, he couldn’t help but notice the extra joy that teammates Jeremy Noble, Dillon Roy, Cam Holding, and Zack Greer had. Those four not only helped the Outlaws win the MLL championship, they were all part of the Canadian National Team that beat the United States and won gold at the 2014 FIL World Championships, giving them two championships in a matter of five weeks.

Snider was cut from the U.S. team in 2014, but he was a member of the team that beat Canada for the gold medal in the 2018 FIL World Championship. With the Outlaws one of the four 2018 MLL playoff teams, he also now has an opportunity to win two championships in one summer.

“When we won the MLL championship, knowing a lot of those guys on the team also won a gold at the Worlds, it was something I looked up to them in that regard,” Snider said. “I wanted that. I wanted to obtain that. All goes well the next couple weeks, I’d be accomplishing that goal as well. I did try to make that one of my goals.”

Excluding the injured Steven DeNapoli and Jack Kelly, 22 of the 23 players on the championship United States team play in Major League Lacrosse. Of those 23 MLL players, 13 are in the playoffs: Snider with the Outlaws; Jesse Bernhardt and Matt Danowski with the Bayhawks; Jake Bernhardt, Joe Fletcher, Kyle Hartzell, Rob Pannell, Paul Rabil, and Kevin Unterstein with the Lizards; and Ned Crotty, John Galloway, Joel White, and Jordan Wolf with the Rattlers.

Major League Lacrosse was already 12 weeks into the season prior to the start of the FIL World Championships. The players flew from the U.S. to Israel and then played seven games in 10 days. 

While the players were focused on the task at hand, Crotty admitted he still thought about his Rattlers teammates.

“A bunch of us didn’t leave until Monday [July 22]. We caught the end of the Rattlers-Denver game,” he said. “After we won the [gold medal] Saturday [July 21], our team chat was blowing up. A bunch of guys were congratulating us. A bunch of guys stayed up and watched it, and then it was the other way around on Sunday. The guys who were still in Israel were blowing up the group chat as well, saying, ‘Congratulations.’”

While players were happy to get back to their MLL teams and teammates, returning to life in Major League Lacrosse after the World Championships, however, was not an easy task.

“I wish I could tell you [it was] on to the next thing, right back at it, but it’s different,” Crotty said. “You go to Israel for two weeks and after all that, you come together, win in dramatic fashion the way we won, win a gold medal, it’s an unbelievable experience, and it’s emotionally exhausting. No doubt. You come back, and it’s different. You work so hard to get out of the MLL mindset, the way the game is played while you're over with FIL, and then you come back and have to get back in that mentality.

“You go from being with a group of guys every single day, sleeping together, training together, working out, practicing, playing, all of that to now going back to the weekend thing,” he added. “Once you touch down in Dallas, you’re going to practice. The other guys on the team are very supportive, but no one wants excuses of, ‘Well, you know, he’s tired from the World Games.”

The players on the United States national team accomplished their goal. As competitors, however, their work wasn’t done, even with gold medals around their necks.

Major League Lacrosse players always have the Steinfeld Trophy as their goal, and the players returning from the World Championships used their teammates to help them refocus and provide extra motivation.

“There definitely was a little bit of that honeymoon phase afterward, but we’re not in Israel anymore,” Jesse Bernhardt said. “I won the MLL championship as a rookie, and for the past four seasons, I’ve missed the playoffs. I haven’t had a great taste in my mouth the past four years. There’s still that want and need to be successful with the Bayhawks.

“You’d be shocked how many guys who play for the Bayhawks haven’t been in an MLL playoff game, whether they were drafted by us or came from other teams that just weren’t successful,” he added. “To give those guys a taste and them be hungry helps to aid a guy like me and want to win.”

Bernhardt said he was disappointed to have left Chesapeake during the season for the World Championship, but he said it helped that the team was in a good place when he left.

He said he used his time with the United States team to now help the Bayhawks win a championship of their own.

“For the guys in the MLL, we’ve been so far gone from doing a lot of fundamental things, whether it’s defensive approaches or overhand shooting, where with Team USA, we could go back to that,” he said. “When we played the Outlaws [on July 28], I thought we did a good job with that stuff. I’m not trying to come back saying, ‘Hey, I was on Team USA. We won a gold medal. This is what we should be doing,’ but there’s definitely some carryover.”

Being a leader on his MLL team is also something Snider brought back from his time with Team USA.

“There are a lot of great lacrosse players in the world. As you progress, the margin that differentiates players is very slim,” he said. “Every team you play on, players come from all across the country. They bring a different piece to the puzzle. Going through that experience and being a part of that team will help me find my role on the Outlaws. The games that have gone already this season have helped me find my role. I’ll continue to progress as a player and a leader as time goes on.”

While the talent level in Major League Lacrosse is seemingly at an all-time high, especially considering a team of MLL all-stars beat Team USA at the 2018 MLL All-Star Game, the playoffs feature the best of the best.

The Team USA players are well aware of the idea that it is not easy to win a championship, but they can’t help but imagine how special winning two in a matter of months would be.

“If that does come true, honestly I can’t ask for a better 2018,” he said. “I also coach O’Dea High School [in Seattle, Washington], and we won the state championship earlier this spring. From that, to a world championship, to an MLL championship would be completing the trifecta. I don’t know what else I’d want as a coach and player. If that happened, I’d be a very happy man.

“Myself and every guy who puts on an MLL uniform, having to go train by yourself, get treatments, rehab by yourself, all year and during the week, the sacrifice leaving families, to have such a successful summer, if that’s the way it went, that would be great,” Bernhardt added. “I enjoyed putting in all the time and work. I don’t do it for the money. I do it for the camaraderie and for the competition. If it concludes in an MLL championship, it would be fantastic.”

Crotty was a part of Team USA the last time they won a world championship in 2010. He was also a rookie with the Chicago Machine that summer — the team struggled to win games, meaning Crotty did not get to play in the playoffs with an opportunity at another championship.

He did, however, win the NCAA championship with Duke University prior to the World Championships, so he already has some experience winning two championships in the same summer. He very much wants to repeat that feat in 2018 with a professional championship.

“Then, 2010 was a hell of a summer,” he said. “To finally win the national championship and then a month and a half later win the World Championship. it was a heck of an experience. It was definitely a time I won’t forget. I’m not going to lie, I thought about it in terms of this summer, how great would it be to do it again. … We put ourselves in a position to do that, and we have to hold true for one more game and, hopefully, punch our ticket to Charleston.”