This article takes an in-depth look at where the players at Waterdogs Lacrosse Club come from.
Do you know which players attended the same high school? Which players were NCAA teammates, and which were fierce conference rivals?
Read on…
Waterdogs And The Tour-Based Model
The Premier Lacrosse League has a tour-based model with all the clubs coming together at weekends to the same venue.
This means that the Waterdogs Lacrosse Club doesn’t have a permanent base to call its home.
So is it fair to say that the coaches don’t care where their players come from? The problem with that policy is that the fastest way to establish a team culture in a young club is to have a core set of players who already know each other.
When the PLL was first set up, they had this to say about forming the teams:
…these teams have been built around players who have played in colleges together or played rivalries against each other…
Divya Goel, May 2019
When we looked at the player backgrounds at other clubs, it was clear that there was some attempt to have small clusters of players from the same colleges represented in the team.
However, it seems that the Waterdogs selectors haven’t read that script. Let’s look a little closer at the roster. If you want a full breakdown, we’ve also got the Waterdogs rosters since the league began.
Which Colleges Are Waterdogs Players From?
The above map shows the twelve states in the United States where Waterdogs players were at Division 1 colleges. Just scan across for the logo!
The current team comes from seventeen NCAA Division 1 colleges across these states.
The highest number of players at a single college is just two! Those institutions are:
- Delaware
- Denver
- Maryland
- Ohio State
- Rutgers
Let’s break them down:
| College | Player | Graduated |
| Delaware | Matt DeLuca | 2020 |
| Delaware | Charlie Kitchen | 2021 |
| Denver | Jack Hannah | 2022 |
| Denver | Ethan Walker | 2021 |
| Maryland | Jake Higgins | 2022 |
| Maryland | Connor Kelly | 2018 |
| Ohio State | Ben Randall | 2018 |
| Ohio State | Jake Withers | 2017 |
| Rutgers | Christian Mazzone | 2018 |
| Rutgers | Christian Scarpello | 2018 |
Why are the Waterdogs so scattered in background?
I mentioned that the other clubs have clusters of players from the same college. If you look at the inaugural Whipsnakes roster, twenty of the original players were Terps (Maryland).
So, why is Waterdogs so different? It maybe because the club wasn’t part of the first PLL season. They were formed a year later after a PR campaign conducted with Barstool Sports to name the new team.
That campaign led many to believe that Barstool owns the club. That isn’t actually true. You can check out the story in our article on who owns the Waterdogs in the PLL.
Former Rivals, Current Teammates
It may seem like having players from so many different colleges reduces the advantage of a shared history.
However, the quote we mentioned earlier also spoke about player rivalries. That refers to players repeatedly clashing against traditional rivals in the NCAA conferences.
They may even know their former opponents’ strengths and weaknesses better than they knew their college teammates.
And now the former rivals come together as teammates in a new club!
Nine players at Waterdogs played in the Big Ten Conference. But did they play in similar seasons? Let’s take a look.
Big Ten Conference
| Player | College | Graduation |
| Jake Higgins | Maryland | 2022 |
| Chris Sabia | Penn State | 2019 |
| Ben Randall | Ohio State | 2018 |
| Christian Mazzone | Rutgers | 2018 |
| Christian Scarpello | Rutgers | 2018 |
| Connor Kelly | Maryland | 2018 |
| Jake Withers | Ohio State | 2017 |
| Mikie Schlosser | Michigan | 2017 |
| Ryan Brown | Johns Hopkins | 2016 |
So, we can see that Jake Higgins is the rookie who came in with the 2022 college draft.
But there is a significant cohort of players whose college careers were in overlapping seasons.
Colonial Conference
| Player | College | Graduation |
| Charlie Kitchen | Delaware | 2021 |
| Matt DeLuca | Delaware | 2020 |
| Ryland Rees | Stony Brook | 2019 |
| Steve DeNapoli | Hofstra | 2010 |
The veteran Steve Napoli had graduated from Hofstra when the other three Waterdogs in the Colonial Conference were in short pants.
But DeLuca and Rees would have played against each other in their college days.
Hometowns And High Schools
We’ve looked at the colleges, but what about the players’ hometowns?
Three of Waterdogs’ Canadian players are from the same hometown. However, Peterborough in Ontario is a sizeable city of over 80,000 people.
Having said that, two of these players went to the same high school. Ethan Walker and Zach Currier went to Culver Military Academy.
There are about four years in age difference between them. So, Zach would have been leaving while Ethan was getting to grips with a stick.
There are also two American Waterdogs who went to the same boarding school in Connecticut. Connor Kelly and Zac Tucci attended Avon Old Farms.
Connor is three years older and hails from Connecticut. Zac is from New Hampshire so was a little further away from home.
Canadians At Waterdogs
There are six Canadians at Waterdogs.
- Zach Currier
- Matt Hossack
- Ryland Rees
- Dillon Ward
- Ethan Walker
- Jake Withers
Zach Currier is probably the standout player on this list. He was a 2021 All-Star for an outstanding season.
In our review of player salaries at Waterdogs, we estimated that Currier was one of the top earners at the club.
