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American team. By his senior year, his hand speed and strength made him dominant. He won draws easily, sprinted through defenses and regularly scored in transition. “It got to the point where teams would just jump back on the whistle and play defense,” said Sal Tromonda, the Morristown-Beard coach. “Trevor progressed as a junior from being a good middie to being a really good faceoff guy. But nobody really knew who this kid was.”


Baptiste, thinking that Division I recruiters had largely passed him by, set his sights on being a two-way midfielder at Franklin & Marshall and sharpening his faceoff tools. He began working in December of his senior year of high school with Chris Mattes of The Faceoff Academy, which was co-founded by MLL superstar and Team USA faceoff specialist Greg Gurenlian.


Little did Baptiste know laxmagazine.com


“HE’S ACTUALLY GOTTEN STRONGER AND IMPROVED HIS TECHNIQUE. HE COULD BE THE BEST THERE EVER WAS AT THIS POSITION, AND HE STILL DOESN’T FEEL LIKE HE’S THAT GOOD.”


— BILL TIERNEY


that Denver was looking for another FOGO. Former Denver assistant Dylan Sheridan, now the coach at startup Cleveland State, called Mattes in New Jersey to ask if he could suggest any possible candidates. Mattes suggested Baptiste. It was March 2014. “Trevor was good when he came to us, but he needed a lot of work,” said Mattes, who also is a volunteer assistant at Maryland. “After a couple of months, I told him if Franklin & Marshall was where he wanted to be, that’s fine, but he’s a Division I player. When Dylan


called me, I told him Trevor could be special.”


“I went back [on video] and watched every faceoff Trevor took in high school,” Sheridan said. “It was pretty easy to see his athletic ability. But the mental side is what sets him apart. He doesn’t get rattled. He adapts game-to-game, faceoff-to-faceoff. Still, most guys struggle facing off when they break into Division I.” Not Baptiste. He


commanded the position, losing only one battle in 19 games — to Brown’s Will Gural in Denver’s first-round, NCAA tournament victory.


Seven games into the 2016 season, Baptiste was still rolling, having won 68.6 percent of his 169 draws, and still obsessed with getting better. “He’s actually gotten stronger and improved his technique,” Tierney says. “He could be the best there ever was at this position, and he still doesn’t feel like he’s that good.”


May 2016 » LACROSSE MAGAZINE 29


©MARC PISCOTTY


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