He Instagrammed a picture of himself as a kid, wearing a bowl haircut, bow-tie and sweater in a family portrait with his older brother, Mike, and younger sister, Beth. “Easter week in the Rabil household always meant family pics,” he posted. By Friday, a couple thousand of Rabil’s nearly 50,000 Instagram followers liked the photo. The most entertaining comments mentioned the haircut. As the prominent face of an emerging
sport, this is how you cultivate fans, old and new — how you spread the game and your brand. You have to show who you are, the different sides of your personality. If part of that means bringing a bit of nostalgia to a fast-paced, content- inundated society once a week, so be it. Sitting across the table at a Baltimore restaurant within walking distance from
the residence he shares with wife Kelly Rabil (maiden name Berger of the U.S. women’s national team), the 28-year-old Rabil had another throwback moment. Asked when he decided to start down this road as The Face of Lacrosse, he responded, “Not until I was doing it.” Rabil took a risk pursuing a full-time career in the sport. He spent his first nine months out of college, as a political science major and entrepreneurship and management minor, working as a financial analyst for a commercial real estate firm, then-called Cassidy & Pinkard, in Washington, D.C.
How does it feel being the Million-Dollar Man? Rabil recently became the first player to reach that status in the sport with lacrosse- and endorsement-related income over the next couple years.
“As the sport makes that push to become a mainstream recognized sport, you have to cross certain boundaries and get out of your comfort zone,” he said. “Part of our challenge is being able to effectively communicate to the younger generation that a professional lacrosse athlete is just as good of an athlete as football or basketball. That drive isn’t lost at the college level any more. That title might take a different approach to articulating that.” What’s on Rabil’s plate in the future? (During this interview, it was a dish of delicious grilled oysters.)
THE MIDDIES
Rabil and Seibald won gold with the U.S. in 2010, but the rest of the midfielders are Team USA newcomers
10 MATT MACKRIDES
PRO TEAM: Bayhawks COLLEGE: Penn State ‘12 HIGH SCHOOL: Malvern (Pa.) HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 5-10, 175 AGE: 24 TWITTER: @mmackrides39 DAY JOB: Director, Blue Ox Lacrosse
“I would say my game is derived from my older brothers, one being a skilled attackman and another brother being a do-everything midfielder,” Mackrides said. “I grew up watching my brothers play in multiple state championships and college level games.”
PRO TEAM: Outlaws COLLEGE: Maryland ‘12 HIGH SCHOOL: O’Dea (Wash.) HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6-0, 175 AGE: 26 TWITTER: @dsnides23 DAY JOB: Co-owner,
23 DREW SNIDER
CitySideLax; Head coach, O’Dea High (Wash.)
“Basketball and lacrosse are very similar. I watch a lot of NBA games in an attempt to be more creative offensively,” Snider said. “One of my best friends is Cleveland Cavaliers center Spencer Hawes, who played lacrosse with me from sixth- to eighth-grade.”
27 KEVIN BUCHANAN
PRO TEAM: Cannons COLLEGE: Ohio State ‘08 HIGH SCHOOL: Calvert Hall (Md.) HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 5-10, 185 AGE: 28 TWITTER: @KBuch27 DAY JOB: Medical sales rep, Beckman Coulter
“I wasn’t the biggest, fastest, strongest kid,” Buchanan said. “My freshman year of high school I played on the Calvert Hall freshman team. Not being part of the JV team was tough to swallow. It was about persevering, having the drive and will to get better.”
38 LACROSSE MAGAZINE June 2014>> A Publication of US Lacrosse
The focus for Rabil in 2014 has been making Team USA (the team will be trimmed from 30 to 23 after this month’s training camp and MLL All-Star Game) and competing for gold at the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championship July 10-19 in Denver. The businessman and marketer in him says the games are “the biggest opportunity the sport has ever had to catapult itself in popularity to a mainstream audience,” with ESPN providing unprecedented coverage of the US Lacrosse-hosted two-week event, a record 38 countries participating and the last two world champs, U.S. and Canada, the favorites again to battle for the title.
“When I tell people I have lacrosse to thank, I truly think I’ve been a part of this wave,” Rabil said, referring to a confluence of circumstances over the
©JOHN STROHSACKER
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