PEACE LAX BLOG

MACKENZIE SMITH:

Mostly the location; I really like playing in the warm weather instead of the cold, so the SSC became the perfect conference for me to play in. I also wanted to play at a D2 school, so that’s why I gravitated to the SSC because it’s one of the most competitive D2 conferences, and allows for sunny and warm playing conditions almost all year round. The school itself is beautiful, and is Florida’s STEM University, which is the program I am planning to major in.

MS: When we were all forced to quarantine and stay home unless necessary to leave, I was right in the middle of spring lacrosse season, the best part of the year in my opinion. I went from practicing 5 days a week with games, working out, and seeing my teammates on a daily basis from no practices, no games, no gym, and no chance to hang out with my teammates.

I would say I had a really hard time adjusting at first because I am the type of person that thrives with a lot of things on their plate, so to go from having so much to absolutely nothing on my plate was a hard transition. I was able to make time to focus on my nutrition, try to adapt to workout at home, focus on stick work, and go for daily walks outside, which were some things I didn’t have the time to do originally.

I honestly found having so much free time was nice because lacrosse had consumed the majority of my free time, so at that point, I was really debating on not playing collegiate lacrosse after having that free time. I was back and forth for months, honestly until about June. Once practices slowly resumed, I started getting back into the routine I love so much and realized that I need that kind of structure and family in my life when I’m in college.

MS: My recruiting process started about the middle of my sophomore year. I thought I was late to the game because I switched club programs, and at my previous club my coaches weren’t helping us with recruiting-I was almost on my own.

Once I switched clubs to play for 214, they were the reason I got back on track and with their help and help from my parents, I signed up for SportsRecruits and started my official recruiting process.

From the beginning, even before my sophomore year, I was always focusing on going D1, as I would say the majority of athletes are encouraged to do when they begin being recruited.

I got in front of the D1 coaches that I wanted to notice me, but either didn’t fit the type of player they were looking for, or barely missed the cut, and to be honest it started to break me and my mentality became “well, maybe I’m just not cut out for this.” I worked really hard and showed out, and it just didn’t seem to be enough. At this point, I started straying away from going D1 because the more I talked with teammates, coaches, and my parents, D1 just didn’t seem feasible for what I wanted.

I would like to say that I train like a D1 athlete would, but the D1 lifestyle just wasn’t for me. I have chronic knee problems, so practicing 5-6 days a week for 4 years wasn’t going to be realistic for me.

I wanted to have free time in my schedule and also be able to play lacrosse and have time for academics, and D2 became the main focus at that point. It was hard to swallow my pride to decide on moving past D1 schools because you seem to see everyone committing to these top D1 schools, so going D2 or even D3 made me feel as though I would get looked down upon because I didn’t live up to the D1 dream that every young athlete has.

What truly got me out of thinking that way was that it’s going to be my next 4 years, not anyone else’s, so it really doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about my commitment to a D2 school. Sometimes even, some D2’s are even more competitive than some D1’s.

It came down to what was going to fit my agenda, and where I was going to be able to make the most impact on a team for 4 years, rather than Most likely sitting the bench most of my freshman and sophomore years at a D1 college.

MS: I really enjoy going to concerts and working out. I also like to hang out with my friends in my free time.

MS: I want to either be a kinesiologist because I really enjoy physical fitness and enjoy helping others recover and get back to the best version of themselves, or I would like to work in the forensic psychology field because I am very interested in psychology in general, and I find the field very diverse and interesting.