FAST START: Andrew McMeekin, center, races to goal after controlling the faceoff in a game this spring during his senior season for the Princeton University men’s lacrosse team. McMeekin set program records of 710 career faceoff wins and 455 ground balls on the way to helping the Tigers win the national title this season as it topped Notre Dame 16-9 in the NCAA final on Memorial Day. Days after graduating from Princeton, McMeekin joined the Boston Cannons of the Premier Lacrosse League where he has gotten off to a fast start in his pro career. He is currently leading the league in faceoff percentage at 61.3 percent (62 of 98). (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)
By Justin Feil
Andrew McMeekin needed only six seconds to introduce himself to the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL).
The faceoff specialist who recently graduated from Princeton University won the first faceoff in his debut with the Boston Cannons, raced down and ripped a shot that went off the pipe. Though the shot didn’t score, it was enough to prove that the undrafted rookie wasn’t intimidated in the least and that he belonged in the PLL.
“I was trying to start it off with a hot one,” said McMeekin, a 6’1, 225-pound native of Newtown Square, Pa., who helped Princeton win the national title this spring in his final college campaign as it defeated Notre Dame 16-9 in the NCAA final on Memorial Day.
McMeekin had done it plenty through his career for the Tiger men’s lacrosse team, having set program records of 710 career faceoff wins and 455 ground balls. Now he’s just picking up where he left off with national champion Princeton for the Cannons who are coached by Brian Holman.
“Coach Holman brought me in and he let me know that I’m here to play,” said McMeekin. “He wants me to shoot. He wants me to play how I did in college. Like he doesn’t want me to switch anything up, he loves what he saw from me. So I guess that made me have the ability to just do what I normally do. And then as far as my mindset, it’s just like a respect all, fear none.”
McMeekin is the lone new FOGO (faceoff, get-off specialist) starting in the PLL. The pro league has established specialists like Trevor Baptiste, TD Ierlan, and Connor Farrell. McMeekin has jumped right into the mix. Getting off to a fast start, McMeekin currently leads the league in faceoff win percentage at 61.3 percent (62 of 98).
“It is pretty surreal, to be honest,” said McMeekin, who has also contributed a goal and five assists in his first six games with the Cannons. “I won against TD Ierlan, who I think is the greatest faceoff guy of all time. And I mean, I held my own. I went tit for tat. It feels like they’re in a different league, but at the end of the day, you are also with them and here for a reason.”
His experienced teammates have been constantly reinforcing that message to McMeekin, and he’s done his best to acknowledge the greatness of each of his opponents and not put them on a pedestal.
“Obviously I understand that it’s such a cool thing to go against these true legends of the game, which has been a dream of mine forever,” said McMeekin.
Boston has given McMeekin that chance. The Cannons are the only team that he heard from after his record-breaking career for Princeton. He’s brought that success into the highest
level and performed well.
“I do think I have a pretty big advantage coming out of college,” said McMeekin. “Because all the college guys are physically in the peak shape of their life, and they’ve just gone through a gauntlet of a year where they’re pretty much still in-season. I’m playing on a team with guys who have children and are fathers, so it’s just hard to keep that same lifestyle up. So I guess from a physical standpoint, it’s easy to just keep rolling through from the season.”
He’s made an immediate impact. The Cannons didn’t have a FOGO ranked in the top six in the league last year, but he’s shored up that aspect. He’s been able to use his strength, technique and aggression to aid the Cannons.
“It’s a little different in terms of the mechanics and what the refs are giving you,” said McMeekin. “But it’s nothing crazier than what we’ve done this year. And it’s always coming down to practice and comfort level. I’ve practiced the PLL rules a lot before I started playing the first game and kind of the mechanics from the ref. I think it fits my play style. It’s just fast, they’re not really trying to call any ticky-tacky fouls and just let the guys kind of play for the ground ball, scrap it up, which is definitely in my game. So I think the overall narrative of the league helps my play.”
McMeekin is trying to make the most of his chance. He had always hoped to play in the PLL, thinking about it when he was coached by former Princeton and current Utah Archers head coach Chris Bates while at Episcopal Academy (Pa.) and seeing it closer at hand when former Tiger players made the PLL. He understood how difficult it was to get into the league at a specialty spot. The Princeton coaches advocated for him behind the scenes after a hectic and thrilling end to his college career in which he helped the Tigers win their first national title in 25 years. He hardly had time to really let it all sink in before he was playing professionally.
“It was interesting because we kind of got thrown right into the whirlwind of graduation and then starting the pro stuff right after that,” said McMeekin. “So I kind of had to carve out some time to just really think about what happened and kind of take a moment to realize that we’d achieved our ultimate goal. If I didn’t stop and think about it, I could have waltzed right past it pretty easily.”
His family, friends and teammates wouldn’t let him forget the incredible season it was. In the Tigers march to a championship which saw them finish with a 17-2 record, he set Princeton’s single-season records of 232 faceoff wins and 154 ground balls. He was happy to see the championship realized before he graduated.
“It was really awesome that it happened my senior year,” said McMeekin. “It felt like all the work had kind of paid off for my whole lacrosse career as a build to that moment. It all kind of felt like it worked out. And at least the seasons before that, it felt like we had things that we had messed up or could have done better that we took the time to adjust all those and get them right for the last one. It kind of all just came together serendipitously and it was a great way to go out. So I think it was awesome to happen my senior year and there’s obviously no better way to do it than that.”
His contributions were a big part of the Tigers’ success. Without their strong faceoff unit, Princeton would have had less possession and potentially fewer scoring opportunities. He won 58 percent of faceoffs to earn honorable mention All-America.
“I was able to kind of just focus on my duty and my role independently of the greater goal and picture,” said McMeekin, who also chipped in six goals and four assists this spring. “And it was easy to take it one step at a time like that. Obviously we have ambitious goals, but when it’s just a day-to-day thing, I’m only worried about that practice or that game that’s coming up next. So it’s easy to kind of compartmentalize in that sense and kind of just do your job there.”
McMeekin has done everything in his power to get to the point where he can take over a game at the faceoff X. His strength is the stuff of viral videos. As a junior he dead lifted 785 pounds to the howling approval of his Princeton teammates on one such clip. He didn’t try to lift more than that as a senior, choosing to focus on his flexibility, health and strength. The combination of speed and strength and quick burst has made him effective.
“At a high level, as a faceoff guy, it’s also your ability to be an elite midfielder,” said McMeekin. “And that kind of gets lost in the shuffle a lot of the times when faceoff guys are training to be faceoff guys. But to be a good midfielder requires speed, strength, hand-eye coordination, stick skills. And as much as the clamp and stuff matters and your speed to the ball matters, a lot of the time it gets ugly after that and it’s kind of just about filling in the gray area and being able to pick up a tough ground ball and stuff that just kind of helps when you’re a bigger athlete.”
McMeekin is hoping he can help Boston push for a spot in the PLL playoffs where the top three teams in each of the league’s two conferences qualify for the playoffs. They were 2-4 heading into the all-star break over the July 4th weekend and have gone 2-1 since to improve to 4-5.
“The overall team mindset is, we are so close to being 4-2 as opposed to 2-4,” said McMeekin of the Cannons, who are now in third place in the Eastern Conference which is being led by the Philadelphia Waterdogs at 6-3. “We’ve only had like a couple lapses in judgment here and there that have just kind of hurt us. So very little things are keeping us back. I think people are trying not to freak out and kind of just worry about keep on keeping on and just do our thing and hammering a little bit as we can. And then, I mean, as a rookie coming in, I kind of have not felt stressed at all for our team because I’m like, this is the greatest combination of players I’ve ever seen on one team.”
McMeekin is still adjusting to the pro game. But he’s impressed right from the opening faceoff. All he wanted was the chance to prove himself, and he did it out of the gate, continuing on individually at the pro level after a historic run finished with a national title for Princeton.
“I was able to get picked up and they gave me a shot for the first game and then I did well and they kind of just rolled with me from there,” said McMeekin. “So I’m really enjoying it. It’s fun to keep playing.”