Former Monmouth Alum Bryce Wasserman was named the 2020 Major League Lacrosse Most Valuable Player after a campaign where he helped the Boston Cannons win their second MLL title in franchise history.
He was under recruited, the second to last draft pick, and cut from the team he was originally drafted to. Despite being faced with adversity, Wasserman prevailed.
Wasserman grew up in Southlake, Texas and first discovered lacrosse when he was at baseball practice as a child.
As a sophomore in high school, Wasserman experienced a turning point while attending the Top 205 Recruiting Camp in Baltimore. He said, “That was my first exposure to kids who had really been playing lacrosse since they were born.”
He added, “I kind of had to sit down and look myself in the mirror. I knew I loved the game, I knew I wanted to play it for as long as I possibly could so I saw what the standard was and I knew I needed to commit myself to kind of reach that standard that those kids set up on the East Coast.”
After Wasserman graduated from Monmouth, he was drafted, cut, and made his professional debut all within a matter of months.
“That was definitely a whirlwind. You go from the high of getting drafted to the harsh reality of how small pro lacrosse rosters are,” said Wasserman.
He was drafted in the seventh round of the MLL Draft by the Denver Outlaws in 2018, becoming the first ever Monmouth Alum to be selected. Wasserman was then picked up by the Ohio Machine where he went on to make his professional debut.
Fast forward to today, Wasserman is now with Boston and led the team to their first championship since 2011. Wasserman finished the abbreviated season with a league-high 21 points.
The Cannons Attackman, said, “I’m pretty speechless about it even now just coming from where I have and the road that I went on. It still hasn’t really set in. My name being on that list of the all-time greats. I really don’t think it’ll ever set in.”
Wasserman considers his time at Monmouth the best five years of his life. As a freshman, Monmouth had just become a D1 lacrosse team. Wasserman said, “Being a part of that program, and kind of being the footsteps for future teams to follow was something that was really special for me and my class and the grade above us.”
The team at the time taught him how to take ownership of himself and his process right away saying, “At Monmouth, we had to own up really early at a very young age and I think that really helped us a lot.”
On a personal and academic level, Wasserman said, “You’re a lot more than just a number. I really think that it [Monmouth] builds you to go out into the real world as a confident, young adult, and you can kind of assert yourself into any room you go into.”
Wasserman gave a shout out to his former coaches at Monmouth, Brian Fisher, Andrew Geison, Daniel Lawrence, and Lewis “Lew” Vaccaro and will miss seeing them at homecoming this year. To the current team, he said, “I was lucky enough to play with the current fifth year seniors when they were freshmen so I’m really excited for them and their full circle journey so hopefully they can pull it together and win another conference championship.”
PHOTO COURTESY of Mark Mohrman
