Looking Back: Jacob Smith

(The Looking Back series features Anna Maria College spring student-athletes and coaches to tell their story about what they will miss following the cancellation of the spring season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We celebrate our student-athletes and coaches by allowing them to share their stories and hope their own words can bring a positive light during these unprecedented times.)

Written By Jacob Smith (Sr., D, Belchertown, MA/Belchertown, Criminal Justice)

PAXTON, MA - Looking back, I was not expecting to play lacrosse in college. I always felt that I had the ability to play college lacrosse if I focused on it, but that focus was always put on hockey; the sport that I had played and loved since I was five years old. Instead, lacrosse was my sport to just go and have fun playing a game that I loved with my friends. When my dream of playing college hockey did not work out I planned on going to school and moving on from athletics. However, after my hockey career was over, I was given a second chance at being a college athlete when Coach Mayo contacted me. A few months later I was starting my freshman year at Anna Maria and I will be forever grateful for what Coach Mayo has done for me.

With open arms, I was quickly taken into the family that is the Anna Maria Men’s Lacrosse team. This family is what I will miss the most about my college lacrosse career-ending. For the last four years, every day was something different from these guys. Things were never predictable and I mean that in a good way. Be it during practice or pregame warmups, in the locker room, or in the dorms, someone was always doing something that would make you laugh, catch your attention, or make you want to join them. Despite all the joking around and trash-talking each other, everyone was always able to get serious when the time came to get the job done. These guys became my brothers and not seeing them every day is going to be difficult for me to get used to. 

On top of leaving my second family, the worst part about the way this season ended is not knowing what could have been. Over the last three seasons, we built this team up from a program that many people never thought would be anything, to one that was respected. This year though we had something special. We were taking the next step to not just being respected but being a force. There was just something different with the family this season. The attitude and the heart were there at a level that I had never felt before. We had the opportunity to do things this program had never done before, but now we will never know just how high we could have risen. That is what is truly devastating.

If I could go back I would not change a thing from these last four years, good or bad. Everything that has happened during my academic and athletic careers at Anna Maria has made me the person that I am today and has given me a whole team of brothers that I will never forget. Thank you, everyone, for an amazing four years.

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