Having grown up in Toronto, Park City High School senior Jake Gutman is familiar with McGill University, a popular public university with 26,000 undergraduate students in the heart of Montreal.
As a captain on this year’s Park City High School boys’ lacrosse team, Gutman decided to take his talents in the midfield back north across the border for his collegiate career. When teammate and fellow senior captain and midfielder Rufus Frost heard there was an opportunity to attend and play lacrosse at McGill, he leapt at it.
Ditto for captain and defender Alec Roussos.
This fall, three of the leaders from this year’s Miners team will be part of the McGill Redmen men’s lacrosse team.
“It’s such a big school, it’ll be nice to have two anchors as friends to fall back on,” Gutman said.
The seniors, who will graduate in a couple weeks, have until August to enjoy their summer before heading to the great white north and preparing to play in the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association’s 16-game regular season schedule, which begins in the fall.
According to Park City High School head coach Andy Langendorf — a native of Montreal, whose brother attended McGill — the decision by three of his seniors is one they will not regret. McGill is known as one of the top academic universities in Canada.
“Something I’ve told all my players is that they should pick their school based on academic need, not on a lacrosse need,” he said. “At the end of the day, that’s more important. It’s one thing to play lacrosse there, another thing to go to school there.
“There’s a great deal of success there for them; above and beyond lacrosse, they’re going to be part of a huge lacrosse community up there. They’re going to excel.”
Frost, who took his official visit with his mother during Park City’s spring break this April, said coming from the open space of the Wasatch Back to the fast-paced lifestyle of a happening Canadian metropolis was quite eye-opening.
“I thought it was pretty overwhelming,” he said. “Just the culture, the French, it was all kind of a culture shock, basically. But, obviously, McGill is a great school.”
Roussos didn’t have time to take a visit. He took a shot in the dark in deciding to head to Montreal with his teammates instead of Boston University.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “I’ve been looking forward to getting out of Utah for a while. It’s going to be a challenge getting used to things there, but it’s going to be a different experience.”
Gutman, who learned French as a youngster in Toronto, said his friends must make the necessary adjustment to becoming bilingual. All the street signs in Montreal are in French. Frost and Roussos both said they plan on taking an introductory course this fall.
More than the massive change in culture and lifestyle, the trio must be able to adapt their lacrosse game as part of the 36-man roster, 19 of whom are from the United States, according to Langendorf.
“They’re stepping into the realm of college lacrosse and these are big guys,” he said. “The great thing about those three players is fundamentally, they’re sound. That’s why Coach (Tim) Murdoch recruited them as hard as he did. You don’t have to be big in lacrosse, but you can’t be stupid. We spent a lot of time on fundamentals. They understand the game.
“That is something that is really going to serve them well in the future. Players are big and strong and fast, and that’s great, but it’s not part of the total package.”
As Gutman pointed out, the rules in the CUFLA are less rigid than those in the U.S.
“There’s going to be a lot of hard work if we want to see playing time,” he said. “The speed, the size, and post-grads can play in their league. We could be playing 30-year-old men.”
The trio credited Langendorf and other coaches who emphasized early on that if they played hard and, as Gutman said, “weren’t babied,” they could one day get to the level they’ve now achieved.
Frost concurred.
“This year, as captains, we had to take responsibility for the team,” he said. “I think that was good in preparing us, knowing we can’t just ride other people’s success.”
Roussos, who could see early playing time as McGill is graduating a number of seniors from this year’s backline defense, said he isn’t worried about what-ifs.
“I’m just going to go in there and see what happens,” he said. “If it comes to me, then by all means, I’m going to work hard and go for it.”
Langendorf said he expects Gutman to see a prominent role as a defensive middie as his career moves forward and Frost could see early time due to his ability to put balls in the net.
“It opened people’s eyes here in Utah,” he said. “People are thinking, ‘Maybe I can go play lacrosse north of the border,’ and that’s because our guys are forging the way to make that happen.”
The former Miners plan to live together in the fall. When they began asking one another when they were headed to Montreal, flight times and dates were being tossed around until Frost intervened.
“I think we’re all taking the same flight,” he said.