Michael Powell (lacrosse)

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Born	October 29, 1982, Watertown, New York, USA
Position	Attack
MLL Team F. Teams	Boston Cannons Baltimore Bayhawks
Nationality	United States
Pro Career	2005 – 2005
Nickname	Mikey

Michael "Mikey" Powell (born October 29, 1982) is an American lacrosse player. Known for his innovative, acrobatic style of play, exceptional quickness, and sensational stick skills, he attended Syracuse University where he led the team to two National Championships. The all-time Syracuse leading scorer, Mikey is the most decorated player in collegiate lacrosse history. A four time 1st team all-American, he became the first (and only) player to win the Jack Turnbull Award as the top attackman in Division I lacrosse four consecutive times. He was a four time finalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy (the lacrosse equivalent of the Heisman Trophy) and is the only player to win the award twice^[1]. Both of his older brothers, Casey and Ryan were also four time all-Americans at Syracuse. He is considered amongst the greatest lacrosse players of all time. He frequently offers free clinics for underprivileged lacrosse players.

Contents 1 Personal background 2 Syracuse career 2.1 2001 Season 2.2 2002 Season 2.3 2003 Season 2.4 2004 Season 3 Post Collegiate Career 4 Awards 5 See also 6 External links 7 References

[edit] Personal background

Michael Powell was born in Watertown, New York and raised in the small village of Carthage, New York. He was taught the game of lacrosse from his older brothers Casey and Ryan at a young age. He went on to star at Carthage Senior High School. As a senior in High School Powell set the national single-season scoring record^[2]. While he was growing up, his older brothers became two of the most famous lacrosse players in the country. Casey played at Syracuse from 1995-1998. He was a four time All-American, a two-time Player of the Year and as a freshman led the Orange to the 1995 National Championship. After his collegiate career Casey went on to star in the MLL. Ryan was also a four time All-American at Syracuse. He was the National Player of the Year in 2000, and led the Orangemen to the 2000 National Championship. In a remarkable coincidence, Ryan scored five points in his final game, the 2000 National Championship game, to finish with exactly 287 career points. This tied him with Casey as Syracuse's all time leading scorer^[3].

[edit] Syracuse career

Following in his brother's footsteps, Mike arrived at Syracuse in the fall of 2000 as the most anticipated recruit in college lacrosse history. Wearing the #22 jersey worn previously at Syracuse by both of his brothers, and by Gary Gait, and Charlie 'Lazer' Lockwood (all four time All-Americans)^[4], Mike met the high expectations set for him immediately.

[edit] 2001 Season

In 2001, Powell became the first player in Syracuse Lacrosse history to be named a first team All-American as a freshman. He tallied 30 goals, 40 assists and 69 groundballs while also leading Syracuse to the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship title game against Princeton University. In a memorable game, Powell scored an unassisted goal with just 16 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime, but the Orangemen ended up falling to the Tigers on a B.J. Prager goal. After the season Powell was awarded with the Jack Turnbull Award as the nation's top attackman, and was a finalist for the first ever Tewaaraton Trophy^[5].

[edit] 2002 Season

Powell followed up his spectacular rookie campaign with an even better sophomore season in 2002. Mike led the nation in scoring, notching 84 points (42 goals, 42 assists) and was again selected a first team All-American. Powell again carried the Orangemen to the national championship game, with the Orange this time prevailing over Princeton in a tight thriller, 13-12. Powell scored four goals, including the game winner, and had three assists. After the season Powell again won the Jack Turnbull award, and this time also won the Tewaaraton Trophy^[6]. In the summer of 2002 Mikey became the youngest player to ever participate in world competition, helping to lead Team USA to a gold medal at the 2002 World Championship. Mikey was the tournament's second leading scorer. All was not as well as it appeared for Mikey as Syracuse, however. Powell was notified over the summer that he was academically ineligible to return to Syracuse in the fall because of his poor grades. Allegedly Powell had a 1.99 GPA, just short of the 2.0 required for him to stay in school. Although Powell took responsibility for his poor academic showing, he also expressed displeasure over how the school handled the situation. After returning from the World Championship Powell suggested to the Daily Orange, Syracuse's student newspaper, that he was considering transferring. He specifically expressed a desire to play at the University of Virginia with fellow attackman Johnny Christmas ^[7].

[edit] 2003 Season

Powell missed the fall 2002 semester (and fall practice) at Syracuse but was able to regain academic eligibility before the 2003 lacrosse season. In the 2003 Powell had a sub-par by his standards year. Teams began locking Powell off^[8] (denying Powell the ball and essentially turning the game into five on five, which is very difficult for the defense). This tactic is rarely employed on the collegiate level. Syracuse made the final four for the 21st consecutive time, but Syracuse fell to Johns Hopkins 19-8 in the semi-finals.

[edit] 2004 Season

Powell ended his college career in spectacular fashion. In 2004 he scored 89 points, roaring past his older brothers to set the all-time Syracuse scoring record with 307 points, which places him second all-time in NCAA history. He was also again named a first team All-American, becoming just the fourth lacrosse player to be named a first team All-American four times^[9]. Powell also led the underdog Orange to their 9th NCAA Lacrosse Championship. The fourth seeded Orange beat top seeded Johns Hopkins 15-9 in the semifinals, before staging a comeback against second seeded Navy in the championship game to win 14-13. Powell scored one goal and five assists in the final.

[edit] Post Collegiate Career

Mikey Powell surprised many in the lacrosse community when he decided against playing in the MLL for the summer 2004 season. Instead he pursued a career as a professional musician. All three Powell brothers signed a lucrative endorsement contract with Brine, Corp. (the older two brothers had previously been endorsers for Warrior Lacrosse) and Mikey began working out of Brine's west coast office. The Syracuse lacrosse team had an off year in 2005, missing the NCAA Final Four for the first time in 23 consecutive years. Also no Syracuse player wore the #22 jersey in 2005. This marked the first time since 1987 that Syracuse did not have a four time all-American wearing #22. In 2005 Mikey decided to play in the MLL. He was selected as the MVP of the MLL all star game, and along with Gary Gait led the Bayhawks to the league championship. Mikey then, however, sat out the 2006 MLL season. On March 21, 2007, Powell, along with Ben DeFelice and a 2008 conditional draft choice, was traded from Baltimore to the Boston Cannons in exchange for Ryan Curtis and Conor Gill.^[10]

Mikey was the leading scorer for team USA in the 2006 World Lacrosse Championship and was selected to the All World team. However he, along with his brother Casey, received criticism for his play in the World Championship final, a 15-10 loss to Canada. The Americans had been 13-1 all time against Canada before the loss.

[edit] Awards

Preceded by Doug Shanahan	Men's Tewaaraton Trophy 2002	Succeeded by Chris Rotelli
Preceded by Chris Rotelli	Men's Tewaaraton Trophy 2004	Succeeded by Kyle Harrison
Preceded by Ryan Powell	Jack Turnbull Award 2001, 2002, 2003, & 2004	Succeeded by Matt Danowski

[edit] See also

• Casey Powell
• Ryan Powell
• NCAA Men's Division I Lacrosse Records

[edit] External links

• Mikey Powell's Homepage
• Powell Brothers Lacrosse

[edit] References