During the summer before high school, Sam Riecken ‘22 was cut from his club lacrosse team.
“It was a pretty big setback for me,” Riecken said. “It just kind of motivated me to want to work harder. I just didn’t want to leave it up in the air like that.”
Four years later, Riecken committed to Yale University, one of the best Division I lacrosse teams in the nation.
With a National Championship title in 2018, Yale was always on Riecken’s radar.
“From the start that was my top school, obviously they have historically been a good lacrosse team as well as good in the classroom,” Riecken said. “There’s just a certain culture around the team that I really like.”
Playing for Yale has always been Riecken’s goal, and getting an offer is a unique accomplishment.
“I couldn’t believe it, I was just at a loss for words,” Riecken said. “It was just a lot of excitement and I was just overcome with emotion, especially because [Yale] is my dream school.”
For the time being, Riecken aims to focus on his final season at Monarch. The Coyote Lacrosse team has reached the playoffs in 14 of the last 15 seasons, so the current players have a big role to fill.
“We want to win the league because we didn’t win last year. So winning the league championship is our number one goal,” Head Coach David Auday said.