Five Minutes with a Hardshell: Bryan Cole
4/2/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
This month's featured Hardshell is Bryan Cole, who was a USILA First Team All-American midfielder and helped lead the Terps to four NCAA Final Fours during his playing days from 2012-16. Cole currently plays professionally for the Georgia Swarm (NLL) and Florida Launch (MLL). He had a memorable year in 2017, winning championships with both the Swarm and Ohio Machine (MLL).
What was it like to see the Terps win the title last season after you won the NLL Championship?
“It's honestly still hard to put into words. Coming up just short three times, it's really tough to put into words getting to experience that moment. Obviously I would have loved to experience that with the guys I went to school with, but you continue to grow with your family and you add new members and I was taken into another family with Georgia. We have a ton of the same core values and aspects that we had with Maryland, so winning a championship in general is just something I've always thought about since I was six years old. It was pretty amazing to experience it with the guys and staff on our team. To win my first every championship really takes the cake for me.”
What did you take from Maryland that you've used in your professional life?
“I try to learn and get better every year. I felt like at Maryland I really learned how precious time is. You never want things to end. You don't want school to end and you don't want to be away from guys and the team. So I try to take that same approach. I'd say I've become smarter and a little more humble as a teammate, always trying to listen to the older guys who have experiences and knowledge to pass down. I try to be a great teammate and try to do whatever I can to help others – whether it's playing defense, offense or whatever the coaches ask. On top of that, I really just try to work on my craft every day and try to be the best as a person, player and teammate.”
Any specific moments you like to look back upon during your time at Maryland?
“It's really hard to pick one specific moment. I think the overall experience is most memorable as you go through the good and bad of each season. Including the fall it can be a pretty long and grueling experience, so you form some pretty amazing bonds. And then we were so lucky to reach the final four so many times. That experience is outrageous. You get amazing meals and stay in amazing hotels and you get to experience it with your best friends. So I'd say the overall day-to-day experience of being with your teammates win or lose and then the final four.”
Tell us what you are up to in addition to playing professionally.
“Right now I'm working at Pace Academy, a high school down here in Georgia. I'm coaching lacrosse two to three hours a day and then on top of that I'm training to keep in shape for Georgia. And then my teammate Shane Jackson and I are about to start running a box lacrosse clinic down here. We hope to eventually form a league where we can get the best players in Georgia playing box lacrosse and showcase them up in Canada and in other places where it's pretty prominent. You're starting to see a pretty big transition with American guys starting to play box lacrosse. It's a skillset that a lot of kids can benefit from and they'll get better and better as they learn the game. So Shane and I are doing that down here. So we're coaching by day and training and competing with Georgia by night. We're on the road three or four days a week and it's a lot, but it's fun.”
The Georgia Swarm has built a great fanbase – what's it like playing for them?
“It's pretty cool playing in Georgia actually. Right now I'm on the beltline in Georgia and there's so much to do and experience in Atlanta. It's a new city for me. I've never really experienced the south, so I'm really enjoying it. I'm living with Shane Jackson, who is a 6-year pro on our team, so it's exciting to learn the day to day aspects of being a professional from him. We have a great fanbase down here in Georgia. It's not your typical hotbed for lacrosse but it's starting to grow and a lot of really good players are coming out of it. So lacrosse down here is growing. I've been working with LB3 down here a little bit with Mr. Pons (Mac Pons' father) so I have some Terp connections around here which is nice and there's a lot of lacrosse guys around here between the Georgia Swarm (NLL) and the Atlanta Blaze (MLL). We enjoy going to Hawks games and supporting the other professional teams down here so it's pretty cool.”
