Q&A: Thomas O'Connell's World Games Experience

Rising senior Thomas O'Connell recently competed for Puerto Rico in the 2018 FIL World Championships in Netanya, Israel. O'Connell and the Puerto Ricans shocked much of the lacrosse landscape by opening the tournament 5-0 and finishing top-10 in the world in the country's first-ever appearance. O'Connell shared his experiences leading into the tournament and during the event in Netanya, Israel in July.

What was the process like leading into the World Games?
We had tryouts last summer at Fairfield and there was a couple good guys there, but I really didn't think much of it. I was more so looking forward to the experience of going to Israel and playing in the World Games, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Heading into my senior year, I thought it'd be a great opportunity to keep a stick in my hand.

Going through the process the team was OK, but as word got out after tryouts and Coach Ramos kept digging through colleges we ended up finding some really good talent. We were able to add some really talented college players and MLL guys. So when I went to the mini-camp before we left for Israel, I thought maybe we had a chance to be alright. We just had no idea what to expect competition-wise from the other teams.

We had a fairly young team with most everyone being between 20-24 years old, and as we went along the more experienced teams were 25-30 years old. It was an interesting adjustment going from the highest level at Maryland to the international level with teams of so many different skill levels.

Describe your Puerto Rican heritage.
My grandparents are from Puerto Rico. My grandmother was born there and my grandfather is from there, and we have family that still lives there. I've never been there myself actually. But it was definitely cool. When you're at Maryland you are representing the whole state it is an awesome experience, but this was totally different being able to represent your family and its heritage. My grandparents didn't really know much about lacrosse until I started playing, but my grandfather was really excited to watch me play. It was definitely a point of pride to play with a group guys also playing for their families.
My grandparents really didn't understand what I was doing when I first told them, but then when I was getting ready to leave for Israel they got pretty excited. My grandmother will support me in anything, but my grandfather particularly found it cool.

At what point did you realize you had something special brewing?
The first three games we won pretty easily, before playing Germany which had a lot of players around our age and in their primes. When we beat Germany, who finished ninth in the world in 2014, we started to realize we might have something. They had played together for a while and we had just thrown a few guys together for a couple weeks of mini-camp and scrimmages. After Germany we knew we had a shot to make some noise.

After that, we played Japan and you could tell these guys played together a lot and were all over the field. We really knew we had a solid team when we beat them.

You played eight games in eight days. How exhausting was that?
That was a major part. I don't think people really understood how long these games were (80 minutes as opposed to 60 in college) and how tiring they could be with a 23-man roster. And playing on grass under the Israel heat was taxing. It actually turned out to be our kryptonite. We had been beating teams on our athleticism, but after we went 5-0 we had to play the Iroquois in the quarterfinals and we had to throw everything at them. That game really took a toll on our legs and the experienced teams were really able to take advantage of our fatigue.

There must have been something fun about playing everyday though.
It was awesome going out there every day and playing lacrosse. There's offensive and defensive structures that were in place, but you kind of put a plan in and hope it works 70-percent of the time. You're really just going out and playing for the love of the sport. It was very enjoyable to get that experience. The competitive aspect made it fun as well. You had countries playing each other speaking completely different languages on the field. It definitely made you appreciate it from the other side.

What was your biggest takeaway from the overall experience?
I think the coolest part was being part of the first Puerto Rican lacrosse team to play in the World Championships. A lot of guys are from the States, but the whole point of the trip was to bring lacrosse to the island of Puerto Rico and really expand the game. It was awesome being able to go to Jerusalem. I got to see the Tomb of Jesus. I got to check out Tel Aviv and go to the beaches. But when I look back on everything, I think it's really cool to have been part of Puerto Rico's first team and hopefully we get a lot more players from the island in the future games.

Any talk yet about the 2022 games?
That was all anyone could talk about (laughs). It was amazing – everyone was talking about four years from now and I was like 'four years?! We just ended. That's a long time.' Supposedly there's a bunch of players with Puerto Rican lineage who didn't even know about the team looking to get involved. So I'm really excited to be a part of it and lead the way for the next teams to come.

Players Mentioned

Thomas O'Connell

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