Impact Of A Scholarship: Drew Snider

Be The Best.

That phrase has embodied what it means to play Maryland men's lacrosse since the 1970s, and recently, the Terrapins have been the best, winning two national championships since 2017.

One of the main orchestrators of this current era of Maryland lacrosse is Drew Snider, a Seattle, Washington native who reached back-to-back National Championship games as a Terp in 2011 and 2012.

Snider embodied that phrase in everything he did at Maryland, opening doors to a decade-long professional career, where he won four championships, played for Team USA, and helped jumpstart the Premier Lacrosse League.

"I went out on two losses in the national championship, which was tough, but that's why I went [to Maryland], to compete for a national championship," Snider said. "There's so many great players that came down the line and once I got there and started playing, it became something bigger than just me."

While Maryland is known as the epicenter of lacrosse in the United States, the West Coast is a far cry from that.

Snider was one of the first major players to come from the western part of the US, specifically Seattle, but his rise to stardom in lacrosse came directly from his father, Kris, a college star in his own right at Virginia.

Kris ended up moving out to Seattle and continued to play club lacrosse, and as Drew grew up, the love of the game grew tremendously.

"There's a pretty established men's club league out here, so he would come to our games on the sideline with a mini stick he was twirling around," Kris said. "Nothing organized happened until he became disenchanted with baseball and asked me if we could start up a lacrosse team."

Through some convincing, Kris was able to get a local program started, and Drew took the sport and ran with it, quickly becoming one of the best players in Seattle and the entire West Coast.

At his alma mater, O'Dea High School, Snider dominated the competition. He was the 2006 Washington Lacrosse Player of the Year, a three-time First Team All-State selection, and a two-time US Lacrosse High School All-American.

Through this, he attended camps and showcases on the East Coast to get his name out there. Then, Maryland head coach Dave Cottle and assistant coach Andy Copeland started recruiting him.

Of the schools Snider looked at, Maryland not only gave him the best opportunity athletically but financially as well. Hard work got Snider noticed and earned him the scholarship offer he needed to start his college career.

"I wanted to go somewhere that wanted me and Maryland was that program," Snider said. "My scholarship was performanced-based with Coach Cottle. He said, 'You're going to start with a book scholarship and as you perform and get better, we can revisit this and you can go up.'"

As he continued to feel more at ease at Maryland, his success on the field continued to rise. The midfielder spent five years as a Terp, performing at his best in his junior and senior seasons, scoring a combined 51 points on 41 goals and 10 assists.

His Maryland career reached a climax in his senior season in 2012, when he was named a team captain, one of the highlights of his lacrosse career.

At that point in College Park, he had worked his way up, not just athletically and academically, but financially. His growing scholarship significantly reduced the potential burden of taking out student loans.

"As my scholarship increased, it made my life easier and my parents' lives easier because without that money, I don't know if I would've been able to stay because of the cost of travel and to feed a college kid like me," Snider said. "For us to get some help from [Maryland] meant the world to us and I'm forever grateful for that."

Snider's success led to him getting noticed at the professional level. Snider saw a coaching change midway through his playing career as Cottle left for Major League Lacrosse to coach the Chesapeake Bayhawks in 2010.

The two reunited years later as Chesapeake drafted Snider 45th overall in the 2012 MLL Draft, the perfect way for Snider to start his professional career.

"He knew my capabilities and we had a good relationship throughout my time and his time at Maryland together," Snider said. "He saw me fall down low, so he picked me up. Without him, who knows, I might not have had the career that I did."

What a career it became for Snider, who was soon traded to the Denver Outlaws as Cottle ended up helping him get closer to home, to benefit him and his parents.

Snider played for the Outlaws for more than half of his professional career, the most time he spent with one team, and won three MLL titles while in Denver.

The Outlaws, owned by the Denver Broncos, played in front of massive crowds at Mile High Stadium, the home of the Broncos, and it was one of the best environments he ever played in.

"I had a lot of success in Denver," Snider said. "If I had to pick, it was probably the best organization to play for, so I was pretty spoiled in that regard. It was tough to leave in the end."

Additionally, Snider became the first lacrosse player from the West Coast to represent Team USA, winning a gold medal and playing internationally with the best of the best. There, he met Paul Rabil, the eventual co-founder of the Premier Lacrosse League, and on those trips, they talked about the possibility of forming a new league.

Sure enough, Rabil made it a reality, and Snider and many other Maryland players joined, and most played on the same team, Whipsnakes LC.

With a roster stacked full of former Terps, it was one of the best environments Snider has been part of. As a result, they were able to adapt from their Maryland days and form a juggernaut that ended up winning the first PLL Championship in 2019.

"We lucked out because of the fact that there were so many Maryland guys," Snider said. "One of the biggest things about this program is that it gets you ready for the pro level. There were so many Maryland guys, why not just put them all on one team. Little did they know they were setting us up for a championship."

Snider moved on to Waterdogs LC for the finale of his playing career and reunited with Copeland, who was named head coach of Waterdogs. It was a full-circle moment for the two of them and a perfect way for Snider to end his pro career.

Through all this, Snider, along with his dad and brother, Will, also a former Terrapin lacrosse standout, continued growing the sport of lacrosse in Seattle through a program Drew helped to found in 2013 with Chris O'Dougherty, CitySideLax.

There, the foundations of a new lacrosse hotbed have been built over the last decade, exposing kids to the sport for the first time, and the growth has been nothing short of incredible.

"It really has changed so much," Will said. "There would be years where I'd go off to Maryland and I'd come back in the summer and say 'Holy cow these kids have gotten so much better.' Year-by-year, we're closing that skill gap and Drew, even while he was playing, was leading the charge and growing lacrosse on the west coast."

That first team Kris coached with Drew on it, nearly a half-dozen of those players went on to play Division I lacrosse, and more have come since.

While Drew retired from professional lacrosse in February, he's continued to remain around the game and will continue to do so to help build the sport that put him in the position he is today.

After helping guide his alma mater, O'Dea High School, to three consecutive conference titles, Snider has moved to the Los Angeles area where he is an assistant coach at the Sierra Canyon School.

All of his successes come back to Maryland and his time in the brotherhood of Maryland men's lacrosse, a life-long bond that stems back to those simple three words: Be The Best.

"That's all I was trying to do: be the best player, be the best student," Snider said. "I'm extremely lucky, but I also worked really hard and I think I picked that up through Maryland. I found that at Maryland. I found an extra gear that pushed me and made me who I am. It's cool to see that motto live on and continue to be talked about the same as when I was there."