A once in a lifetime opportunity.
The Brummett brothers didn’t pass up the opportunity as they all share the field for Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) Men’s Lacrosse Program. Playing college athletics with your brothers comes with a sense of accountability that only siblings can bring and that is what Jake, Jed and JJ Brummett do for each other.
“We can never slack off because we know if the other is even if it doesn’t look like it to other people, it’s like ‘oh wow he is playing well,’ and you are like no he’s not. He can do way better than that and we know that through watching each other play for however many years. I know what their best looks like and when it’s not happening, it’s like c’mon. So, on one hand, it keeps you accountable and elevates you but on the other hand, it is really annoying,” Jake Brummett said.
Jake is the oldest and is a graduate student midfielder/faceoff man at CMU pursuing a master’s degree in Business Administration. JJ is the youngest and is in his first season with the Mavericks as an attackman/midfielder.
Redshirt sophomore attackman Jed Brummett is in his third year with Colorado Mesa University (CMU). He has recorded the 13 most goals in CMU history with 53 goals throughout his career. Jed served a crucial role in the recruitment process of Jake and JJ.
“Jed was the primary recruiter for both. Jake was unsure if he wanted to go back to school and JJ was being recruited by some great programs. We really utilized Jed to ensure the other two knew how special of a place Mesa is. Additionally, the Brummett’s parents were influential as well. They wanted the opportunity to have all three boys play together at a high level. Mrs. Brummett was an All-American and is in the Field Hockey Hall of Fame. Simply put, she gets it and agrees with our message and approach,” Head Coach Vince Smith said.
The recruitment process out of high school was similar for the trio but had different paths to CMU.
“For lacrosse, all three of us were not very highly recruited, so it brought us together in that aspect. When it happened to me, I didn’t panic as much because it happened to Jake. When it happened with JJ, that’s when we decided that we could do this whole reunite thing where we all play together for a year if JJ goes to Mesa. Then we all have one great season to remember and then me and JJ play for another year and he gets to play out the rest of his career,” Jed Brummett said.
“There was a little bit of that but some external factors of us not being highly recruited bringing us together, the COVID fifth year helping us out and their stellar play over the past year really helped bring us together. So, I didn’t have to do as much work as many people probably think I had to, but these guys and their play spoke for themselves, they were both guys that Coach wanted to be on the team because of their abilities on the lacrosse field.”
Jake was a two-time Division III Honorable Mention All-American through four years at Hampden-Sydney College. He picked up 435 ground balls throughout his career which is the third-most in program history and recorded a 65.5% winning percentage at the faceoff x.
He has had to make some adjustments in his game at the faceoff x as he is used to winning the faceoff to himself but has been asked to use his wings more often this year.
“When I was at Hampden-Sydney we had a rule, and that rule was you don’t pull the faceoff to the wings. So, you pull them all to yourself, pick up the ground ball and throw [the wings] the ball. I did that for four years, and now suddenly I get here and now I’m being told to pull the ball to the wings. So that is like a huge shock,” Jake Brummett said.
He has continued to dominate the faceoff x as he has won 75% of the faceoffs, he has taken this season. Jake uses his Applied Mathematics degree from Hampden-Sydney College to enhance the scouting report for his teammates.
“I decided this year to collect 60-something data points for every faceoff our opponents take before we play them and put them on scatterplots of where they pull the ball, where their counters are, any possible statistic relating to faceoffs that you could possibly imagine. Put it into a scouting report, and I send it to the whole team, Jake Brummett said
JJ is a midfielder/attackman and uses his instincts to determine his next move on the field. He isn’t worried about messing up on the field because of the free-flowing playstyle that makes him a dynamic athlete on the field.
“My playstyle is freer flowing than these [Jake and Jed], I don’t think about the game as much in terms of through my mind when playing. I think about the game when I’m on the sidelines watching the game. When I’m in the game, I tend to just trust my instincts more than I do think in my head and use my brain to talk to myself while going through a play. It works out most of the time and I’ve come to learn to just trust myself more often which has helped. I play with a little bit more pizazz it feels like, I express myself more in terms of different things and I’m not really worried to mess up,” JJ Brummett said.
He has scored 13 goals and dished out four assists this season. JJ may have a different playing style from Jed, but he has learned a lot about the mental aspect of the game from his brother.
“I tend to learn a lot from [Jed] in terms of mentally in the game like knowing what to do on a fast break and knowing where to look, so I try to replicate that from what he does. I’m a different player, I’m a little bit more athletic than [Jed], so I tend to play the game differently, so I tend to learn from some other players that have the same build and stuff like that, so it’s more just a mental thing when I look at [Jed] and see how he looks at things from an IQ standpoint,” JJ Brummett said.
That mental growth and growth in his game has brought great chemistry with Jed on the offensive end.
“We kind of operate on a just tell somebody to do something on the field and they will just do it. We flow better as a unit now, we don’t hesitate with a lot of things, we just let everything happen the way it’s supposed to be. I’ve kind of taken on his style more when it comes to us playing together because it’s better for us in general,” Jed Brummett said.
When we play drills in practice with the two-man game specifically, it flows nicely and we know what we each want to do, what our strengths are and not get in each other’s way or actively help one another get to what we want to do. It’s progressed nicely, in general though, the thing that has grown is that communication where we just say something and they don’t question it.”
The Brummett’s are the ninth set of siblings to come through CMU during Smith’s tenure. Their collective lacrosse intelligence is what sets them apart.
“This is the second set of three brothers that I have worked with, following the Plock boys last year. The Plocks were a little different because I had a relationship with their family before coming to Mesa. I would say that all three of them are incredibly intelligent in lacrosse but in life. They are arguably the three smartest lacrosse players, lacrosse IQ-wise, that I have ever coached. And they came from the same womb. They really are a blessing to be around on a day-to-day basis,” Smith said.
Their collective intelligence has led to each of them making an impact on the field for the Mavericks this season. The next time they will be on the field together in the regular season is Saturday, April 30 at 11:00 a.m. against Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah.
