Freshman faceoff man Cole Emmanuel went from not playing lacrosse his senior year of high school and committing late to college, to being second in the nation for faceoff win percentage.
Emmanuel has won 82.1 percent of his faceoffs and he has been named the Rocky Mountain Defensive Player of the Week twice so far this year.
The Colorado Mesa University freshman midfielder will be lining up against some of the top faceoff men in the nation in the games ahead. He will line up against No.3 Zach Bodeau and No. 7 Sal Valdivia in the Maverick’s next home game against Rockhurst University (RU).
“The only intimidating thing is they’re all seniors, game experience-wise they will have an edge on me, but also from what I’ve seen I think I bring more energy to the field, and they might be a little complacent so that’s what I’ll try to exploit,” Emmanuel said.
The Denver native plays a unique position because outside of goalie, it is the only position where it’s a one-on-one battle every time he is on the field.
He can win the faceoff to himself or use his wings and it has allowed him to pick up 48 ground balls this season.
“One of the best pieces of advice I’ve gotten was from Brett Boos, you just need to walk out on the field like you are the s—, or you are going to win,” Emmanuel said. “Confidence is such a big part of it, walking out telling yourself, you are going to smoke him forward, that actually has a huge effect on it.”
Throughout the week before games, Emmanuel will watch every faceoff his opponent has taken. He does this to see the exit points he will have after he wins but to see the tendencies of his opponent and use them against him.
Emmanuel is dangerous when coming down on a fast break with two goals and one assist to show for it. The Mavericks’ attackmen lead the team in scoring, making defenses decide if they want to slide to Emmanuel on the fast break or stay with their man which provides Emmanuel with opportunities to make them pay.
“With him scoring as well off of those faceoffs, it adds another dimension of you have to slide to him, you have to show him respect,” graduate transfer attackman James Booth said. “And it frees up guys like Jed Brummett and AJ Switzer their hands, they’re able to shoot now with a little more time because he is winning, and he is dangerous when he is coming down.”
The faceoff position is a mental and physical battle every time, and Emmanuel works very hard to beat his opposition in the mental game each time.
“He always puts himself in the right mindset, little habits that I know he does, he plays the piano before games whenever he can to loosen up his hands, he listens to certain types of music coming into the locker room knowing that, that’s going to help him stay in a flow for the game,” CMU Head Coach Vince Smith said.
Emmanuel started playing lacrosse when he was in third grade, and when he got to Denver East High School, he was playing as a long pole. The only issue was that eventual Johns Hopkins University defender Cole Finley-Pons was the same age and playing the same position as Emmanuel.
He was faced with a tough decision of playing another position or try to play with or under Pons who was considered one of the best defenders in Colorado. He chose to play midfield and made the gradual transition to a faceoff man.
In his senior year of high school, Emmanuel moved from Denver to Hurricane, Utah to a school that didn’t have lacrosse. He ended up playing soccer his senior year as a goalie.
“I was talking to the coaches towards the end of the summer of my junior year, and at that time I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to play lacrosse in college. The year off definitely solidified that this is something I want to do,” Emmanuel said.
“When I chose to come to Mesa, it wasn’t just because of lacrosse, it was because of our academic programs and where we are, and I’ve learned to love lacrosse a lot more while being here.”
Emmanuel lives an interesting life outside the lacrosse field being a Physics major and the school mascot Rowdy. He became Rowdy in the fall and became a part of two teams: the Mavettes and the lacrosse team.
One of Emmanuel’s roommates is an intern for the athletic department, and for one of the athletic events, they planned on making his roommate get in the Rowdy suit. His roommate politely declined the offer and called Emmanuel to see if he would come to be Rowdy for the game. Emmanuel said yes and he became Rowdy on a couple of minutes’ notice.
“I went to a marching band practice one time and learned how to conduct, and then we did this thing where I kicked the conductor off the stands and conducted the marching bands,” Emmanuel said. “We did this one thing where I stole one of the cheerleader’s signs and we brought it over the student section and did a whole dance and started a chant. Those are all things that my friends and I would just come up with on funny ideas or we would go on YouTube and look up funny mascot things.”
The Maverick’s next game is Thursday, Mar. 5 at 4:00p.m. against Davenport University in Pueblo, Co.
