Brent Adams wasn’t the first name most lacrosse fans pointed to when assessing the initial Redwoods roster back in the spring. Truthfully, he probably wasn’t in the top 10.

Yet the speedy two-way midfielder has been one of the team’s most impactful players through the first five weeks of the season.

“The thing with him is he just wants to do more, do more, do more,” Redwoods coach Nat St. Laurent said. “He’s had hat tricks. He’s had big stops on defense. He’s had key ground balls. He’s played man-down defense for us at times.”

With his skillset and return to health, Adams has the capability to be more valuable than he ever has before.

“I think he’s one of those guys that makes the PLL great because he fits so well,” St. Laurent said.

So, what makes Adams so effective? At the most basic level, it starts with his speed. If he’s not the fastest player in the Premier Lacrosse League, which St. Laurent says he is, he’s got to be near the top of the leaderboard. There are examples of him creating opportunities by simply running by his defender on a 1-on-1 opportunity.

Then there’s his versatility, a characteristic emphasized with the new PLL rules. With ten yards taken out of the middle of the field, transition play is quick and unforgiving. It’s commonplace to see offensive players stuck out of their comfort zone on defense simply to avoid an odd-man rush.

Adams embraces it, quickly running between zones and excelling on both ends.

“It’s been really fun, [St. Laurent] being able to give me free reign to stay on the field,” Adams said. “It’s definitely a style of lacrosse I’m comfortable with playing.”

On the offensive end he’s scored nine goals and dished out an assist, taking on more off-ball responsibilities than he has previously. This past weekend he scored a hat trick in the Woods’ overtime victory against Archers. On defense he’s one of the team’s top short-stick d-middies.

“Not only does it save goals, it produces goals and opportunities,” St. Laurent said. “Because people now know, ‘Ok, we’ve actually got to get back in the hole because this guy is going to go to the goal.’ There’s some film where guys are sprinting into the hole and he’s already ran them down.

“I think that was the deciding factor between us and the Whipsnakes, and us and the Chrome. … His presence on the field makes teams nervous.”

Adams represents a mentality Redwoods is looking to embody. The Woods selected former Penn Quaker Tyler Dunn because they saw the same characteristics in him. When rookie goalie Tim Troutner makes a save, he knows he can look up for Adams, Dunn or Patrick Harbeson to launch a quick transition.

“The rules and the style in which I was trying to play and our assistants were trying to play, he just fit the mold to the T,” Redwoods coach Nat St. Laurent said of Adams.

Adams’ impact is even more impressive considering the long road he’s taken to even be on the field.

Back in 2017, Adams got his first chance at playing box at the highest level with the Colorado Mammoth, suiting up for eight regular season games and notching 14 points.

Then, in his first NLL playoff game in Vancouver, his ankle buckled while chasing a Stealth player down.

“It didn’t really look like anything on film,” Adams said.

It may not have looked dire, but it certainly was. He tore ligaments on both sides of his ankle and damaged cartilage on the top of his foot. And while it’s never a good time to suffer a severe injury, Adams’ ailment seemingly came right when he was turning a corner.

Adams had just completed his best season in the MLL yet, a 30-point campaign with the Boston Cannons, and signed on with the Denver Outlaws as part of the league’s player movement program. He was hoping to get a shot at Team USA for Worlds but showed up to camp in a boot.

“It was definitely a struggle,” Adams said of his time in Denver. “I helped out whenever I could, went to all the appearances, all that kind of stuff. It was tough having to do it in a boot, or crutches, or whatever it was.”

He never ended up suiting up for the Outlaws. The injury kept him out two full outdoor seasons, with him only returning to lacrosse action this past winter with the Mammoth.

Adams said the process back included a lot of physical therapy and not a lot of answers.

“I remember talking to by PT, and they were like, ‘Yeah, I bet your surgeon had never done this surgery all at one time,” Adams said. “It was all speculation.”

After a stagnant period, his surgeon recommended yet another surgery. But Adams balked, instead opting to throw everything at his foot and ankle as a test to see what it could handle. He went into Mammoth training camp this fall uncertain how he’d hold up.

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure because there’s no real way to imitate what we do,” Adams said. “There’s no practices, there’s no other way to test how you feel in a game rather than being in a game with these guys.”

He was hesitant at first, sitting out some drills, until he realized the pain was unavoidable. He just had to see how much he could handle.

On January 26 he returned to the Mammoth, fittingly in a matchup against Vancouver. He scored a goal in his first game back, one of three tallies in five outings.

“It was kind of a feeling like I wasn’t really gone for that long,” Adams said. “Just kind of felt like I was back into the mix. I got a lot of support from those guys.”

The pain hasn’t gone away, but it’s manageable. He still partakes in physical therapy each day to stay on top of it.

“It doesn’t really bother me,” Adams said. “I’m in the flow of the game, so I don’t really try to think about it too much.”

For the first time in years he’s playing on a consistent basis again, contributing to a Redwoods team that sits a game back of the top spot in the league after an impressive upset of the previously undefeated Whipsnakes.

“I love getting back to playing lacrosse,” Adams said. “Coach Nat is singing his praise and endorsement and playing the style of lacrosse that I love to play and have been successful playing. So, I’m fitting in pretty well with the Redwoods right now.”