This story appears in the January 2020 edition of US Lacrosse Magazine. Don't get the mag? Head to USLacrosse.org to subscribe.
Jake Pistotnik can’t tell you exactly how he pulled off the sequence.
“I had never done that before,” he explained. “That was not something I had planned.”
Underneath the lights at California Memorial Stadium on March 15th, a player on the Virginia Tech sideline started chirping. Pistotnik responded on the scoreboard. During the third quarter after a loose ball scrum, he caught a pass on the left wing. A Hokie defender rushed in. Pistotnik evaded the hit, spun 360 degrees, and faked his shot all in one motion. He then stung the upper-right corner. He tossed his stick into the air in celebration. He totaled six goals in the Bears’ 15-12 win.
“He can play whatever position he wants to and do whatever he wants to with or without the ball,” Cal goalie Nick Beattie said about his fellow senior captain. “It’s crazy.”
Beattie has witnessed Pistotnik’s transformation from a faceoff specialist his freshman year to an imposing attackman who notched 68 goals and 22 assists last spring while earning first team All-America honors. Cal’s head coach, Ned Webster, often pits Beattie up against the starting attack that includes Brendan Cook — the reigning WCLL offensive player of the year — and Jake Lombardo, who scored four goals in the MCLA Championship final. The trio accounted for 162 goals and 104 assists in 2019.
“This will be their third year starting together, so the chemistry at the offensive end is pretty outstanding,” Webster said.
“I've played lacrosse for a while, and I've been around a lot of stellar attackmen,” Beattie said. “But that group, and especially Jake, are complete studs.”
Pistotnik, who hails from Calabasas, CA — probably best known as home to the Kardashians — has made his star turn at Berkeley and helped fuel Cal’s resurgence. The Bears, who last won the national championship in 1998, have qualified for the MCLA tournament the last three seasons. They won their first 17 games last spring before the Gamecocks spoiled their undefeated season with a 13-8 victory in Salt Lake City. It was the first time in 2019 that Cal’s offense didn’t muster more than 10 goals.
No matter the circumstances, Pistotnik’s disposition remains the same. His boyish grin disguises an uber competitive drive.
“This kid never believed we were out of a game, whether we were up, down or sideways,” said Mario Waibel, the head lacrosse coach at Sierra Canyon School. “He’s one of those kids where you hold your breath when he gets the ball in his stick because something is going to happen and it is going to be something memorable.”
Pistotnik's lacrosse memories began in the sixth grade during an after school clinic organized by Calabasas Coyotes Lacrosse. He still talks about the sport with the zeal of a recent convert. He loved that it required the physicality of football, the court vision of basketball, plus the added creative component of stick skills. Although Pistotnik at first played defense, he gravitated towards the offensive end. Each time he’d scoop up a ground ball, he’d try to score.
“I don’t think I hit the cage once that [first] season,” Pistotnik said.
The accuracy came soon enough. Pistotnik now possesses a howitzer of a shot. Beattie called his windup “menacing.” Pistotnik credits Waibel with fostering his drastic improvement. Waibel, who has a horseshoe mustache and a hearty laugh, took over at Sierra Canyon in 2014 after stints at UC Santa Barbara, Newbury Park, and Westlake. The Trailblazers had about 15 players during Pistotnik’s sophomore year. They went 0-12. They got plenty of skeptical looks.
“The fact that Jake stayed was a gift,” Waibel said. “I told him and Miles [Rosberg, now a junior at Cal], ‘We are going to put the work in and if you stick with it, trust me, you’ll be one of the best.’”
The Trailblazers improved to 13-4 the next spring and won the Gold Coast League title. Pistotnik was named the league MVP after his junior and senior seasons.
Still, the recruiting hype lagged compared to his accomplishments. Perhaps it was because of his size (5-foot-7, 160 pounds), or because he wasn’t a middle school phenom. “I think Jake slipped through the cracks on a lot of recruiting radars,” Webster said. “And thankfully he came to Cal.”
That wasn’t Pistotnik’s initial plan. He checked off the Cal-Berkeley box on the UC application after UCLA and UCSB because it didn’t require any extra steps. He’s really glad he checked that box. He used the word “perfect” a lot when he described his experience at Cal.
Although Pistotnik found playing time immediately at the faceoff X, Webster moved the puzzle pieces around the next spring and placed him at crease attack. “We realized halfway through his sophomore year with his ability to shoot and create and stretch the defense that we just needed him on the field more,” Webster said.
It was the perfect fit. Now 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds, Pistotnik’s shot draws comparisons to Atlas LC sniper Ryan Brown, but his style of play has a distinctly North of the Border vibe. He can get his hands open in tight spaces. He can read slides before they happen. Waibel often fielded a familiar question after many games: “Where does No. 6 play box?”
“If you’re not training there, you’re not preparing the best players,” Waibel said of the indoor game that he calls the “foundation” of the Sierra Canyon program. The school even constructed an open-air box, because, you know, they’re in California.
Beyond his desire to improve his shooting percentage in 2020 and add a national championship to his already robust resume, Pistotnik wants to connect more with the freshmen, and for that matter, everyone on the team. Lots of people throw around words like ‘family’ and ‘brotherhood’ when they refer to their teammates.
When Pistotnik utters them, you believe him.
“I've got to enjoy it while it lasts,” he said of his senior year. “Even on those nights when it might be raining and cold and you don't necessarily want to practice. My biggest goal is to be happy every time I step on the field and soaking in every moment of it.”
His future after Cal will depend on the opportunity.
“I kind of joke, but I don't really know if it's a joke anymore, that he could play professionally,” Webster said.
Pistotnik, who’s in the Haas School of Business and has earned Scholar Athlete distinction in each of his first three years, is interested in a career in sports management. Or maybe real estate or business analytics. Although Pistotnik can’t tell you exactly what his next step will be, his coach is confident regardless of the destination.
“Whoever ends up with Jake is going to be very, very thankful,” Webster said.