Every Day is the Best Day for Zappitello Brothers at Dartmouth

The Zappitello family has a motto: Another Best Day Ever.

With assistant coach Ajax Zappitello reunited with his brother, Hopper, a junior attackman, at Dartmouth, every day has become the best day ever.

“This year in particular, getting to show up every day playing the sport I love at the highest level with 44 of my best friends, and then on top of it, I look to the staff that’s leading us — Coach [Sean] Kirwan, Coach [Mikey] Herring, Coach [Matt] Whitcher — and then there’s my brother,” Hopper said.

How did the Zappitellos, originally from Portland, Ore., end up reunited in Hanover? Lacrosse, of course.

Tillman Gallagher, the brother of a family friend, first introduced the Zappitellos to the sport when Ajax was in fourth grade. Hopper was in second grade.

“We became instantly hooked,” Ajax said. “Both first generation lacrosse players, we fell in love with it and practiced every day with each other. Hopper would play up with the older kids because he was that good and that athletic.”

It was a classic example of a younger brother wanting to be like the older brother.

“We were always on the move,” Hopper said. “One of my earliest lacrosse memories was when I played up on their third-fourth grade rec team. We called it the Thunder Monkeys, and to this day, we still have our Thunder Monkeys shirts. It was the moment showing how much we loved it.

“I was always kind of the punching bag being the younger guy. The days we didn’t have a goalie, I was put in cage. I was always trying to catch up and stay up with all the older guys.”

In high school, the Zappitellos were affected by COVID-19. They only got to play one year together at Sunset (N.H.) High School.

Gallagher went on to play at Michigan. The Zappitello brothers soon followed and played Division I lacrosse.

“September 1 of my junior year came along, and I had a handful of schools reach out to me — some smaller schools and a couple bigger ones — but I wouldn’t say I was highly recruited,” Ajax said. “But I remember getting a text from Maryland and was like, ‘Holy cow.’”

He was sold.

“I wanted to win a national championship and felt like that spot was going to put me in the best place to reach that goal,” he said. “I called Coach [John] Tillman and told him I wanted to go there. It ended up working out for me, and it was awesome… truly the best four years of my life.”

“Awesome” is one way to put it. Zappitello left his mark on both the Terps and Division I lacrosse in general, becoming the first close defenseman since 1993 to win the Lt. Raymond Enners Outstanding Player of the Year Award in 2024. It was the same year he was award the prestigious No. 1 jersey at Maryland.

Zappitello won a national championship in 2022, a season in which he started all 18 games as a sophomore.

While Ajax starred at Maryland, Hopper moved closer to him — transferring from Sunset to Boys’ Latin in Maryland.

“When COVID hit and my dad first came to me with that option, I immediately shut it down and was like, ‘No way am I leaving Oregon,’” he said. “I loved it; loved my friends, my school. I just couldn’t see myself leaving everyone I grew up with.”

As time passed, it became clear transferring to Boys’ Latin was the best move for him.

“We knew we weren’t going to have a spring season my junior year, which is when we officially made that decision,” he said. “But Oregon is still my home.”

Being so close to his brother allowed the siblings to see each other relatively often.

“I was only a 45-minute drive from College Park, and he was oftentimes playing Saturdays or Sundays and my games were Friday nights,” Hopper said. “I was able to go to almost every single home game, and a lot of away games, which was really cool. I was able to be around him and hang out with him, even when he was off in college, which a lot of kids don’t always get.”

It was a sign of things to come.

When it was his turn to be recruited, Hopper knew Dartmouth was the right fit. He flew with family from Florida to Hanover during winter break of his senior year.

“It was a dead period, so I wasn’t able to meet the coaches,” Hopper said. “And it was winter break, so not a lot of people were on campus. We walked around and got to talk to a couple people. We couldn’t get into any classrooms. We couldn’t get into the library. I wasn’t even able to step on the field. We didn’t have access to the weight room or anything.

“But there was something about Dartmouth and Hanover that I just loved.”

The Ivy League education played a significant role, too.

“My dream was to attend an Ivy League school,” Hopper said. “Since then, I’ve had the three greatest years here so far. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

And the addition of his brother to the program as an assistant has made a great situation even better.

Ajax, who was a three-time All-American at Maryland, knew he wanted to get into coaching by the summer of his junior year. He came to realize he wanted to coach older, more experienced lacrosse players.

“I didn’t necessarily want to teach kids how to pass and catch,” he said. “I wanted to teach kids how to be really great lacrosse players, schematically, more like the X’s and O’s. I was super grateful that I had coach [Jesse] Bernhardt at Maryland, who I was able to talk to, and Coach [John] Tillman as well, about the idea of coaching and how to get my foot in the door.”

Late in his senior year, Ajax focused on the Terps’ upcoming postseason run, but little did he know, an opportunity of a lifetime would fall into his lap.

His brother let him know that there could soon be an opportunity at Dartmouth.

“My Maryland season ended, and it was straight into another lacrosse season for me with the PLL,” he said. “I had some time to think about it, talked with my family, and the more I thought, the idea of being in the same spot as my little brother was pretty cool.”

Ajax didn’t want to take the spotlight away from his brother, but he quickly learned that only positives would come out of the move.

“I was able to talk with Coach Bernhardt, who had the same experience having [his brother] Jared on the team when he was a coach,” Ajax said. “He had nothing but great things to say. After talking with my family, I knew this was an awesome opportunity. I probably wouldn’t ever get this again in my life.”

When Hopper realized this could really happen, he couldn’t have been more excited.

“Ajax was always like, ‘This is your spot, this is up to you,’” Hopper said. “‘If you want me to come, let’s do it, but I don’t want to step on your toes if you want to do your own thing.’”

Since Hopper plays attack and Ajax coaches the defense, there haven’t been a ton of head-to-head correlation in practice.

“It’s been nothing short of special,” Hopper said. “It’s really awesome getting to go to class, hang out with my friends, then show up in the locker room, and there is my older brother getting ready to come to practice with us.

“He’s doing what he loves … I’m doing what I love.”

Remember how the Zappitellos lost their senior year together because of COVID?

Now they’re together on the lacrosse field in a different way and at a different place.

“It looked like we had a good chance of winning the state championship that year at Sunset,” Hopper said. “That always left a hole in our stomach, that it just didn’t feel right not getting that second year with Ajax.”

Until now.

“Probably the only two people who are more excited than us is our mom and dad,” Ajax said. “Having us in the same spot and being able to come to every game, visit us and grab breakfast and dinner with them on the weekends, we’ve been able to steal some family time, which wouldn’t be happening if I was elsewhere.”

“The cherry on top of my Dartmouth experience is getting to spend all this time with my older brother,” Hopper said.

“It’s really just another best day ever.”