Walking around the University of North Carolina campus in September with his lacrosse-famous father and twin brother, Dom Pietramala could see himself spending four years there even if he didn’t play sports. Chapel Hill felt intimate, despite being a big ACC school. Plus, it was beautiful. 

“I was talking to [UNC attackman] Nicky Solomon, and he told me, ‘I don’t even go home in the summers anymore,’” Dom Pietramala said. “‘I just stay here. It’s where you want to be.’”

The visits that the Pietramalas made on their own were eye-opening for Dave Pietramala, too. Though the Hall of Fame player and two-time NCAA championship-winning coach faced the likes of Penn State, Duke and North Carolina more times than he could count, his view was mostly limited to the hotel, locker room and field.

“Now I know what I’ve been recruiting against for the last 20 years,” he quipped.

The shift in perspective for Pietramala happened this summer and fall while he helped his sons Dom and Nick, fraternal twins and juniors at Boys’ Latin (Md.), navigate the recruiting process.

Pietramala, the winningest coach in Johns Hopkins history who mutually parted ways with the university back in April, was not alone. Several high-profile coaches and former players alike entered Sept. 1 — the first day that college coaches can contact prospective players — with both their parenting hat and recruiting clipboard.

Billy Dwan, the son of Bill Dwan, Pietramala’s long-time assistant at Hopkins, is a five-star defenseman at Loyola Blakefield (Md.) who verbally committed to Syracuse. Decorated NCAA and PLL official Matt Palumb was a three-time NCAA champion goalie for the Orange, but his son, Jackson, plays attack and committed to Albany.

The son of another Syracuse legend, Ryan Colsey of Ridgefield (Conn.) committed to Virginia. His father, Hall of Famer Roy Colsey, is his coach at Ridgefield High School and a middle-school physical education teacher in the district.

Riley Reese, a defenseman at Glenelg Country (Md.), will follow in his father Brian Reese’s All-American footsteps to Maryland, where his mother Cathy Reese happens to be one of the most decorated coaches in NCAA women’s lacrosse history. Other NCAA championship-winning women’s coaches now navigating their sons through the process are Virginia’s Julie Myers (Timmy Myers) and North Carolina’s Jenny Levy (Alec Levy).

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and halt to in-person recruiting, the IWLCA actually wanted to move back the contact date for the class of 2022 from Sept. 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021. Eighty-seven percent of college women’s lacrosse coaches were in favor of the postponement, but the NCAA rejected it and Timmy Myers, for one, was relieved.

“I really was in favor to pushing it to July 1 so we could see kids play with our own eyes,” Julie Myers said. “He was in the background saying, ‘Mom, I want it to start Sept. 1.’”

The other noticeable trend was the volume of commitments despite the dead period the NCAA Division I Council has extended through the end of 2020. In an article published Oct. 13, Inside Lacrosse noted that there were 264 players in its recruiting database who had committed to a Division I program since Sept. 1. That number, IL reported, was about four times higher than it was for the class of 2021. As of this writing, there were 344 commits in the database.

Although Dave Pietramala emphasized to his sons it was a privilege to get to choose where they’d attend college, he had not realized how much pressure the recruiting landscape and accompanying social media frenzy weighed on those in it.

Few players were as talked about as Joey Spallina, the son of Stony Brook women’s lacrosse coach and former New York Lizards coach Joe Spallina.

Nine years after Joey Spallina first garnered national attention for a flurry of trick shots at the MLL All-Star Game festivities in 2011, he found himself again at the center of the lacrosse world. He sat with his dad and the rest of his family in front of Mount Sinai (N.Y.) High School on the eve of Sept. 15, ready to announce his verbal college commitment. The buzz was palpable. Thousands of eager lacrosse enthusiasts checked into Instagram Live broadcasts and waited for word from the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2022 according to Inside Lacrosse.

Spallina was quick and to the point in reading his prepared statement. He thanked his family, friends, coaches and all those who reached out during recruitment. But it was a foregone conclusion. The kid who grew up idolizing Casey Powell and the famed No. 22 chose to follow in Powell’s footsteps and play for Syracuse.

“I was honored when [Syracuse] called me,” Spallina said a few days later. “Growing up, that was my dream school. Being given the chance to wear 22 and play in the Dome was something that I’ve been dreaming about since I was a kid.”

Spallina first made waves back in 2011 as an 8-year-old at the MLL All-Star Game Freestyle Competition. Lizards star Stephen Berger, known around the league as one of the most fun-loving athletes, wanted to include Spallina in his performance.

The idea of a time machine was born. Spallina, a wide-eyed kid with a smile from ear-to-ear, began the set with a series of elaborate trick shots — some of which the pros might have even struggled to execute. He finished with what he called “Berger’s Shot,” a diving backhand flick in front of the crease. After recovering from the turf, Spallina ran into a circle of MLL All-Stars. Berger emerged seconds later and finished the performance with his own jumping, under-the-legs goal.

Paul Rabil, who jumped over the hood of a car, would take home the top prize. But it was little Joey Spallina who stole the show and earned a spot at No. 10 on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” that night.

“He was flawless,” Berger said. “Giving credit all to him, he stole that moment from me.”

Spallina’s demeanor was a precursor of things to come. He eventually played up on the famed Team 91 2020 Crush team featuring Brennan O’Neill, but never let the spotlight or fanfare get to him. If Spallina seems like a player who has been groomed to succeed at the next level, that’s because he has been. An intense drive combined with a successful coach for a father means Spallina is all lacrosse, all the time.

His days start at 5 a.m. at the gym. Some days, he and his siblings head to Port Jefferson’s Pirate’s Cove, where they run large, rolling sand dunes. Spallina sometimes conquers the sprints with a weighted vest. He also boxes four days a week.

“Full disclosure, I could be better at times,” Joe Spallina said about balancing the relationship between being Joey’s father and coach. “I hold him to such a high standard at everything. Excellence is what we strive for, but you’re never going to be perfect with everything. I’m usually the one telling him he’s not doing something today, instead of telling him to go do it.”

The hard work molded Spallina into the most coveted recruit in his class. He narrowed his list to five schools — Syracuse, Loyola, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia — and chose Syracuse both because of that childhood dream and the team’s commitment to letting him play his style of lacrosse. While he’s an unselfish attackman, Spallina also has never met a shot or angle he doesn’t like. He’s not the strongest or most physical, but he knows how to use his 5-foot-10, 180-pound frame to bully defenders.

“Now that I’ve committed, I feel like the work is just beginning,” Spallina said.

Dave Pietramala shared a similar sentiment with his sons after both committed to UNC. That decision was a surprise, perhaps most of all to their dad.

“Absolutely not,” Dave Pietramala said when asked if he could have foreseen his sons both picking the same destination.

Throughout the last 17 years, Dom and Nick Pietramala have not needed to answer the most persistent question twins usually encounter.

How do you tell the difference between you two?

“If you went up to either of us and you didn’t know us, you wouldn’t think we were twins,” Nick Pietramala said.

Start with their positions. Like their dad, Nick plays on the defensive end. Dom, the No. 2-ranked recruit in the Class of 2022 according to Inside Lacrosse, is an attackman whose flair is paralleled only by his unselfishness. Nick stands at about 6-foot-4. Dom hovers closer to 6 feet. Both write with their right hand, but Dom is a natural lefty in lacrosse.

Their interests diverge off the field, too. On weekends, Nick will get up before dawn to go fishing by himself. Dom, adamantly not a morning person, would rather sleep in, then hang out with friends and watch the Ravens or play “Madden.” Nick, described by his dad as a stickler for the rules, has wanted to serve his country since he was little. Dom, more of free spirit, respects that decision, but knows the military is not for him.

“They definitely are their own person,” Boys’ Latin coach Brian Farrell said.

While growing up a Pietramala had its obvious advantages, including playing Xbox with the Blue Jays, the twins have also received their share of undue scrutiny from the doubters and challengers. Dom has heard it all.

“Oh, you’re only good because you’re Pietramala’s son.”

“Oh, it’s just because of your last name that you’re starting.”

Ron Klausner, godfather to the Pietramalas and the director of operations for Kooper’s Lacrosse Club, remembered the time he had to pull Dom Pietramala off the field during a game at Beach Lax Festival in Ocean City because a parent from the opposing team was “verbally accosting” him.

He was 8 years old.

“Nobody but them understands what those guys have had to go through,” Klausner said.

Dom Pietramala is not exactly sure why he started playing attack, but from a young age, he has wanted to be different.

“I wanted to separate myself and create a name for myself as Dominic Pietramala, not just Pietramala’s son,” he said.

From the moment he stepped out onto the turf, Dom Pietramala wasted little time announcing his presence. At the first day of Boys’ Latin varsity tryouts in February 2019, Farrell said it was immediately clear he had the talent plus the lacrosse IQ to make an impact in the MIAA. In the second game he started his freshman year on varsity after Hopkins recruit Brendan Grimes suffered a low lumbar stress fracture, Pietramala had seven goals and two assists. He punctuated many with a flick of the wrist — ala Steph Curry after draining a deep three. He finished the 2019 season with 33 goals and 10 assists. His highlights from that year have more than 85,000 views on YouTube.

Dave Pietramala emphasized to “the boys” to block out the noise when deciding on their next step. “This is your process,” he told them. “You’ve worked your whole life for this. Don’t let other people’s opinions and other people’s voices affect your decision.”

That included each other. “I didn’t want Dom to make a decision on where he wanted to go just because of me,” Nick Pietramala said, “and I didn’t want to make a decision on where I wanted to go just because of him.”

Still, going through the recruiting process side-by-side offered a helpful perspective. “You can’t get a wrong impression when you have two impressions,” Dom Pietramala said.

Dom Pietramala also leaned on an unlikely source: Joey Spallina. While the attackmen are No. 1 and No. 2 in their class, there’s no rivalry or ill will.

“It’s good to have another person to talk to and compare our experiences,” Dom Pietramala said. “We’ve both been around the game so long that you know the ins and outs and what a team is looking for. There’s no unfamiliarity with anything.”

As the final schools the Pietramalas were looking at became harder to separate, Nick created a Google Doc to clarify his priorities and help organize his thoughts. Dom opted for a piece of loose leaf. Of course, they wanted to go to a school where they’d contend for NCAA championships. But at the top of both their lists was another criterion.

“It was a sense of family,” Dom Pietramala said.

The Pietramalas felt the relationships Tar Heels coach Joe Breschi, along with his assistants Dave Metzbower and Kevin Unterstein, built with their teams were similar to what they saw their dad create at Homewood. Their conversations were about more than lacrosse.

The hardest part was calling the coaches of other finalists, like Penn State’s Jeff Tambroni and Denver’s Bill Tierney, whom Dom and Nick Pietramala have known since they were kids. “They grew up with these coaches,” Farrell said. “That added another layer to their decisions. It wasn’t easy, but they took it very seriously. They did it the right way.”

“You’re not going to disappoint them,” Dave Pietramala reassured his sons. “They want what’s best for you.”

Dom and Nick Pietramala can agree on at least one other one topic: They don’t want to room together in Chapel Hill. But both admitted their excitement that when they head south, they’ll do so with someone who will always have their back.

“He’s my best friend,” Dom said about Nick. “There’s no question about that.”