This story appears in the January 2020 edition of US Lacrosse Magazine. Don't get the mag? Head to USLacrosse.org to subscribe.

Grant Ament always knew he wanted to be a Nittany Lion.

Don’t believe him? He has physical proof: his sixth-grade yearbook.

Like his Cold Spring Elementary School classmates, the Doylestown, Pa., boy listed his hobbies and interests. Under future plans, Ament answered with the same surgical precision that has made him one of the most prolific passers in the history of his sport, “to play lacrosse at Penn State and then hopefully go pro.”

Ament dedicated his life to lacrosse long ago. Even in grade school, he immersed himself in the sport. Chris Sabia, Ament’s former teammate at Haverford School and Penn State, first encountered that obsession as an opponent in the Philadelphia youth league.

“He was on a way better team than I was, and they used to just kill us every time we played them,” said Sabia, now a defenseman with Chrome LC of the Premier Lacrosse League. “And I definitely didn’t like Grant, because he would just score, you know, like a million goals.”

In his time at The Haverford School in Pennsylvania, Ament led the Fords to two Inter-Ac Invitational titles as well as a perfect 26-0 season and No. 1 national ranking in 2015. His efforts in high school, along with his club lacrosse exploits for Dukes Lacrosse and Mesa Fresh, got the ball rolling toward his goal of wearing blue and white in Happy Valley.

Penn State coach Jeff Tambroni took notice of Ament’s skillset. Ament had admired Tambroni for his work at Cornell, where he coached for 10 seasons and guided the Big Red to three NCAA championship weekend appearances. He believed he would be a good fit in Tambroni’s scheme at Penn State.

“Once he came to town, it seemed to kind of match up for me,” Ament said of Tambroni’s pursuit on the recruiting trail. “[I was] just kind of hoping for them to, you know, lay out an offer on the table during the recruiting process, and then the moment they did, I committed an hour later.”

Ament wasted no time making his presence felt. He scored a team-high five goals in his first collegiate game, as Penn State blasted Robert Morris 20-7. He finished his freshman year with 20 goals and 34 assists, proving to be a key contributor to a team on the upswing.

“He was one of those quarterbacks back there with Nick Aponte, who kind of ran our offense,” former Penn State captain and current Chesapeake Bayhawks midfielder Ryan Keenan said. “He definitely had the confidence, and in the position he plays, you’ve got to be confident to take chances, take shots, make passes.”

Ament followed up his freshman year with a 30-goal, 30-assist sophomore campaign, as he helped the Nittany Lions take another leap forward in 2017. Penn State won its first 10 games, finished 12-4 and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2013. 

With Ament quickly evolving alongside teammates like Keenan, fellow attackman Mac O’Keefe and faceoff specialist Gerard Arceri, the Nittany Lions were primed to take another step forward in 2018. 

That wouldn’t be the case, however.

Instead of playing alongside his teammates, Ament started his season crying into the arms of his mother.

“I remember the day I got my surgery, in tears with my mom, not really knowing why it happened or what the reason was,” Ament said. “A bunch of people [were] telling me it’s happening for a reason, and I just didn’t really see the reason.”

Ament injured his foot prior to Penn State’s season opener against Villanova. Though he didn’t know it at the time, the injury would ultimately cost him the entire season.

“It was definitely a tough, tough moment, and I had a lot of dark times with it, because I’ve never had an injury before,” Ament said. “When you put so much time and effort and all of your eggs in one basket, it’s not something that you would ever expect to happen to you.”

While Ament rehabilitated, he also watched from the sideline as Penn State struggled. Without their primary distributor, the Nittany Lions stumbled to an 8-6 finish and missed out on postseason play altogether.

There was a silver lining, however.

“It sucked that year, but everyone knew [Ament redshirting] was the best thing for him and the best thing for the team moving forward,” Keenan said. “A lot of guys grew because he was out.”

Nick Spillane, who switched from the midfield to the attack in Ament’s absence, Dylan Foulds and the prolific goal-scorer O’Keefe expanded their skillsets and benefitted from the heightened workload. Spillane and Foulds had career years, while O’Keefe added a new wrinkle into his game as a passer.

And while these individual improvements may not have translated to immediate success on the field in 2018, they made all the difference when Ament made his triumphant return in 2019.

Penn State entered the season with plenty of questions, the most notable being how Ament would look after a year off — a question Ament himself longed to answer.

“I wouldn’t say there was a pressure, but I definitely would say that I had something to prove,” Ament said. “I remember in some games me getting heckled by other teams about me not being in. There’s some moments that I just distinctively remember that kept me going.”

It’s safe to say he silenced the doubters.

“I know how good he can be. It was only a matter of time before he broke out and had the season he’s capable of,” Sabia said. “Look at the things he accomplished last year. A lot of them are, like, unheard of.”

Ament returned with a vengeance. He led the Nittany Lions’ precipitous rise to No. 1 in the nation and lit the fuse for Penn State’s explosive offense. Ament set the NCAA single-season record with 96 assists and finished just two points shy of Lyle Thompson’s single-season scoring record of 128.

Penn State, which averaged nearly 18 goals per game, won its first-ever NCAA tournament game and vaulted all the way into the final four. Along the way, Ament set the NCAA tournament record with 25 points and tied the mark for assists with 19.

The accolades poured in. Ament was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, won the USILA Lt. Col. J.I. Turnbull Award as the nation’s most outstanding attackman and became Penn State’s first Tewaaraton Award finalist.

But don’t expect Ament to settle for last year’s glory. He’s disappointed he didn’t win the Tewaaraton over Loyola legend Pat Spencer, and he’s frustrated that his team fell short on the biggest stage.

The Nittany Lions’ magical season ended in a 21-17 loss to Yale in the NCAA semifinals at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia — about 45 minutes south of the sprawling Doylestown home where Ament and his older twin brothers, Blake and Brandon, were raised. They’re Penn State alumni, as are Ament’s parents, Bradford and Lisa. They bleed blue and white.

Ament hopes to cement his own legacy in Happy Valley as a senior this spring.

“I’d say a lot of things were successful last season,” Ament said. “We still lost to Yale twice. We lost in the NCAA tournament where we were favorites on the biggest stage. For such a senior-heavy team and upperclassmen-heavy team [this year], that taste in our mouth definitely is still there. And I’d say that’s more kind of our mentality — it’s just getting back to championship weekend.”

Ament will also be taking on a role he’s never had at Penn State before.

Captain.

“He’s always been a leader,” said Sabia, a former two-time captain at Penn State. “But now when you throw the ‘captain’ word around, there’s a lot more responsibility and you’re looked at a little different than normal.”

Embracing this role, Ament wants to change the perception of what it means to play at Penn State. He wants the Nittany Lions consistently to be in the same conversation of lacrosse blue bloods like their Big Ten rivals Johns Hopkins and Maryland.

But that’s only half of his dream.

As a redshirt senior, Ament also is within reach of the other goal he wrote down in sixth grade — to be a professional lacrosse player.

He watched over the summer as Sabia played in the inaugural PLL season, while other former teammates Aponte, Spillane, Keenan and Kevin Fox competed in Major League Lacrosse. Considering also that the National Lacrosse League has made a concerted effort to attract more Americans to the pro indoor game, there are more opportunities than ever for college lacrosse players to ply their trade professionally. Ament has first-round and No. 1 overall draft pick potential.

“It’s definitely pretty cool watching your buddies on TV and seeing those guys have such good success,” Ament said. “I always try to watch because not only is it good lacrosse, but it’s pretty cool that some of my good buddies are leading the charge in that.  I’m hoping I can join them and we can maybe play on the same team again.”