Hall of Famer Brodie Merrill’s Rocky Transition to Defense

Like many Canadians, Brodie Merrill’s introduction to lacrosse as a young player was through the box game, playing in tight quarters with a short stick in his hand. His evolution to becoming one of the game’s best-ever long stick players was borne out of necessity back in 1999.

“I was trying out for Team Canada to play in the U19 World Games, and there were just not many long poles in Ontario, where I’m from,” he said. “I kind of saw it as an opportunity to potentially make the team. That’s how it got started.”

With encouragement from Canadian legend Chris Sanderson, an All-World goalie who was serving as one of the coaches for that U19 squad, Merrill took on the challenge. While there were elements of his new position that he conquered quickly due to his short-stick pedigree — like ball handling and scooping ground balls — the overall learning curve was still steep.

“Chris took me under his wing, but there was definitely a big adjustment,” Merrill said. “Learning the defensive side of the position was a work in progress. I’d like to say the transition was seamless, but it wasn’t.”

Merrill succeeded in making the U19 squad, but he was quickly thrown into the deep end of the pool.

“In my first game in those World Games, I was matched up with Conor Gill, who was just coming off winning the national championship as a freshman at Virginia and being named the tournament MVP,” Merrill said. “I kind of took my medicine and it opened my eyes to the fact that I needed a lot of work at this. Fortunately, I got some great coaching and had some great mentors.”

One of those mentors tuned out to be Hall of Famer Kyle Sweeney, who had established himself as one of the top collegiate defenders in the nation by the time Merrill became his teammate at Georgetown.

“It was kind of a good news, bad news scenario for me early on at Georgetown,” Merrill said. “I became the team’s number two LSM, but I was behind the number one LSM in the country. I would kind of get these shifts here and there, but Kyle really never came off the field.”

Nevertheless, Sweeney invested significant time and energy in helping in his young protégé’s development.

“He was such a great example and was very good in working with me and helping me to understand the position,” Merrill said. “In the long run, that was a huge reason why I was able to eventually excel in the position.”

The tipping point came late in Merrill’s freshman season at Georgetown.

“We were playing Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, and Mikey Powell was the top attackman in the country that year,” he said, “so for that game, we moved Kyle down low to close defense to play against Mike. And that gave me the opportunity to actually play a full game. I had a good game, maybe because my confidence had grown through the season, so it was like a breakthrough moment for me. I remember thinking to myself that, hey, I can play at this level and make an impact.”

The rest, as they say, is history. Merrill became a two-time All-American at Georgetown and was recognized as the national defenseman of the year in 2005. He then enjoyed a 17-year professional career, playing in the NLL, MLL, and PLL, while becoming one of the greatest defensemen in the history of professional lacrosse.

Internationally, he was named the outstanding defenseman at the World Games in 2006 and 2010 while playing for Team Canada, further cementing his place as one of the sport’s all-time greats.

“I would never have imagined that I’d have the career that I did,” Merrill said. “I was never really a standout player while growing up and I never thought I’d be a professional lacrosse player. I was a late bloomer, and it took me a lot of time, but that is something I’m proud of. I just kept building and working.”

Merrill and the other members of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024 will be officially inducted on January 11 at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel. Tickets are available for online purchase at www.usalacrosse.com/HOF.