No Days Off: Joey Spallina's Relentless Pursuit of Excellence

The plan was simple.

Following the end of Syracuse’s 2024 season in the NCAA quarterfinals, Joey Spallina was going to go home and rest for a couple weeks before joining the Orangeville Northmen for a second consecutive summer in the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League.

Five days later, Spallina watched the Northmen fall to Brampton on a Friday night.

“They lost and I told my dad, ‘I’m going up there. I can’t wait any longer,’” Spallina said.

Less than 48 hours later, he was in Orangeville for the home opener and finished with 10 points to help Orangeville post a 14-7 victory.

Spallina just can’t stay away from the game.

“I genuinely just enjoy playing [lacrosse],” he said. “It’s so much fun playing in Orangeville. It’s the best place to play in the OJLL.”

And it’s not just Orangeville. If Spallina has a chance to have a stick in his hand, he’s likely going to take it.

The next opportunity for him to do so happens this week at the World Lacrosse Box Championships in Utica, N.Y., from Sept. 20-29. Spallina is the youngest player on the U.S. roster — a team featuring primarily players with National Lacrosse League experience. He’s where he is because of what he’s done the last two years in the OJLL.

For the last few decades, many of Canada’s best players who started with box backgrounds have honed their field game at American colleges. Spallina is one of a handful of players doing that in reverse — heading to Canada with a field background to learn the box game. Few have ever done it so well.

In Spallina’s rookie year in the OJLL, he scored 148 points, the most ever for an American in the league. This year he piled up 202 points, helping the Northmen win the OJLL and reach the Minto Cup final. Quite a leap from his initial exposure to box lacrosse in Canada.

“My first shift,” he said, “I got put on my butt and kind of got up and said, ‘This is a little bit of a change.’”

But he excelled because he found everyone in the process incredibly supportive.

Nick Rose, who will be one of Canada’s goalies in the world championship, was Orangeville’s general manager and was the one originally in contact with Spallina to come play. Head coach Rusty Kruger’s daughter, Zoey, plays at Stony Brook, where Spallina’s father, Joe, is the head women’s lacrosse coach. They helped create an environment for success.

“They took him under their wings,” Joe Spallina said. “Orangeville is a world-class organization. Orangeville reminds me of the Green Bay Packers. They play a game and the whole town shuts down — there’s such a connection. They had hundreds of alums when they beat Mimico in game seven. It’s pretty sick. It’s unreal. There’s such a love for the sport.”

It's the perfect match for the younger Spallina, who has been around the game for his entire life. In addition to his current role at Stony Brook, his father coached in Major League Lacrosse, where several of the players represented the U.S. in international competition. The elder Spallina was also an assistant coach for the 2022 U.S. women that won the world championship in Towson, Md.

Now it’s Joey’s chance to represent the United States — and younger brother, Jake, is currently on the U.S. men’s U20 training team.

“This has been my dream since I was a kid,” Joey Spallina said. “To put on red, white and blue is every kid’s dream. I just can’t wait to be out there. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time.” 

It will be a special moment for his father as well.

“It gives me the chills,” Joe Spallina said. “It will be surreal to see him come through the tunnel.” 

Spallina was the No. 1 high school recruit in the country heading into his freshman season at Syracuse. He was the ACC Freshman of the Year, has earned All-America recognition from the USILA each of his first two seasons and has scored 156 points in 33 games with Syracuse.

Despite those accolades, he’s always being judged. His dad says he’s been the QB1 for most of the teams he’s played for. Combined with his dad’s pedigree, that has made Joey Spallina a constant target for criticism.

“He’s been evaluated since the first time he put on a helmet,” Joe Spallina said. “He’s dealt with it so well. In the era of social media, you can go from them building a statue to you being the worst person in the world. The only thing you control is how you play.”

With the veteran U.S. roster, Spallina can step away from the limelight and just be a cog in the machine. The U.S. offense took a blow when NLL star Tom Schreiber suffered an injury late in the Premier Lacrosse League season that will force him out of the world box championships for the second straight time. But there is plenty of other talent.

Joe Resetarits, who also honed his skills in the OJLL more than a decade before Spallina, became the top-scoring American in NLL history earlier this season after a 95-point campaign with Philadelphia. He’s back for his third U.S. team and ranked second on the team with 40 points at the 2019 world championship. Blaze Riorden, another NLL veteran who played with Resetarits in Philadelphia, is also on his third U.S. box team.

An emerging NLL star is Jack Hannah, who has scored 140 points over his first two seasons with Las Vegas and was a finalist for the NLL’s Rookie of the Year Award in 2023. Charlie Bertrand, who helped the U.S. win a field world championship in 2023, has big-time scoring ability and Mac O’Keefe is one of the best shooters in the sport. The only other collegian on the roster, Cornell’s C.J. Kirst, also has OJLL experience and was the leading scorer for the U.S. team that won the LAXNAI Invitational last fall.

Spallina’s job is to find his role on the offense among these talented players.

“The number one thing is, he works really well in our system,” said U.S. head coach Regy Thorpe, who led the U.S. to a bronze medal finish in 2019 and is hoping to take the U.S to the championship game for the first time ever. “He’s got some great players around him with a lot of leadership and experience. He’s fitting in well. He doesn’t have to do everything.”

“I think it takes the pressure off of me,” Joey Spallina said. “All of these guys are unbelievable. I can play off-ball and play in the two-man game. I can be the guy who makes the pick instead of the guy who plays off of it. I can’t wait.”

“Our offense is free-flowing,” Thorpe said. “His lacrosse IQ is really, really high and someone who’s really good on the fly. Obviously, as a coach’s son you expect that, but we’ve seen it first-hand. We’re excited about him.”

The U.S. will open with one of its toughest opponents Friday night when it meets the Haudenosaunee, who have won the silver at each of the first five world box championships when the U.S. has won bronze. In the 2019 semifinals, the U.S. held a fourth-quarter lead over the Haudenosaunee before the game slipped away.

Spallina will be in familiar surroundings against the Haudenosaunee, competing against two players with whom he played in Orangeville — Koleton Marquis and Trey Deere. He’s found friendships throughout the sport, so on an off day from Syracuse fall practice last week, he went to the nearby Onondaga Reservation to get practice shooting on a box goalie.

“No days off,” his father said.

And he’s not the one pushing his son to play. “Sometimes I have to protect him from himself,” Joe Spallina said. “He dedicates himself to his trade and it’s his life. He loves lacrosse.”

“I just love the game – love to play,” Joey Spallina said. “The best part of my day is the four hours I’m with my team, practicing, shooting. It’s really just the best part of my day.”