Hometown Kid Beau Pederson Back in Utah with Playoff Spot on the Line

Beau Pederson has been involved in lacrosse in Utah since he was about 3 years old.

A family friend of his parents, who had kids in seventh and eighth grade, was starting a youth league. He asked Pederson’s dad, Chip, to help coach. While he didn’t know anything about lacrosse, he coached football. He agreed and always brought his son along with him.

Beau Pederson went on to play at Park City High School, where he was a two-time All-American and two-time state MVP.

Now, after five years playing college lacrosse in New Jersey and Michigan, Pederson returns home as a rookie for his now-hometown team, the Utah Archers, in what could be a massive weekend to end the regular season.

“It’s super special,” he said. “It shows how much lacrosse in Utah is growing and how much people care. For the PLL to put this team here in a completely new location that has like no lacrosse background at all — the University of Utah went D-I like six or seven years ago — I think that’s just representative of how passionate the fans are and how much it’s growing in the state.”

Pederson played lacrosse, ice hockey and football growing up, but the free-flowing aspect of lacrosse and the opportunity to be creative were what made it his top sport.

Lacrosse in Utah was not nearly as popular then as it is today. There was only one club team while Pederson was growing up, and the team traveled to California to play games.

To compete and get recognition at the national level, Pederson joined the West Coast Starz club program in California and flew out to New York for weekend tournaments. The travel was extensive, and as a kid, it interfered with fun plans with friends.

Pederson remembered traveling for a Fourth of July tournament every year in middle school, so he missed out on neighborhood festivities.

He was disappointed, but looking back, he believes not being in a hotbed also opened the door for him to play other sports — and that led to him developing skills that translated across sports while also getting him excited to pick up a stick every time lacrosse season rolled around.

“There’s drawbacks to not being in a hotbed,” he said. “You don’t get as much exposure. Coaching might not be there. Day-to-day competitions won’t be there. But at the same time, you get to do other things that improve your skills in a different way. I became a more well-rounded athlete getting to play multiple sports throughout the year.”

Lacrosse wasn’t sanctioned by the Utah High School Activities Association while Pederson was in high school. The vote didn’t pass until May 2017 — Pederson’s junior year — but the first official season wasn’t scheduled until 2020, which was then pushed back because of COVID-19.

Because the sport wasn’t sanctioned, the school didn’t fund the team — not uniforms or referees or transportation. The team had to fundraise more than other sports, and just like in club, it had to travel out of state for games.

But going the extra mile to compete taught Pederson a good lesson.

“It reminded you how much you really do like the sport,” he said. “You can’t take it for granted that you’re playing. My appreciation for the sport, that I was lucky enough to be able to play, that was something that doing the extra stuff that maybe others didn’t have to do, made my appreciation grow.”

It wasn’t unprecedented for players from Utah to play Division I lacrosse. Pederson looked at the success players like Casey Rose (Salt Lake City), Ryan Baker (Draper) and Bubba Fairman (Sandy) had at Rutgers, Bryant and Maryland, respectively, for inspiration.

Pederson’s opportunity came when he was recruited by Princeton, who was then coached by Chris Bates.

“I thought of him as a big, physical midfielder,” Bates said. “He comes from a competitive family, for sure. Both of his parents were college athletes. His sisters were college athletes. He just goes about his business, does it at a high level, and I think with each subsequent challenge, he’s risen to it and been successful.”

Bates wasn’t at Princeton when Pederson arrived on campus, but after four years with the Tigers and a fifth at Michigan, Pederson finally got his chance to play for Bates when the two-time USA Lacrosse Magazine All-American was drafted by the Archers with the fifth pick in the second round.

He called the opportunity a full-circle moment. He still had Bates’ number saved on his phone and was glad the number still worked.

Pederson has played in all eight games during his rookie season. His statistics might not pop out, nor has he been in discussion for individual accolades, but Bates said it’s not a bad thing to be somewhat in the background.

“He’s been as steady as can be. In our estimation, he’s played as well as anybody,” he said. “Short-stick d-middie, in a lot of ways, is like an offensive guard in football. If you don’t hear their name because they got beat by a pass rush or got a penalty or did something to draw attention, that’s usually a good sign.”

Since graduating from Michigan, Pederson has gone back to Park City to coach clinics and youth sixes league put on by the PLL.

Going into the final week of the regular season, the defending champion Archers are 4-4 and second in the Western Conference. With two games on tap during their homecoming weekend, including a matchup with the first-place Denver Outlaws, a spot in the playoffs, a first-round bye and a spot in the 2025 PLL Championship Series are all on the line.

Pederson said there will be a bunch of family and friends coming to root for him and the Archers, and that there’s no place like home to finish his first regular season.

“The home crowd couldn’t come at a better time for us,” he said. “I know the energy will be there. With playoff implications on the line, we’d be excited for this weekend regardless of where it was, but for it to be home, the first home game for a Utah lacrosse team, I just couldn’t be more excited. It’s another reason for us to play the best we’ve played this year.”