Ragonese never realized how hard Sisselberger was “hitting legs” until he watched a video in which he squatted 405 pounds three times with perfect form and depth.
“Dude, those are really good reps,” Ragonese texted.
“Oh, sorry, that was the one I sent to my mom,” Sisselberger replied. “I did seven right before that.”
“That’s NFL-caliber weights,” Ragonese says. “That takes a confidence and a kind of understanding that I have rarely seen in any gym."
Less than three years ago, however, Sisselberger almost succumbed to the weight of expectation. The No. 1 faceoff specialist in his recruiting class according to Inside Lacrosse and an Under Armour All-American, he arrived on campus at Lehigh thinking he had made it. He soon learned otherwise. He had to redshirt his freshman year.
“It’s just a big slap in the face to not only you, but the school that recruited you because it shows that you did not put in the work that had to be done in the fall academically,” Sisselberger says.
Though Sisselberger called it one of the worst years of his life, he now considers it a blessing in disguise. He thought about transferring but knew he had not gotten to that point by taking the easy way out. Be a man of your word, his parents, Rita and Michael, often told him growing up. He stuck with it, just like the way he stayed loyal to Lehigh after committing in his freshman year of high school, long before nearly every top college program wanted him after he won the Faceoff Academy National Showcase in 2016. “If you do everything that’s being asked of you, it’s going to pay dividends,” the coaches told him.
At Lehigh, Sisselberger learned to love working hard even when no one was watching. He started reading self-empowerment books and leaned on his Christian faith. Besides practicing every day against Gaffney in the “sandbox,” he played on the scout team offense and defensive midfield. He likes to think that the year helped him develop not only as a lacrosse player, but as a person.
“It really humbled me,” he says. “I would [now] punch my high school self in the face.”
Sisselberger has made the Patriot League’s academic honor roll every semester since his freshman year. Last spring, he finished with a 4.0 GPA.
Sisselberger embraces the philosophy that you must search for discomfort to evolve. He could easily squat 550 pounds and no one would know the difference. He refuses to settle. In addition to leading Lehigh to Patriot League and NCAA championships, he says, he wants to break his own faceoff record. He no longer thinks of himself as a first-team All-American. That was last year’s award.
“Can I come in tomorrow to make that up?” he texted Markovcy when he missed a squat session in late November.
“Mike, you have the flu,” Markovcy replied. “One day is not enough to recover yourself.”
“Mike is a guy you have to kind of remind every once in a while, ‘Hey, you’re doing a great job. You don’t have to be perfect,'” Cassese says. “I know you want to be perfect, but let’s take a deep breath and just appreciate for a moment how well you’ve done.”
The player who found support when he needed it the most now does the same for others. Sisselberger seems to keep in constant contact with everyone in his orbit. Anytime Niesenbaum finishes a “horrible” workout or is feeling a little defeated, he’s no longer surprised when he sees an uplifting text from Sisselberger.
“It’s always at the perfect moment,” Niesenbaum says. “It’s like he can sense it or something.”
The weekend after Sisselberger failed to pass Lehigh’s run test of three 300-yard shuttle runs each under 60 seconds, he asked Markovcy if he could get in extra conditioning on the assault bike. Every Sunday at 10 a.m. for the rest of the fall, he performed intervals in the cardio area of the Cundey Varsity House right above where Markovcy guided the football team through lifts.
“He wants to be elite and make sure that he is not categorized as a specialist,” Markovcy says. “He has no right to be as big and as strong as he is running step-per-step with a 170-pound guy. It’s kind of not fair, but that’s who he is, right?”
Sisselberger bikes with the lights off. He prefers to ride alone in the dark, constantly staying in the same place but at the same time perpetually moving forward. Out of the corner of his eye Markovcy can barely see the figure in full sweats pedaling overhead. Still, he knows Sisselberger is up there, grinding away.
QUADZILLA
Mike Sisselberger maxes out for must-see workouts that make muscles of mythical proportions.
SQUAT: 565 LBS
Or roughly twice the weight of an average adult male panda bear.
BENCH: 405 LBS
The second highest mark for any Lehigh athlete in any sport. Ever.
VERTICAL: 28.5"
The average NBA player’s vertical jump is 28 inches, according to Top End Sports.
BROAD JUMP: 8'11"
Or what it would take to leap over Robert Wadlow, the tallest person ever recorded, lying down.