Mikey Weisshaar and Archbishop Spalding (Md.) have faced the same challenges of being overlooked.

Not anymore.

Weisshaar was named the C. Markland Kelly Award winner as the best player in Maryland after scoring 48 goals and 23 assists last spring. More significant for the 5-9 lightning-quick lefty midfielder, he helped carry Spalding to its best season since moving up to the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference in 2004. The Cavaliers went 12-3 in 2021 and checked off several firsts, including reaching the first conference championship game before falling to Boys’ Latin 9-8 in the final 9-8.

“We did pretty good last year,” Weisshaar said, “but we gotta finish it this year.”

Weisshaar and Spalding weren’t considered among the best a few years ago. Weisshaar was a role player as a freshman for Spalding’s 9-9 team in 2019. He and the Cavaliers had promise for a breakthrough 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season after just two games, and Weisshaar went on to miss three months of key recruiting time with a back injury. Even when he returned, Division I schools kept asking to see more.

“He plays pretty well at some events and schools are like, ‘Maybe it’s just one good day, we want to see him again,’” Spalding coach Brian Phipps said. “That’s kind of how Spalding has always been. We’ll upset a team here and there, but it’s, ‘We’ll see what happens.’”

Weisshaar, whom Phipps dubbed “Mighty Mouse” in an interview last year, committed in the fall of his junior year to Towson, a local team that believed in him early on. While other programs started to show interest during his breakout spring, Weisshaar is set to join his brother, Sam, a current junior playing at Towson. First though, he’s focused on continuing to help Spalding climb to the top of the conference.

“We can’t stop thinking about it,” Weisshaar said.

Spalding hasn’t been on anyone’s radar until the last two years, and even then, it was easier to find doubters on message boards than believers. To scale the mountain of the toughest conference in the country has been a difficult task for the Cavaliers since they won three straight MIAA B titles and reached the B championship game in 2003 before moving up the next year.

“It was definitely an uphill battle,” Phipps said. “We wanted guys to understand in order to be the best, you have to beat the best. We’re fortunate enough to play in a conference with some of the best teams in the country, and I think the best conference in the country top to bottom. You’re not going to get the cupcakes and get some morale victories here and there.”

Phipps and his staff are all familiar with the challenges of MIAA A and the environment they face. Since 2004, Calvert Hall, McDonogh, St. Mary’s, Boys’ Latin, Loyola-Blakefield, Gilman and St. Paul’s have all won conference crowns. In fact, all but St. Mary’s have won at least two titles during that stretch. But not Spalding. The Cavaliers hadn’t won a playoff game until last year and had only reached the playoffs three times. Phipps was a senior at Severn School when they beat Spalding twice in 2005.

“We have to challenge ourselves and take on those opportunities,” Phipps said. “Luckily, we had guys buy in and want to see those challenges and accept those challenges and compete at the highest level.”

Spalding first made the A playoffs in 2008 under coach Zack Burke, and he took them there again in his final year (2010). Current associate head coach Evan Hockel was a senior on that first Cavaliers team to go to the 2008 playoffs, and current offensive coordinator Spencer Ford was on Burke’s staff that year. Ten years passed between Spalding playoff appearances before Phipps, who took over before the 2015 season, guided them back.

“Our 2021 senior class from last year deserves a lot of credit,” Phipps said. “They were our first main group to take a chance on me at Spalding. Having Finn Kelly and Brendan Kelly with my connection with the Bayhawks kind of helped. Finn came and trusted in me and brought a lot of his friends and they turned out to be a changing of the guard. Then the 2022 class kind of joined forces. When your best players are your hardest workers and care the most, it makes it a lot easier to coach.”

Spalding did not have a winning record in any of Phipps’s first four seasons. They have been at least .500 since then. They went 9-9 in 2019 and were 1-1 in 2020 before last year’s 12-win breakthrough.

“A reason why we were so successful last year is, yes, we did have some great players on both ends, but we didn’t try to be selfish and take over the game with just one person,” Weisshaar said. “We know that it doesn’t take one person to win a championship, it takes everyone. That’s a big thing.”

Phipps has juggled attracting better players like Weisshaar to build Spalding’s depth, teaching full-time at the school and continuing to play professionally in the summer. Last summer, Phipps played for the Whipsnakes to help them reach the Premier Lacrosse League championship game.

“It keeps me relevant with my current players,” Phipps said. “One day it’ll be fun to play against one of the guys I’ve coached at the high school level. I’ve played against some of the college kids I coached when I was at Maryland and Georgetown, but it’d be fun to one day see them in the pros. I don’t know if I have four years to wait for Mikey.”

Phipps’s ever-ready attitude and unselfishness are found in Spalding’s approach. He credits the players and his staff for the program’s culture change. Hockel coached the junior varsity team to the MIAA JV title in 2018. Tom Ripley joined the staff last year as a defensive assistant, and Phipps brought in Brett Malamphy for faceoffs this year. Former Maryland coach Dave Cottle’s son, Sean, is head JV coach with assistants Alex Kestler, Roland Epps and Dave Sherwood, who was Phipps’ first assistant in 2015.

“The commitment from the school, the commitment from the players and the staff that I’ve been able to surround myself with,” Phipps said, “it’s been something that’s helped us take that next step and get to that next level of guys buying in and doing what’s right for the program and knowing what they can accomplish.”

Weisshaar joined the program after middle school. He had some friends going to Spalding as well, liked the school’s bigger environment and found a growing sense of urgency and improving work ethic among lacrosse teammates.

“When I first came, I saw a lot of potential and us being a high-level team for a lot of years,” he said.