The Oregon men’s club lacrosse team takes the field for pregame warmups.
The players fall into the “Flying V” and begin to go through their stretches. Amid the buzz on the field, coaches and upperclassmen shout directions and last-minute encouragement to each other.
On the outer edge of the formation, quietly limbering up his 6-foot-4-inch, 200-pound frame, stands team and Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse League scoring leader Julian Coffman.
Coffman has been a starter on every team he has ever played on. He has led the Ducks in scoring all four years he has played here and has led the team to four consecutive PNCLL championships. He is a perennial all-PNCLL and United States Lacrosse Intercollegiate Associates all-American selection.
Yet he is conspicuously quiet and almost aloof.
Players of his stature are often vocal leaders of their teams.
They might say that a player of his stature is obligated to play that role.
Coffman says that, at least for him, experience has taught him exactly the opposite.
“In past years I’ve tried to speak up a lot. I get pretty emotional, and a lot of times I’ll just come out and say stupid shit in the heat of the moment,” Coffman said. “I think I’ve matured a bit, and now I stand back and let other people do most of the talking. I like to just put in the goals and lead by example on the field.”
Not that anyone is complaining.
Coffman is Oregon lacrosse’s all-time leading scorer and has the team headed into today’s USLIA National Championship tournament as the No. 3 seed – higher than ever before.
A large part in Oregon’s recent success could be attributed to Coffman. After all, the team’s four PNCLL titles coincide perfectly with his four years as scoring leader.
But Coffman is quick to deflect the credit.
“I think it’s partially because lacrosse is growing so much in Oregon,” he said. “There (are) just better players coming up through high school that are coming here to play.”
Another reason for Oregon’s success this year is team chemistry, Coffman said.
“This year, everybody on the team is super close. When I was a freshman, I never saw the seniors outside of practice,” he said. “This year we have the whole team hanging out at the seniors’ houses and everybody parties together and laughs and hangs out together.”
Riding this wave of success and team unity, Oregon will face No. 14 Lindenwood in the first round of the tournament today in Dallas. For the first time in the team’s history they are favored to advance.
But despite the raised expectations, Coffman still sees an opportunity to take other teams by surprise.
“We have high expectations but at the same time we’re not the one seed, so I think we can fly under the radar a little bit,” he said.
And though Coffman said he doesn’t shout at his teammates on the field or make emotional pregame speeches, he does try to mentor the younger players.
“I know I’ve been successful so I’ve tried to let the other guys know how they can be successful on the field,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys on this team that are great, great players that are younger than me and are hopefully going to be doing bigger and better things than I’m doing now.”
As for Coffman’s future, one thing is certain – it will include lacrosse at some level.
“It’s a dream of mine, but I’ve never tried out for a pro team or done anything like that so I don’t know where I would stand,” he said. “I’d like to look into trying to play somewhere else though. There are club teams all around so most likely I’ll just join a beer league and have fun with it.”