Something to Prove

From MVP to undrafted. The Bryce Wasserman story.

If you could go back in time and tell a 5th grade Bryce Wasserman that he was going to be a professional lacrosse player, he would probably say, “what’s lacrosse?”.

Yet here we are preparing for Bryce’s first season in the PLL. Growing up in Southlake, Texas, Bryce wasn’t born with a stick in his hands like many well-known pro players. Instead, Bryce started playing in 6^th grade and although he quickly improved, he was years behind some of his East Coast counterparts.

A few years after Bryce picked up his first stick, he headed to Baltimore for his first, big recruiting tournament. It was a brutal trip. Bryce finished the tournament with zero goals, zero assists, and the sinking feeling that he may not be good enough to play at the highest level.

When asked about that day, Bryce said, “I didn’t think I was going to be good enough to play at the highest level in college or the pros. From that day on, no one in the sport has out worked me.”

Bryce’s hard work led him to Monmouth University where he currently holds all-time records in goals, assists, points, and several other offensive categories. But even with a stand-out collegiate career, there were no guarantees of a professional career.

During the 2018 MLL draft, Bryce sat patiently as round after round and pick after pick passed by. With every pick, his dream of being a professional athlete seemed to be drifting away. Finally with the 2nd to last pick in the draft, the call came. The Denver Outlaws had selected the kid from Texas.

Bryce couldn’t wait to get started with his new team, but there was a problem. The Outlaws had also selected a stud attackman out of UNC and they had elected to go with him. Bryce was left on the outside looking in as the Outlaws kicked off their season. As frustration grew, an opportunity presented itself. With the world games taking place that summer, the Ohio Machine were going to be missing a handful of key offensive players for a few games while they were called up for Team USA. With a few phone calls to old coaches, Bryce secured his spot with the Machine and had an immediate impact. He made it.

Bryce spent the following season with the Rattlers before being moved to the Boston Cannons, where he would cement himself as one of the game’s best attackmen. 

While the 2020 MLL season will be remembered as the bubble season or the last season, fans will remember it as the season that Bryce Wasserman dominated. He tallied 19 points over 5 games, helped lead the Cannons to a championship, and was named league MVP. Yet with all of the hard work and success, adversity was still looming.

Later that year it was announced the MLL and PLL would be merging. This came as a shock to some and left a league of players wondering if they had played their last professional game.

As the year came to an end, details about the PLL entry draft were announced and big named players declared their intentions to play in the new league. Excitement was building and speculations about who would end up on which team started to fly. While the speculations were all over the place, there were two consistent comments: Lyle Thompson would be the first pick and Bryce Wasserman would follow shortly after.

But once again, Bryce was left patiently waiting on draft night watching pick after pick go by. At the end of the night, he was left on the board. How could it be that the MLL MVP was not seen as a good enough player to be selected in the entry draft?

As the lacrosse community reacted to the draft, Bryce didn’t waste time wondering what went wrong. Instead, he thought of all the people who said, “sure he was the MVP, but it was in a bubble. It’s not the same as being a real MVP. There’s an asterisk.” These thoughts pushed Bryce to get back to work and a few days later he was picked up off waivers by the Cannons Lacrosse Club.

In sports, there’s not much more dangerous than a player with a chip on their shoulder. And going from MVP to undrafted has created a serious chip for Bryce Wasserman. We could not be more excited to have him on board as an ECD Pro and to watch him light up the PLL field all summer long.

This summer, Bryce will be rocking a Mirage 2.0 with his custom pocket on the Carbon Pro 2.0 Speed. Check out his replica today!