June 21, 2007

by Matt DaSilva, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff

Colin Briggs can't escape the comparisons - not in the newspapers, the recruiting camps or even in his own neighborhood. And when the three-time All-American midfielder from Bishop Hendricken School in Rhode Island committed to play for Dom Starsia at the University of Virginia starting this fall, the hype only heightened.

Wrote Providence Journal sports columnist Bill Reynolds: "Briggs might just be the most talented lacrosse player to come out of Rhode Island since Chris Rotelli of Moses Brown almost a decade ago now."

It was almost a decade ago, wasn't it? In case you had forgotten, Rotelli was the rare prospect from Rumford, R.I., who also landed at Virginia after signing there in 1999. All he did was win an NCAA championship and Tewaaraton Trophy as the nation's best player in 2003, before launching a professional career in Major League Lacrosse. He currently plays for the San Francisco Dragons.

Now, Briggs is being billed as the second coming.

"It's definitely very flattering to be held in the same sentence as Chris Rotelli. It'll just give me motivation to try to represent Rhode Island as a player," said Briggs, who will do just that this weekend as a member of the stacked East team at the US Lacrosse National Senior Showcase in Denver.

"I feel like people look to me as if I have to represent the whole state at the next level, so I also have to try to be as good as Chris Rotelli was. From Rhode Island, going to Virginia - it's the same circumstances. It kind of makes it a lot of weight on my shoulders."

Of the perceived pressure, Briggs added, "It's not really a choice, so I guess I welcome it and try to do the best I can to fulfill it."

At 6-foot, 175 pounds, Briggs, also an all-state linebacker in football, has the broad shoulders to carry the burden of expectation. Like Rotelli, he is a three-time high school All-American. (Coaches contend he could have easily been a four-timer, as he dominated Rhode Island lacrosse immediately as a freshman in 2004, "but where do you go from there?" said Hendricken coach Kevin Murray.) Also like Rotelli, Briggs has the physical tools to be a two-way midfielder, with an additional proficiency on faceoffs.

Throughout Briggs' high school career, opponents were regularly overwhelmed. He tallied a game-high six goals, including his 300th career point, in the Hawks' 21-11 victory over Providence Country Day in the R.I. Interscholastic League championship game June 3, their third state title in four years.

"Man-to-man, there's not really anybody in the state who can match up with him one-on-one," said Wheeler School coach Kurt Stenberg, who previously coached Briggs on Rhode Island's U-13 and U-15 youth teams.

"His head-up vision is excellent," Stenberg said, "and he has a great shot. He can take you to the cage and dump it for a lay-up, or he can shoot on the run with both hands with great accuracy."

Said Murray of his two-time team captain: "He's just kind of a freak, ya know?"

Briggs was exposed to lacrosse earlier than most in Rhode Island, as his father - Hendricken assistant coach Peter Briggs - was a Long Island lacrosse transplant who moved north and started the South County Lacrosse League in the late 1990s, when Colin was in second grade.

"I was able to start early, which was not necessarily the case for a lot of kids playing lacrosse on Rhode Island," Colin Briggs said.

The family's neighbor at the time was Chris Rotelli's uncle.

"We're pretty good family friends," Colin said of the Briggs and Rotellis.

So let the comparisons begin.

"A kid coming out of Rhode Island going to the University of Virginia has been done before," Murray said, "but only twice now."