World Cup champion Kayla Treanor says that the best thing she learned from playing other sports was humility.

Did you know that every current U.S. national team player —in both our men’s and women’s programs —have all participated in multiple sports throughout their lives? We asked them: What skill(s) have you learned from playing multiple sports? This is what they shared:

Teamwork and Humility

“The skill that I have learned from other sports was how to be a good teammate. I wasn’t always the best or the star in the other sports I played, so I learned how to be the best teammate and supporter in the field.” – Mackenzie Burns

“Teamwork and being humbled at not being the best at the other sports.” – Will Manny

“I learned to be an athlete. Overall it taught me how to jump, how to run how to be aggressive, how to compete. The best thing it taught me though was humility. I learned how to sit on the bench by playing other sports.” – Kayla Treanor

Lessons from Basketball

“Spatial awareness in basketball.” – Brian Phipps

“By playing basketball my whole life, the skill that has helped me in lacrosse is my defensive footwork and positioning. The defensive techniques in basketball directly translates to the lacrosse field, just on a bigger scale.” – Emma Trenchard

“Learned how to move off the ball.” – Justin Guterding

“Basketball taught me proper defense, how to rely on your feet instead of reaching with a stick, quick ball ball movement, how to do a proper split dodge (from crossover move) and boxing out.” – Amanda Johansen

Lessons from other Sports

“Body position in football.” – Brent Adams

“The push off in hockey helped me a ton in playing goalie. Having to watch the spin on the ball in tennis transferred over to lacrosse—watching the release from the stick and the tracking element.” – Gussie Johns

“Fly fishing — ability to snap wrist and have a good feel for your tool. Golf — relax and be smooth while still being powerful and balanced.” – Mikey Schlosser

“Baseball — Infielder/catcher going for the ground balls or a catch taught to be square and get my body behind the ball. It also helped with hand-eye coordination.” – Caylee Waters

From soccer to ice hockey to field hockey, our national team players can attest that playing multiple sports has helped them in more ways than one. Field spacing and endurance from soccer helped Taylor Cummings while playing the ball off the ground in field hockey helped Katie O’Donnell. Playing multiple sports helped Trevor Baptiste develop discipline, helped Connor Buczek develop competitiveness and helped Sergio Perkovic learn toughness. 

Overall, Stephen Kelly summed up what all of our players had the opportunity to do: learn how to be a complete athlete.

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