Photo:Courtesy of US Lacrosse Magazine
The statistics and awards speak for themselves:
- Selected as the first draft pick by Major League Lacrosse Boston Cannons last week. Baptiste became the first DU player to receive that honor in the history of the league.
- The first faceoff specialist (FOGO – Faceoff, get-off) to be nominated for the Tewaaraton Award for College Lacrosse best player.
- Baptiste is second in NCAA Division I history in faceoff wins (1,093) and ground balls (602) – just 24 more wins off the NCAA record He will own the record, barring injury, in the next game or two.
- Baptiste has had double-digit faceoff wins in 63-of-64 games and 15 or more wins in 45 games.
- Baptiste’s four-year run began when he set the NCAA record for single-season faceoff wins by a freshman (310) in 2015, helping lead the Pioneers to their first national title.
- A three-time USILA First Team All-America selection
- Baptiste is a finalist for the 2018 Senior CLASS Award – given to the outstanding senior NCAA Division I Student-Athlete of the Year across nine different sports.
- Has won an astounding 77.5% of his faceoffs this season and while scoring six goals in Denver’s last six games to bring his career total to 28 goals to go along with 12 assists.
- In this writer’s view, he is the odds-on favorite for the 2018 Tewaaraton Award
Lightly recruited out of high school, Trevor Baptiste was headed to Franklin and Marshall College on a lacrosse scholarship when spotted by Denver staff at a faceoff camp. The soft-spoken Baptiste rapidly transformed into ‘the Beast’ at Denver – an unstoppable force that could be counted on every game for DU for extra possessions. And possessions lead, inevitably, to goals and, of course, wins – 53 out of 64 games.
All this from a player who claims to be living a dream, claiming he was ‘not very good’ at lacrosse when he took up the game in 5th grade. But the modesty belies the truth, Baptiste is a great athlete. And he has taken what used to be one of the more mundane aspects of lacrosse, the faceoff, and turned it into an art.
Here are this writer’s four favorite moves by Trevor Baptiste at the X:
180 Crab: Baptiste clamps the ball with shoulders low to the ground and, like a sumo wrestler, drives the ball into the ground and rotates 180 degrees as the circle of offensive and defensive players collapses on the pile. Somehow, Baptiste emerges from the mass with an outreached stick and the ball sitting up in the pocket nearly every time.
Thru-the-wickets: In one motion, Baptists clamps the ball at the whistle and directs the ball between his own legs with a perfectly direct ground ball to a teammate waiting for the delivery.
‘I give up’: After drawing numerous flinching penalties from opponents, Baptiste’s speed is so overwhelming that, at the referee’s whistle, the defending FOGO doesn’t even attempt to clamp the ball. Instead, at the whistle, the defender is in full retreat pulling AWAY from the ball towards his own goal and running back on defense.
Clamp, pop, boom: Baptiste clamps the ball, pops it into the air to himself, charges, unassisted, to the top of the key and places a cannon shot into the back of the net. Several times during his career, this move has changed the entire momentum of games in DU’s favor.
And, while Baptiste has a pleasant personality, he can deliver punishment as well. With players trying to take him off his game by falling on top of him, diving at his knees, and hitting him with sticks, Baptiste has road-graded a few opponents with this 230-pound frame in the open field. But mostly, he concentrates on his specialty – frustrating opponents by applying his speed and skill with amazing consistency.
Since the inception of the Tewaaraton Award in 2001, Baptiste would be the first African-American to receive the annual award if he wins. Jim Brown was awarded the Legends Tewaarton Award and was the first recognized African American lacrosse player by the Tewaarton Committee. Two Native American players have won the award – Myles and Lyle Thompson.
As we head into next weekend’s final regular season home game against Marquette, we may be watching Trevor Baptiste display his amazing skills at DU for one last time. That is unless DU is awarded a first-round NCAA playoff game.
And the last four years? We have simply watched the greatest tenure for a University of Denver athlete in the history of the athletics program.
Trevor had made the FOGO a glamorous position and has developed a cult like following. (large cult) I live in NJ and often wear DU sports gear. People between 8-80 have come up to me and asked: Do you know Trevor Baptiste? I’m honored to reply yes.
Not sure Trevor wins the Tewey because it’s never gone to a FOGO. This year the kid from Albany has a higher FO win percentage, but not by much. I want Trevor to get 1st team AA. Okay, others have been 1st team 4 years in a row, but they played positions where there are multiple 1st team AA’s. (something like 6 players) I do think in the end, Trevor wins the Tewey. I know the award is for this year only, but the voters are human and they can’t forget his 4 year legacy. I actually believe this might happen: Each year, the best FOGO in the country will win an award named “The Trevor” as best FOGO in country for that year..
He is incredible and his graduation will be a huge loss – both in possession and character. A great guy with a supportive family that travels from NJ for every Denver home game. It is safe to say we will never see excellence at the X like this again.
Trevor had made the FOGO a glamorous position and has developed a cult like following. (large cult) I live in NJ and often wear DU sports gear. People between 8-80 have come up to me and asked: Do you know Trevor Baptiste? I’m honored to reply yes.
Not sure Trevor wins the Tewey because it’s never gone to a FOGO. This year the kid from Albany has a higher FO win percentage, but not by much. I want Trevor to get 1st team AA. Okay, others have been 1st team 4 years in a row, but they played positions where there are multiple 1st team AA’s. (something like 6 players) I do think in the end, Trevor wins the Tewey. I know the award is for this year only, but the voters are human and they can’t forget his 4 year legacy. I actually believe this might happen: Each year, the best FOGO in the country will win an award named “The Trevor” as best FOGO in country for that year..
Don’t forget that Trevor Baptiste may also be the only individual player in college lacrosse history who’s dominate play resulted in a rule change that was specifically designed to make faceoffs ‘more fair’… i.e. make Trevor less effective.
This is the 5″ faceoff rule, that really should be called the ‘Try To Stop Trevor’ rule!
There aren’t enough accolades available to shower this guy with. His impact on college lacrosse may never be duplicated.
I can think of many more accomplished “4 year” players at DU…especially if you consider a hockey guy or 2 who was here for 4 years, but couldn’t compete his frosh season.
I mean, hell, both Tanner Jaillet and Will Butcher are more accomplished and were here quite recently.
This blog, mostly from the questionable writing, pretty much maintains a weird anti-hockey bias. The weird part is that really the only reason DU Athletics is somewhat known in the Denver area is because of hockey. It’s like this blog chooses to shoot the hand that feeds DU Athletics every chance it can. For what? I don’t get the end game…
80% of our stories are about hockey – take a look. 95% of our Twitter is hockey. You must be joking – anti-hockey bias? DU has had any number of great hockey players but that does not take away from Baptiste’s accomplishments. He started his Freshman year with the best stats ever for his position and won a national title. And he has improved from there….I imagine you don’t like basketball coverage either because it is a ‘threat’ to hockey? I think we can be very good at any number of sports without diminishing the other sports.
But…you must not pay much attention to yer own blog.
Maybe she wants some hockey player beefcake pics
Anti hockey bias…only in your own dysfunctional mind.
He is incredible and his graduation will be a huge loss – both in possession and character. A great guy with a supportive family that travels from NJ for every Denver home game. It is safe to say we will never see excellence at the X like this again.
Butcher and Jaillet would be the first to admit Baptiste is a generational player who probably ranks as DU’s greatest ever athlete. The ever so famous Mr. Anonymous must have an axe to grind to make such a offbase assertion.
The greatest D.U .sports player EVER?? That’s a stretch. Quite a stretch..
Don’t forget that Trevor Baptiste may also be the only individual player in college lacrosse history who’s dominate play resulted in a rule change that was specifically designed to make faceoffs ‘more fair’… i.e. make Trevor less effective.
This is the 5″ faceoff rule, that really should be called the ‘Try To Stop Trevor’ rule!
There aren’t enough accolades available to shower this guy with. His impact on college lacrosse may never be duplicated.
I can think of many more accomplished “4 year” players at DU…especially if you consider a hockey guy or 2 who was here for 4 years, but couldn’t compete his frosh season.
I mean, hell, both Tanner Jaillet and Will Butcher are more accomplished and were here quite recently.
This blog, mostly from the questionable writing, pretty much maintains a weird anti-hockey bias. The weird part is that really the only reason DU Athletics is somewhat known in the Denver area is because of hockey. It’s like this blog chooses to shoot the hand that feeds DU Athletics every chance it can. For what? I don’t get the end game…
80% of our stories are about hockey – take a look. 95% of our Twitter is hockey. You must be joking – anti-hockey bias? DU has had any number of great hockey players but that does not take away from Baptiste’s accomplishments. He started his Freshman year with the best stats ever for his position and won a national title. And he has improved from there….I imagine you don’t like basketball coverage either because it is a ‘threat’ to hockey? I think we can be very good at any number of sports without diminishing the other sports.
But…you must not pay much attention to yer own blog.
Maybe she wants some hockey player beefcake pics
Anti hockey bias…only in your own dysfunctional mind.
Butcher and Jaillet would be the first to admit Baptiste is a generational player who probably ranks as DU’s greatest ever athlete. The ever so famous Mr. Anonymous must have an axe to grind to make such a offbase assertion.
The greatest D.U .sports player EVER?? That’s a stretch. Quite a stretch..
If Baptiste is a stretch, name a few who are not stretches. They best be 3 time first team all-Americans. You can probably go to the DU sports website and look up the names of a few skiers. Actually, my college girlfriend, Suzy “Chapstick” Chaffee is probably the 2nd greatest DU athlete ever.
It’s no stretch.
Baptiste is the greatest faceoff man the game has ever seen over an four year career. No other DU athlete has had a bigger impact on his sport than Baptiste has had in lacrosse.
Magnuson? Masterton? Carle? Butcher? Anderson? Boryla? Biffle?’ Berg? Matthews? None of them are even close.
If Baptiste is a stretch, name a few who are not stretches. They best be 3 time first team all-Americans. You can probably go to the DU sports website and look up the names of a few skiers. Actually, my college girlfriend, Suzy “Chapstick” Chaffee is probably the 2nd greatest DU athlete ever.
It’s no stretch.
Baptiste is the greatest faceoff man the game has ever seen over an four year career. No other DU athlete has had a bigger impact on his sport than Baptiste has had in lacrosse.
Magnuson? Masterton? Carle? Butcher? Anderson? Boryla? Biffle?’ Berg? Matthews? None of them are even close.