Junior midfielder Cooper Durham loves having a teammate who he knows he can trust with the ball.

“[O]n midfield you’re kind of running all over the place, so it’s nice to be able to get the ball from the defensive side, bring it up and then once you give it to Gabe, you know that he is either going to be able to hold onto the ball so you get a little rest or he’s going to score right away.”

Junior Gabe Remshardt is the star attackman for the Clayton lacrosse team, earning both All-Conference and All-State honors as a sophomore. In 2014, Remshardt has his sights set on even loftier goals.

“I would like to be an All-American, which is a pretty hard goal to accomplish playing in Division II, because usually all the All-Americans, traditionally they’re all from D-1 … you would have to really make some noise in D-2 for them to even consider you,” Remshardt said.

But if anyone was to emerge from Division-II, it very well could be Remshardt. He scored 51 goals in 2013 and assisted 19 more. In 2014, Remshardt hopes to improve his abilities in all areas.

“This year I want to really round out my game and just be an all around good player, so [to] have my goals even with my assists would be nice,” he said.

Remshardt has been able to be a leader for the Clayton team since his freshman year.

“He’s a really good leader because people are able to look up to him and he obviously has a lot of knowledge when he comes to lacrosse, so it’s really nice to have him,” Durham said.

Though only a junior, Remshardt has already decided to play college lacrosse. He has verbally committed to Bryant University, a high division one program. Remshardt chose Bryant in part because of their well known head coach, Mike Pressler. Pressler was the coach for Duke University for 16 years and has won nearly 300 games as a college coach.

A verbal commitment allows either Remshardt or Bryant University to change their decision, but indicates that the player and college program agree that the athlete has a spot on the college team.

Remshardt also will play for the MO22 summer team.

“It’s the best 22 [players] in Missouri … it’s usually about like 250 people show up for the first day of tryouts, and then they do cuts and it’s a full weekend,” he said.

Remshardt was selected with fellow junior and teammate Adam Lopata.

Remshardt’s favorite thing about lacrosse is the challenge the sport offers to continually improve one’s play.

“There’s always something you can improve at,” he said. “It’s never ending, so it never really gets boring.”