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How YouTube helped shape Faceoff Specialist of the Year Andrew McMeekin
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- How YouTube helped shape Faceoff Specialist of the Year Andrew McMeekin
When Andrew McMeekin was in sixth grade, he watched Trevor Baptiste and TD Ierlan face off on repeat.
At the time, McMeekin was still learning, watching from the outside as two of the best faceoff specialists in the country turned every clamp into a battle. Nearly a decade later, he found himself on the other side of the stripe – facing the same names he once watched on YouTube.
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"I definitely felt that hint of being starstruck," McMeekin said. "… Playing those guys, that was the last bucket list matchup for me."
The moment was full-circle for a player who grew up consuming lacrosse through a screen.
YouTube was where McMeekin studied the greats, found obscure clips and watched games he had no business watching as many times as he did. It was where professional lacrosse began to feel tangible.
And eventually, it became a place where he would end up.
After going undrafted earlier this year, McMeekin signed with the Boston Cannons and turned a rookie opportunity into one of the league's breakout stories. He finished the season among the PLL's elite, earning the Paul Cantabene Faceoff Specialist of the Year award. McMeekin became just the fourth player to win the award, joining Baptiste, Ierlan and Joe Nardella in that exclusive club.
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But before McMeekin was competing for postseason honors, he was a kid watching the players who shaped the position.
The matchup that never got old
With YouTube at his fingertips, McMeekin kept coming back to one game in particular: the 2018 NCAA quarterfinal matchup between Denver and Albany.
The storyline of the game was already there before the first whistle: Baptiste, the Pioneers senior and four-time All-American, against Ierlan, the young faceoff specialist putting together a breakout season for the Great Danes.
"I think I've watched TD Ierlan vs. Trevor Baptiste at Hofstra probably a million times," McMeekin said.
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Then the game began, and the matchup lived up to the hype.
Nothing came easy at the stripe. Every faceoff was contested, neither player able to gain much separation from the other. By the final whistle, they had split the faceoffs evenly, 15-15. (Albany won the game, 15-13.)
"It's like, why wouldn't it end that way?" McMeekin said.
Back then, he watched with fascination. Now, he sees it differently.
He's been in both of those positions. He knows what it feels like to be the younger player, stepping onto the field against the biggest names in the sport. He's also been the veteran in college with an established body of work, looking across the stripe at the next young player trying to prove himself.
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"Having been through it after college, it also gives me a new perspective on it," said McMeekin, who set program records for faceoff wins and ground balls over his four years at Princeton. "My view of that matchup has changed over the 10 years that I've watched it."
The game stayed with him. But it wasn't the only thing he was watching.
Growing up online
McMeekin loves a good YouTube video.
The 22-year-old is part of a generation of lacrosse players who grew up with the unlimited content and access to the sport. He could search the name of just about any player he wanted and, within seconds, find a highlight reel, an old game or some obscure clip with five views.
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He watched them all.
His favorite? Sergio Perkovic scoring five fourth-quarter goals against Denver in 2015.
His feed today is essentially the culmination of a decade of lacrosse media consumption – an algorithm he built brick by brick. And he has no complaints.
"It kind of, like, sticks in your algorithm, and I just consumed so much lacrosse media growing up that it's probably just in my feed forever now," McMeekin said. "Which is not a problem on my end."
But McMeekin wasn't always watching to become a better player. At least, not in the traditional sense.
He wasn't necessarily breaking down film or studying an opponent. He was a kid who simply loved being closer to the game.
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That was especially true when the PLL launched its all-access content. McMeekin could watch practices, locker rooms and behind-the-scenes moments that made professional lacrosse feel tangible.
There was an even more personal connection: His high school coach at Episcopal Academy, Chris Bates, was on the Utah Archers' sideline.
"I would watch all these videos of all the teams, but I'd specifically look out for him and the Archers squad," McMeekin said.
For a young player, it made professional lacrosse feel a little less distant. It wasn't like watching a game on TV; it brought him closer to the league he hoped to one day be a part of.
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The next generation
Now, the screen looks a little different. His own faceoff clips circulate online; his name is on award lists and young players can watch him the same way he once watched the guys he now competes against.
That perspective makes his rookie season mean more than an accolade.
"It's a testament to a lot of things going wrong in the past that I needed to fix," McMeekin said.
He never had the college résumé of the players he once watched.
"There were a lot of times where I was making a lot more mistakes than probably TD and Trevor did in college," he said. "I wasn't a four-time All-American. I would barely crack accolades like that."
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For McMeekin, the award is a marker of everything that happened in between – the mistakes, the adjustments and the people who kept pushing him forward.
"I think it was just like, keep tapping the rock until it breaks," he said. "I got a lot of good people behind me in my corner that are filling my head with the right stuff and giving me the tools to succeed."
Nearly a decade after he first watched Baptiste and Ierlan battle at the stripe, McMeekin has become part of the same conversation – and now, somewhere, another sixth grader might be watching him.
