Glen Ridge, NJ native Matt McMahon has been a star in his first couple of years in the Premiere Lacrosse League (PLL). In 2019, McMahon was an all-star defender for the Archers and in 2020, he led the league with 12 caused turnovers. Before the PLL, McMahon got some seasoning in Major League Lacrosse (MLL). He was picked in the fifth round of the 2015 MLL draft by the Ohio Machine and was an all-star, Defensive Player of the Year nominee and 2017 champion. Coach Wink sat down with McMahon to discuss his time at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), the PLL and with Epoch Lacrosse.
McMahon committed to UPenn and played lacrosse there for four years. It was an easy choice to make. “A big part of the decision was the relationships with guys like Corey [Winkoff] and Kyle Mulligan,” McMahon said. “I just had insight into what the Penn lacrosse community was like and it was just a really strong group of families and friends and just a great culture.”
With his rise to professional lacrosse, McMahon partnered with Epoch Lacrosse for his gear. He saw similarities to his alma mater in the company. “It was very similar to Penn,” McMahon said. “It was like ‘I’ve got a sense for the people that make up this organization and I feel really good about that and good about who these people are and I’m ready to tie my name to the Epoch brand because I know that they’ll represent me as well as I represent them.”
A big part of getting these opportunities is McMahon’s work ethic and mindset. “Once you develop that mindset where you determine your own outcome, then, everywhere you go, no matter what circumstances you’re in, you’re like ‘alright, this stinks, I’m fourth on the depth chart’ but your mindset is ‘here’s what I’m going to do to improve that, to get out of this situation and make it better,'” McMahon said. “That continued through my college career, I got to my senior year and I was like ‘you know what? I love playing lacrosse, I don’t really want to stop, I know there’s this professional league, I haven’t heard much interest on the draft side but I want to try and play and I think I can continue to get better.'”
McMahon used this mindset to help him achieve his professional lacrosse dream. “I talked to Coach Sagnitta, who was on the staff at the time, and he had spent some years in the MLL, and he talked to a few coaches and drummed up a little interest in me,” McMahon said. “I ended up going in the fifth or sixth round of the draft and was kind of an afterthought but I showed up to camp really well prepared and a little bigger and stronger than I was in college and better stick skills and everything and acted like I belonged. All of a sudden, I was dressing for games and starting and then making an all-star game here or there.”
The mindset that got McMahon to where he is today is one he gets the chance to pass on to the next generation as an instructer. “I was talking to Deemer Class last summer [2019] and he told me that he thought there was a real ability to give people access to expert lacrosse instruction at a really affordable way by using the internet and digital tools,” McMahon said. “I had started to see this happen in other sports and see people really get a lot out of it.”
With a chance to help youth players, McMahon got involved. “I think it fits so perfectly with the way I think about individual improvement that it was something I was like ‘I really want to work on this because I believe in it’ and I got a great sense for Deemer and he echoed the same thoughts,” McMahon said. “We were aligned in this vision of making lacrosse expertise really easy to access for kids all over the country and continue to develop as players and not spend that much money doing it.”
Class is also a member of the PLL’s Chaos so when his club faces McMahon’s Archers, trash talk can fly. “Last summer was brutal,” McMahon said. “We played them in Baltimore and one of the first plays of the game, I get a penalty, it was my only penalty of the year; it’s a 30-second delay of game and I go off the field. Sure enough, like 10 seconds into the penalty, Deemer stings a corner. It’s one of those where I had such a bone-headed play, it leads to his goal 10 seconds later and now we’re running past each other, [me] coming out of the box and him going off the field and he just gives me a wink and jogs off and I’m like ‘I’m never going to hear the end of this.'”
McMahon and Class will get a chance for more competition in June when the PLL returns for the 2021 season.
Timestamps
1:09 Committing to and experience at UPenn
2:00 Players he played with at UPenn
3:27 Being part of the PLL
5:29 Recruiting visit
6:47 Getting better and playing for Coach Murphy
10:22 Mindset
12:13 Playing with Dominique Alexander
14:45 Always getting better
15:30 Experience with Epoch
18:45 Experience with Deemer
22:00 Talking trash with Deemer
23:12 Deemer coaching USC women’s
23:50 About his sister
25:29 His cousins who play lacrosse and more about his sister
27:10 Shane Doss
27:41 Goalies from his high school class
28:27 Hicksville Lacrosse
