Jonathan Taylor

ANOTHER FAMILY

Playing Division I lacrosse during a pandemic, Jonathan Taylor ’19 shares his experiences with the Villanova Men’s Lacrosse squad.

EYEING THE BALL Sophomore long-stick midfielder Jonathan Taylor matches his opponent stride-for-stride vs. St. John’s 4/17. The Wildcats went on to win the contest 23-8.

IN THE PASSING LANE Stick up, Jonathan Taylor attempts to intercept an offensive player’s pass during a team practice.

I got COVID my first week back on campus so I missed two weeks there and then when I came out of quarantine, I don’t think my body was ready to play yet and then I ended up pulling my hamstring, so I’ve been pretty much dealing with that the entire season.

AS A LION

St. Mark’s Lacrosse Honors All-American

2019 US Lacrosse All-American

All-State

2019 Texas High School Lacrosse League All-State

All-SPC

2019

All-North SPC

2018

During the fall and the first two weeks of the season, we weren’t allowed to practice as a full team. We practiced in “pods” [grouped by age]... so that definitely made it harder to prepare for the season.

“[Division I] lacrosse is more than I thought it would be. I figured that the team would be close and that we’d have strong camaraderie, but it’s on another level than I thought it was going to be coming into college. Our team is very, very close and it’s basically a brotherhood and another family, which is something very nice to have.

Another thing about being a Division I athlete is that wherever you go, I don’t want to say that there’s a target on your back, but people always know who you are, and there are certain expectations that you have to follow that the normal student might not be subject to.

We don’t feel like we get the

respect that we deserve, especially with media. It seems like they always look down on us every yearast year, we opened up with Yale, Penn State and Maryland, and in each of those games we were expected to lose but then we ended up beating Maryland.

IN POSITION

Jonathan Taylor stands in front of his crease, ready to slide.