This past Monday night at Robbinsville High School featured an emotionally charged scenario not often associated with a high school sporting event.
In a boys’ lacrosse game against High School North, the Robbinsville team was taking the field for the first time since the tragic death of school superintendent Steven Mayer, whose son Kyle plays for the Ravens. In honor of Mayer fans on the sidelines were dressed in white shirts; the place was packed.
Afterward, Northern Knights senior Kyle Siegler received an unexpected compliment. On an evening when Ravens coach Sean Greig was closely monitoring the feelings of his own players, he took the time to praise Siegler, who collected four goals and an assist, for his effort.
“He was shaking my hand and telling me what a great job I did out there,” Siegler said. “That always makes you feel good, when another coach tells you something nice like that. So I was pretty proud of that, particularly under the circumstances.”
It’s not surprising, as Siegler has been a big part of the Northern Knights for the past three seasons.
After notching seven goals and six assists as a second-line midfielder in his freshman year, he moved up to the first line as a sophomore and had 20 goals and eight assists before tallying 36 and 10 last season. His four goals in a loss to Allentown this April 26 gave Siegler 30 for the season and 93 for his career. He scored his 100th career point on April 6 and is honing in on 100 career goals.
A “pretty good feat” for a midfielder, head coach Chris Petrone said.
“I never really thought about it until this year, because I was never focused on setting goals,” Siegler said. “I was focused on winning games. Once I hit that and thought about it, it was an awesome experience. One hundred goals will be even better.”
Siegler took to lacrosse at an early age, though he started out playing baseball. His dad, Chris, played college baseball at Albany University and now works in the financial world. His mom, Laura, is a sales representative in the travel business.
In fifth grade Siegler began with West Windsor-based Lightning Lacrosse at the urging of his buddies.
“All my friends played,” he said. “I had played Little League ever since I could remember, but my friends said, ‘Come out for lacrosse, you’d be good at it.’ It just kind of took off from there.”
With his natural athletic ability Siegler recalled that catching and shooting the ball came easily. He also had good speed and was quickly placed in the midfield.
“I was always running up and down as a midfielder,” he said. “I was letting the attack do the work.”
In middle school, Siegler captained the soccer team, played basketball, and captained the lacrosse team. When he arrived at High School North he dropped basketball and after his freshman year quit soccer to focus on lacrosse.
Following his modest freshman season, Siegler emerged as an offensive force as a sophomore, which was the same year Petrone went from being an assistant to head coach.
“As a freshman, just the skills he had showed us he was going to contribute,” Petrone said. “We knew he was going to be something. He was skinny but he was tall. He had the skill. We knew he had played the sport before. He has become someone we rely on a lot. He’s matured over four years and become a leader for us.”
Siegler’s advancement was aided by playing on some high-caliber travel teams. The summer after his freshman year he played for Turnpike Lacrosse, and his game improved significantly.
A year later he made the powerful Duke team, a national squad based in Pennsylvania. He received coaching from some of the best talent in the country, including current University of Maryland All-American Matt Rambo.
“We actually won a national championship last year and played with an unbelievable group of guys,” Siegler said. “That was one of the best experiences I could ask for, playing with some of the best kids in the country and getting some of the best coaches I could ask for.”
Petrone calls Siegler “a great dodger and very explosive.”
“He’s a hard worker in the weight room, and his frame has gotten bigger, but he hasn’t lost any speed,” the coach said. “He just draws so much attention to himself from a dodging standpoint. That’s really a strength, and his shot has improved so much over his four years. He has one of the harder shots I’ve seen in my time coaching.”
His shot has not only gotten harder, it has become more accurate. That is a result of countless hours in his backyard, where he set up a net and hung lights in order to practice deep into the night.
When Siegler is not firing balls at a net, he is helping put out fires as a volunteer for Station 43 in West Windsor.
That activity will be put on hold by the end of summer, however, as Siegler heads to Division II LeMoyne College in Syracuse. He had been in conversation with other schools but was smitten with Le Moyne after his visit.
His future is bright. But no matter what happens, he will always look back on this past Monday at Robbinsville as something to always remember.
“That was nothing like I’ve ever played in,” he said. “I know when I first came down, I completely botched a shot. It was terrible because I had some kind of gut feeling. Once I was on the field for a minute or two, it just went away. But I never get that kind of feeling. All those people had us feeling a little different, a little emotional. It just felt good to go out and do that for their community.”
