In the 69-day span between his graduation from Cornell on May 24 and his first day of orientation at the Johnson Graduate School of Management on Aug. 2, Connor Buczek's life was a blur of hotel rooms and airports. Essentially living out of a bag, and with his lacrosse gear in tow, the second overall pick of the Florida Launch in the 2015 Major League Lacrosse Draft played in eight MLL games and worked five different lacrosse camps in five different states. During that time, he traveled from Ithaca to Boston, to Long Island, to Cincinnati, to Houston, to Boca Raton, to Minneapolis, to Boca, to Cincinnati, to Boca, to Charlotte, to Denver, to Atlanta, to Boca, to Cincinnati, and then back to Ithaca.
 
A native of Cincinnati, Buczek only made it home for a total of seven days this summer. Three of those days were spent running his lacrosse camp – The Southern Ohio Shootout – and three of the days were spent preparing and packing for his eventual move to Ithaca to begin graduate work. One final night was spent in his childhood home when he arrived in Cincinnati following an 18-11 win over the Rochester Rattlers in Florida's home finale.  He did laundry, got some sleep, packed his car and then drove the nine hours to Ithaca to work the Cornell Lacrosse Camp the following day.
 
"It was awesome, but travelling was a pain," says Buczek. "I was just flying everywhere, and it's such a hassle. The MLL sets up the flights and there always seemed to be a ton of connecting flights and lay overs. If there was a delay or I missed a connection, I was on my own scrambling to find a new flight."
 

 
While his summer was taxing, it was hardly unique for a player in the MLL, the top professional lacrosse league in the nation. 
 
The MLL is comprised of eight teams, but with a salary range of $10,000 to $25,000 per season, most of the players hold full-time jobs or attend graduate school, rarely living in the city where their team is located. That means that the team members rarely practice together and are expected to keep in shape and keep their skills sharp on their own. And depending on the job they hold, that can mean a great deal of travel during the five-month season. 
 
In its 15 years of existence, the MLL has seen its share of Cornell alumni take the field, but this past season was a special one, with six former Big Red players – Buczek, Mitch Belisle '07, Matt Donovan '15, Jason Noble '13, Rob Pannell '13, and Max Seibald '09 – seeing significant playing time, while a handful of others were on various rosters and practice squads at some point during the season.
 
Like Buczek, Donovan was also in his first season with the MLL after being picked 18th overall by the Chesapeake Bayhawks in the 2015 draft.  He had a solid rookie season, despite having to adjust to the speed of the game and his new role, as well as spending time working a handful of camps and travelling for leisure, as well as for his MLL career.

"I commuted from my hometown of Morristown, N.J., either flying out to games on the road, or driving down for home games with a teammate," says Donovan. "The MLL is an entirely different game than college. I was able to play with guys I kind of grew up watching, like Matt Danowski, Joe Walters, and Drew Westervelt … So that was pretty surreal. The most difficult part was trying to find my role on a team filled with that many veterans. One week at Cornell I was quarterbacking the offense, and the next I was catching inside passes from Matt Danowski or Drew Westervelt, so that took some getting used to.  Overall though, it was awesome playing with and against the best players in the world and I was truly appreciative of how the Bayhawks organization treated me."  
 
WORKING OVERTIME
Three of the six pro players – Belisle, Pannell and Seibald – hold full-time jobs that keep them submerged in the lacrosse lifestyle. Belisle works as the Director of Marketing for Trilogy Lacrosse, a company that provides lacrosse education through lacrosse clinics, day camps, overnight camps, and select teams, while Pannell and Seibald run 423Lax, LLC, which sponsors camps and clinics that take them travelling around the country in between MLL games, and year-round.
 
"My time at Cornell and my degree have helped me in many different ways when it comes to running a successful lacrosse business," says Seibald. "Many of my classes such as finance, accounting, public speaking, excel, entrepreneurship and others have helped me with the tangible skills and fundamentals of running a business. On top of that, I acquired so many skills outside of the classroom – time management, prioritization, self-motivation, social skills, understanding the importance of surrounding myself with people that are better and smarter than me, and working in groups, being open to learning and being coached, the ability to not be afraid of change or failure, and embrace challenges to overcome adversity, and treating people well. All of that, much of which I credit to my time at Cornell, has allowed me to continue to push my business forward."
 

The trio also supplements their income with various sponsorship deals. Belisle is an Under Armour athlete and is also sponsored by Trilogy Lacrosse, while Seibald signed with Nike when he graduated from Cornell and just recently re-signed for an additional three years. Pannell has his own product line with Brine, RP3 Lacrosse, which features gloves, heads, and shafts that bear his name, and this winter the company will launch a youth line as well. He also has deals in place with StringKing Lacrosse, 5-Hour Energy, and 5&FIV3, which is his own apparel line.
 
"My sponsorships are extremely beneficial in allowing me to be a full-time professional lacrosse player," says Pannell. "Not only do they help provide me with the financial backing to live in NYC and be able to train full time, but also allow me to grow my brand through various outlets.  Whether it is social media or through a commercial on TV, they help me not only expand my brand in the lacrosse world, but also in the world outside of lacrosse.  My 5-Hour Energy commercial could be seen during prime time Monday Night Football, NY Rangers' games on MSG, or during college football games on Saturdays. It's great exposure for me and Major League Lacrosse, which will help the sport to grow."
 
Noble, the only one of the six pros with a traditional day job, began working for TD Securities in May.  Noble was the 10th overall pick of the now defunct Hamilton Nationals and was traded midway through the 2014 season to the Chesapeake Bayhawks. This summer, Noble was reunited with Donovan and the pair was able to bring a Cornell tradition to their new team.
 
"Playing with Matt this season was great," says Noble. "He fit in quickly with our team and was a great asset. We carried on the tradition of getting ice cream the night before games a couple times, which was awesome. We also ended up rooming together a couple of times on the road and it is always good to see another Cornell player in the league, and even better when you are on the same team."
 
For Noble to make his off- and on-the-field jobs work, he relies heavily on the skills he learned at Cornell.
  
"Playing in the MLL with a traditional 9-to-5 Job is always tough," says Noble. "Playing at Cornell definitely taught me how to manage my time, prioritize, and make the most of every opportunity. For a Saturday night game, I would normally fly out on Fridays right after work, head straight to practice, and then fly home on Sunday mornings. On top of travelling for games, you need to put in all the extra time during the week to work out, keep the stick in your hands, and recuperate from the past game and make sure your body is ready for the next weekend. All of that is either done before heading to work in the morning or when I get home at night. Travel and work life is always a hard balance but I manage to make it work most of the time because I still love playing the game, and I get to see some of my best friends every weekend."
 
Noble loves playing so much that, like Belisle, he also plays for the Georgia Swarm of the National Lacrosse League, a professional indoor league that runs from January until June, essentially playing lacrosse for eight months of the year.

 

"There is some overlap between the MLL and NLL seasons so it can be tough to do," says Belisle. "But I think it's great to have the opportunity to play in both leagues. The bottom line is, if you have the ability to play with the best in the world, you have to take it. The guys who do it, do it because they love to play in both leagues."
 
But playing professional lacrosse while working a full-time job can be a grind, and the shelf-life of an MLL player is a short one. Still, Buczek hopes to play as long as he can, and has the goal of making the U.S. National Team in advance of the 2018 FIL World Championships to be held in Manchester, England.
 
With the selection for that team still two years away, Buczek will need to stay in playing shape, and he will need to do so without the benefit of a coach or teammates to push him – something all MLL players learn to do throughout their career.
 
"There's a lot of dedication and self-motivation that goes into is," says Belisle. "You're working for your teammates, even though you're not with them, toward a common goal. Plus, there are always young guys coming out each year trying to take your spot."
 

Belisle has been holding off the young guys the longest of all the Cornellians. With nine seasons under his belt, he matches former Big Red defender Ryan McClay '03 for the longest MLL tenure by a Cornell alumnus. Drafted 12th overall by the now-defunct Los Angeles Riptide, Belisle played two seasons on the West Coast before being picked up by his current team, the Boston Cannons, when the Riptide franchise folded. He served as team captain of the Cannons for four seasons, is a three-time MLL All-Star, won an MLL championship with the team in 2011, and was named to the All-MLL Team that same year.
 
Last season, Belisle and Seibald, his newly acquired teammate, reached the MLL semifinals, where they fell to Pannell's Lizard squad in overtime. Seibald, the second overall pick in the 2009 MLL Draft by Denver played three seasons with the Outlaws before being traded to the Lizards, where he spent three seasons before being traded to Boston before the 2015 campaign. Seibald has been a four-time All-Star, not counting the two times he was unable to be selected because he was playing for Team USA, and he has been named to the All-MLL Team once during his career.
 
"Playing with my team at Cornell was so incredibly special," says Belisle. "My whole professional career I've tried to get back to that feeling and having Max on the team with me this year, and the way our team came together with him, was probably as close to that as I've come since leaving Ithaca." 
 
After beating the Cannons, Pannell's team went on to win the 2015 MLL Championship, giving the Lizards their first title since 2003, as he scored four goals and handed out one assist in the 15-12 victory over the Rochester Rattlers. The all-time scoring leader in Cornell men's lacrosse history, Pannell was the first overall pick in the 2012 MLL Draft, and went on to be named the 2013 MLL Rookie of the Year. He is a three-time All-Star, a two-time All-MLL Team selection, and finished the 2015 campaign as the leading scorer in the league with 68 points in the regular season and 77 overall after playoffs.
 
For Pannell, a Long Island native, winning the title with the Lizards was a dream come true.

 

"I grew up a Lizards fan and it was always a dream of mine to play for them one day," says Pannell. "To win my first-ever championship with the Lizards is so special. To know that all my hard work over the years has finally paid off makes the championship feel much more special. At Cornell, a work ethic was instilled in me my freshmen year by the coaching staff and [Associate Director of Athletics for Athlete Performance] Coach Tom Howley. This is the work ethic that allowed our Cornell teams to be top in the country, as well as allowed me to reach new heights as a player with the Big Red."
 
Like Pannell, Noble also points to his time at Cornell as being crucial to his success as a professional player.
 
"With lacrosse at Cornell, you only have so much time off-season as a team due to Ivy League rules, and you must make the most of every minute," he says. "With work and lacrosse, you need to make sure you organize your day and make it as efficient as possible to get done what needs to be done, but also spend time with family and friends. Playing at Cornell has helped me balance my work-lacrosse-personal life so that I am able to do all three at a high level."