Lanthaler blending skills with smarts
It’s quite possible that lacrosse never wears on Mitch Lanthaler.
A junior midfielder for North Catholic, he settles in to watch film at the front of the bus following road games. After his team’s first scrimmage this campaign, he spent an hour at the school in front of his coaching staff, drawing up ideas on a whiteboard.
The dedication to sharpening his craft is a reason for his deep understanding of the game.
“He’s got a killer shot, he can work both his right and his left, but what really sets him apart is he understands not just how the offense runs, but how it interacts with other defenses that he sees,” North coach Jeremy Campbell said. “He has an incredible toolbox of dodges and shots ... He understands just how to put the ball where it needs to be.”
Throughout the season, Lanthaler spends two to three nights a week studying his own tape. A lot of the time he does so with his father, Juergen, who played soccer in Germany and offers a helpful perspective in breaking it down.
It almost goes without saying that the additional work pays off. Lanthaler registered 71 points as a sophomore last year.
“Whenever I get the ball, I like to see through the seams of the defense,” said Lanthaler, who’s played lacrosse for 11 years and is also an outside linebacker and wide receiver for North’s football team. “As a player, it’s not as much (about) scoring for me. I love to pass the ball. I like to get my teammates involved ... That’s probably my favorite thing to do.”
The blend of skills and smarts is unusual. Campbell began his coaching career at Canon-McMillan, where he was able to observe Logan Gebhart, a 2019 U.S. Lacrosse All-American. In Lanthaler, Campbell recognizes identical qualities.
“He genuinely enjoys bettering himself and the kids around him,” Campbell said. “He’s a maniac, so whenever he needs a break, he’ll go to (play) attack. He never wants to leave the field.”
Maybe it’s Lanthaler’s way of making up for lost time.
“I was really expecting him to do great things (his) freshman year,” Campbell said. “He was probably one of the players I was most excited about … It looked like he could’ve run with anybody in the WPIAL.”
Alas, that season never happened. Campbell will tell you that Lanthaler didn’t get complacent.
“He was really looking forward to making a splash,” Campbell said. “Sophomore year, he came in with those same expectations.”
It’s safe to say Lanthaler met them. As well as it’s offensive MVP, he was voted as the Trojans’ hardest worker following a schedule in which he recorded 44 goals and 27 assists. His numbers were comparable to Mars’ Austin Cote, an All-American who Lanthaler played alongside on the Planets’ eighth-grade crew.
This spring, Lanthaler was unanimously voted as one of North’s captains. After beating Hampton by an 8-5 score on Tuesday, his team sports a 1-2 record early on.
He had two goals and two assists against the Talbots, pushing his point total to nine through three contests.
“I just want to set my team up to succeed,” Lanthaler said, adding that eclipsing his offensive output from last year is a big focus. “I want to exceed that by a wide margin to maybe make even more goals come true with recruiting ... I definitely want to play at the highest level.”
He’s already been in communication with Bryant, Bucknell, and Drexel.
