By: Robert Aitken
It’s a chilly day as brown and orange leaves begin to fall from the trees. There is almost no sound in the area, except for the sound of cleats digging up the grass and a ball hitting the net. Tyler Meth is getting better at the game he loves, no matter what time of the year it is.
“Growing up, I spent most of my time out in the backyard, perfecting my game as much as possible,” said Meth, a sophomore sensation for the Montclair State Men’s Lacrosse team. “I would sit out there and shoot in the dark and snow until I felt I had improved.”
Sophomore Tyler Meth has become a dominant force on the Men’s Lacrosse team. In the season’s first game against Moravian, he scored six goals.
Meth currently leads his team with nine goals in the team’s first three games. The attacker led the squad last season with a phenomenal 49-goal effort as a freshman.
Meth first became interested in the sport at the age of eight after his father brought him to a college lacrosse game. “[My father] took me to see a Princeton-Syracuse game,” Meth said. “I fell in love with the sport immediately. The speed, hitting and the style really caught my eye.”
Meth became infatuated with lacrosse, but there was also another love in his life: ice hockey, a sport he had also been playing from an early age.“Lacrosse was always a second sport to me compared to hockey, until I got to high school,” Meth said.
It was there at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge that Meth began to excel at lacrosse. In his four years playing at Ridge, Meth scored an incredible 130 points and 102 goals.
After an astounding high school career, Meth hoped to continue that same success in college. Meth spent his first semester at Lynchburg College in Virginia, but left to attend Montclair State shortly before the lacrosse season began.
“I transferred for many reasons, including the long distance from home,” Meth said.
Meth cites his father as being a supportive resource in improving his lacrosse game.
“My dad and I would shoot for hours in the back yard until I found my shot,” Meth said.
Meth credits the coaching staff and teammates for helping him feel at home once he transferred. “The guys on the team were all really nice to me. I got along with everyone, and it made transferring a much easier process.”
Since the moment that he put on a Red Hawks jersey, Meth has helped his team achieve new heights, including the team’s very first NCAA tournament berth. This has led to an immense amount of pressure for Montclair State and Meth, individually, to take their success to the next level this season.
Meth was announced as a preseason All-American by Inside Lacrosse Magazine, revealing Meth to no longer be one of the nation’s best kept secrets.
“Although I don’t like to admit that I feel pressure to excel, I do,” said Meth. “I have to perform at my best in order to help my team win, but I am also young and I have to develop aspects of my game still.”
The pressure may be getting to Meth and the rest of the Red Hawks, who have dropped their last two games. A loss to Western Connecticut on Friday would give Montclair State it’s first three-game skid since March 2005.
“We have played some close games lately,” Meth said. “We need to try and start quickly and hope to hold onto leads late.”
Meth is currently playing with a torn labrum in his left hip, an injury sustained during off-season training in the fall.
“The trainers are aware of the injury, and they help me deal with the pain,” Meth said. “Our trainers are fantastic and keep me in the game.”
Meth hopes to play the remainder of the season with the injury before surgery and rehabilitation in the off-season. Rehabilitation for the injury is expected to take nine months, but should give Meth enough time to get ready for the 2011 season.
As far as the future is concerned, Meth, a general humanities major, is contemplating a career in business and hopes to promote the game of lacrosse. “Lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in New Jersey,” said Meth. “It will just keep growing in popularity.”
