Shane Knobloch has brought reliability, offensive spark to Rutgers men's lacrosse
Senior midfielder Shane Knobloch has been a consistent offensive key for the Rutgers men's lacrosse team. Knobloch has played for the Scarlet Knights for four seasons, scoring 98 goals and providing 49 assists in 59 games.
Knobloch, who hails from Moorestown, New Jersey, was named an All-American and was selected to the First Team All-State during his time at Moorestown High School.
As for Knobloch's decision to come to Rutgers after high school, head coach Brian Brecht and the rest of the coaching staff played a big role.
"They showed they wanted me the most, playing in the Big Ten is awesome and then obviously the Rodkin facility's state of the art, so that was a huge part of it as well," Knobloch said.
Knobloch wasted no time settling in on the Banks, starting 11 of 13 games and scoring 16 goals in just his first season. Following his impressive rookie campaign, Knobloch was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
"I came in here pretty confident once the first couple week jitters got out of the way I was playing pretty well and I had a lot of guys around me that were helping me out a ton, especially on gameday," Knobloch said. "I was an unknown, basically they had no idea who I was so I was able to take advantage of that for a couple of weeks."
The Knights found record-breaking success the next season, reaching the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament. Knobloch netted a career-high 32 goals in the 2022 campaign and gained valuable experience competing for Team USA at the U-21 World Championships in Limerick, Ireland, in the summer. He scored 7 goals and helped lead Team USA to win a gold medal at the tournament.
"I think the main thing I learned was to check your ego at the door," Knobloch said, regarding what he learned from the experience. "We had 21, 23 guys that were some of the best in the country and I think we all did a really good job of checking our egos at the door and not bringing any baggage onto the team and not being selfish, trying to play for the team … That's something that we preach here as well."
Since starting at Rutgers, Knobloch has played with graduate student attacker Ross Scott and senior midfielder Jack Aimone in almost every game. The three have been the team's main goalscorers for the past two seasons, and their relationship off the field plays an important role in their offensive success.
"I think this is the closest team that I've been a part of in my four years here, especially with those older guys, I mean we have a lot of experience offensively," Knobloch said. "Our offensive film meetings are more fun and energetic than what people might think, there’s not as much yelling and more communicating between coach and players."
Knobloch credits Brecht as the one who has taught him the ins and outs of lacrosse.
"Coach Brecht really harps on the importance of getting the ball into the offensive end, using the entire shot clock and draining a team rather than trying to go in the first 10 seconds of a shot clock,” he said. “The things that he really focuses on, we end up doing those pretty well and it helps us succeed for sure."
Knobloch has used his experience and lessons learned to help freshman midfielder Colin Kurdyla settle in as a Knight and gel with the team's offense.
"Trying to help (Kurdyla) out as much as we can, take as much pressure off of him as we can, because we know that with younger guys, we've been there … You haven't been in those big moments so sometimes you gotta lean on the older guys and try to give them as much space as possible."
With Knobloch's time at Rutgers coming to an end, the idea of playing in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) is now possible. Many journalists rank Knobloch as the No. 1 midfielder in the upcoming PLL draft.
"I didn't think about it really coming into college here but now that that's become a reality I'm definitely looking forward to hopefully playing in that league and playing against the best in the world," Knobloch said.
Knobloch has made many memories on the Banks, including the 19-9 win over Harvard at Yurcak Field on Busch campus and the rest of the NCAA Tournament run in his sophomore season.
But Knobloch still aspires to become a Big Ten champion before his time as a Knight is over.
"We've gotten there, haven't won it, but that would be a pretty cool storybook ending for us there, and then see where we go after that beyond the Big Ten Championship," he said.
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