Contact sports usually get faster and more strategic when a high school athlete moves on to the college game.
But probably most of all, they get more physical.
That’s why 2021 Vintage High graduate Alec Umutyan, who announced last month he would be attending the University of Colorado and trying out for its club lacrosse team, shouldn’t have much trouble adjusting to how the Buffaloes and their opponents play.
The attacker and midfielder helped Vintage go 8-3 overall and 7-1 in Vine Valley Athletic League play this spring with his ultra-aggressive play.
“Umu is ‘The Taz,’ and the reason he got that nickname is because he’s the Tasmanian Devil. He’d spin around and break up plays,” Crushers assistant coach Robert Chrzanowski said during the June 11 signing ceremony at the Vintage track. “He was pretty fun to watch play. He never gave up. His passion was always 100%.”
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Erin Umutyan felt sorry for her son’s opponents, only to find out he was playing the game the right way.
“Being his mom, it was sometimes hard for me to watch him go that hard,” the personal trainer said in her speech at the ceremony. “I’d turn to my friends and go ‘Was that legal? Was he supposed to do that?’ Or I’d apologize to the coaches later. I’d go ‘I’m so sorry,’ and they’d go ‘No, no, we want them to do that.’ It took me a while to get used to the level of physicality going on in lacrosse, but it totally fits Alec’s personality.
“I’m just very proud of Alec for finding something he’s passionate about, putting 100% into it whenever he’s out there.”
Daryl Burch has also assisted Vintage head coach David Eade since last season, when the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the Crushers’ inaugural season in mid-March after just three games, and said Umutyan is fearless.
“Umu will always be my favorite because the kid never quits,” Burch said. “He took on guys twice his size and beat them. I look forward to seeing what he does in Colorado.”
Ari and Erin Umutyan’s brawny son is also brainy, posting a 3.89 GPA, and plans to major in business at the 35,000-student campus in Boulder.
Colorado plays in the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association and Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference. The Buffaloes had seven straight winning seasons from 2013-2019; their 2020 season was cut short and they didn’t play this spring.
Umutyan will have to get used to the 5,430-foot elevation of Boulder, though he said he’s played nearly 800 feet higher.
“I played at Tahoe a couple of times,” he said. “It was pretty difficult, but it gets you in better shape.”
He started playing lacrosse as an elementary schooler after Vintage teammate Jackson Waters, who announced his commitment to Chapman University at the same ceremony, moved from Wisconsin. Jackson’s father, Rick Waters, had played lacrosse in college and immediately got his son hooked on it with the Napa Force youth club.
Meanwhile, Umutyan had grown tired of playing baseball.
“He started when he was in second grade because Jackson was “doing something really cool” and they were in the same class together,” Erin Umutyan said.
“I played two years of tee-ball and I thought it boring, so I tried lacrosse,” Alec Umutyan said.
The rest is history.
“I want to say thanks to Rick for introducing this game to him,” Erin Umutyan said. “He’s like his second dad.”
Umutyan said he started thinking about playing college lacrosse when Rick Waters, who played for Knox College in northwest Illinois, showed him and Jackson videos of college games.
“Watching those guys out there just really inspired me. I wanted to be part of that and I feel like I’ve worked for all this just to do that,” Umutyan said.
He’s glad he finally got to play a full league campaign, even though archrival Napa High couldn’t field a team. With the entire school year of sports having to be played in the spring due to the pandemic, and athletes having to choose between sports being played simultaneously, the Grizzlies didn’t have enough players. Neither did the Vintage girls.
Umutyan said he got invited to a couple of club tournaments after Vintage’s 2020 season was halted, but they weren’t the same.
“They were low-key tournaments where you made your own team, but I wasn’t in the mood,” he recalled. “I didn’t really feel like there was a point to it.”
But once the Crusher boys found out a 2021 high school season would take place, a whopping 26 players came out.
“I didn’t really think it was going to happen this year, to be honest. It was kind of a surprise for me,” Umutyan said. “It lifted my spirits, made me happier, and I got going in that mode again. I started training and it got be back in that groove of things and it felt pretty good.”
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