From service to Sixes: Brendan Nichtern returns in 2026 Championship Series

Though Brendan Nichtern never left the PLL, it’s been more than two years since he last appeared in a game.

But on Feb. 28, the 2022 Rookie of the Year will make his return to the field when he suits up for the Carolina Chaos at the 2026 Lexus Championship Series.

“You hate playing [against the Chaos], but outside of that, you do realize that they’re a good culture,” Nichtern said. “So it’s something I always wanted to be a part of.”

Nichtern signed a one-year contract with the Chaos on Dec. 17. This Saturday, the former West Point standout will take the field for the first time since July 15, 2023, when Carolina opens Championship Series play against the New York Atlas.

After Nichtern’s stellar rookie season with the Chrome LC (16G, 22A), he was placed on the military reserve list, which sidelined him for the first three games of the 2023 season due to his military commitments.

“When you graduate West Point, you have to do five years of service,” Nichtern said. “That’s from the day I graduated in May 2022.”

Nichtern spent an extra seven extra months at West Point after graduation, during which he worked as an assistant under Army head coach Joe Alberici, then had to step away from lacrosse altogether for the first time in years to attend the Field Artillery Basic Officer Leader Course (FA BOLC) — a rigorous 18-week training program that prepared Nichtern for his role as a Field Artillery Officer.

“I kind of learned the ins and outs and the math side of artillery, and that’s something actually [fellow Chaos attackman] Jackson Eicher is doing right now,” Nichtern said. “So it’s pretty funny, we’re on the same glide path. But that took me into my second [season]. So that’s kind of why I didn’t play as much. I missed training camp.”

He returned in Week 4 of the 2023 season, scored a goal in his first game back against the Waterdogs and picked up an assist the following week against the Cannons. However, after two games, he returned to Fort Sill to graduate from FA BOLC and continue his career in service to his country. From Oklahoma, he then went to Fort Hood in Texas to join the Third Cavalry Regiment (3CR), a Stryker-equipped U.S. Army unit composed of troops from all military and occupational specialty skill sets.

Despite his military obligations, Nichtern was retained by the Chrome as they rebranded as the Denver Outlaws in 2024, but Nichtern missed the entire 2024 season due to his commitment to the 3CR. And unlike in 2023, Nichtern was not stateside in Oklahoma, nor did he remain in Texas. Beginning in January 2024, Nichtern and the rest of the 3CR spent nine months on a rotation in South Korea to continue the U.S. Army’s longstanding commitment to regional security and stability.

But while Nichtern had an obligation to serve his country, he still made time to make some new memories of his own, which included reuniting with former Army lacrosse teammates Daniel Kielbasa and Doug Jones in Seoul.

“It was the first time we saw each other in five months, and it was surreal to explore the ginormous city with them,” Nichtern said. “To think we were at the Army Prep School only six years ago at that point, and then we were in a foreign country 7,000 miles away.”

Nichtern returned to Fort Hood after his rotation in South Korea, which in total marked the longest time he had spent away from lacrosse in his life. Whether he was stationed in Fort Sill or Fort Hood, it wasn’t a lack of effort that prevented Nichtern from keeping up with his lacrosse workouts.

“I’m not going to blame the locations, but in Oklahoma, there was nothing,” Nichtern said. “And then in Texas, surprisingly, there were just no good fields, no nets, no nothing. But something I do every morning is I go in, I’ll study for my test, and then, at 7:30, I go to some local high school at the really good turf field. So before work, I’m getting my time in. So I’m shooting, sprinting and doing the wall every morning.”

But that all changed when Nichtern took a new role as a Basic Training Platoon Leader in Fort Jackson, S.C., in August 2025. In a new city, with a new job, he began to find ways to work the game he grew up on back into his life. Not only did the field conditions change, but so did the opportunities for him to continue to grow his game.

“I’ve always worked out. I’m a good runner. I weight lift, but I definitely put more emphasis this time around on getting into lacrosse shape, so playing lacrosse,” Nichtern said. “I coach at the University of South Carolina club team. I warm up the goalies, which actually helps, because some of those guys are pretty damn good and they save the ball.

“I think just being around lacrosse has helped too, because I’m the offensive coordinator, so being around lacrosse will help build my brain a little bit, and maybe before the summer, I’ll try and hop in and get some reps with the guys.”

Despite being away from lacrosse for essentially three years, PLL teams continued to see the upside of having a former second-team All-Pro on their roster.

The California Redwoods traded for Nichtern before the 2025 season. But because their stable of attackmen also featured the likes of Ryder Garnsey, Dylan Molloy and the eventual 2025 Rookie of the Year, Chris Kavanagh, Nichtern did not see the field last summer.

But now, with Nichtern’s five years of service nearly complete, the 26-year-old is finally ready to return to the PLL. And this time, he will be doing it with a familiar face from his college days: Eicher.

“One of the most obvious parts [of joining the Chaos] is playing with Jackson,” Nichtern said. “It is something that we kind of talked about last year, even though I wasn’t really playing in the summer. We just talked about how awesome it would be, especially when he exploded onto the scene. With him being a right wing guy and me typically at X, I was like, ‘You know, that would be a dream of mine.’ So right when the season ended, honestly, that was on my mind.”

Nichtern and Eicher spent a season together at Army in 2022, with Nichtern captaining the Black Knights and Eicher getting acquainted with the West Point campus and team as a freshman. As a senior, Nichtern tallied a program-record 101 points (41G, 60A) en route to becoming the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year and a 2022 Tewaaraton Award finalist.

“I was a captain at the time, and he was a really good freshman attackman, and I was the X guy, so naturally I kind of brought him under my wing,” Nichtern said.  “I think there’s always a special bond between senior and freshman, and me and Jackson got really close. Our families are close now. I used to text him when I graduated to talk about his game to see if I could help him a little bit, and tell him how good he’s playing. So that relationship has been there since my senior year.”

What began as a captain welcoming a freshman to the team quickly turned into a long-lasting bond.

“Pretty early on freshman year, Brendan took me under his wing, and we actually were pretty close friends, his senior year and my freshman year,” Eicher said. “It was probably, I’d say, one of the most influential years for me, just being able to take a backseat and kind of watch how Brendan operated and watch how he went [about] his business. What he did, how he practiced, you know, the competitor that he was, how he prepared for practice, how he prepared for games.”

Three seasons later, the stage that Nichtern set for his underclassman teammates as a senior paved the way for Eicher to have one of the best single seasons in program history. His 54 goals were a single-season school record, and his 85 points ranked second behind Nichtern’s 101.

Like Nichtern, Eicher was a Tewaaraton finalist.

“The first thing that came to my mind about him is just the competitor that he was, and that wasn’t just showing up on game days. It was the competitor that he was at practice,” Eicher said. “I tried to take that into my senior year and make us make practice as competitive as possible, even in the non-compete drills. That’s the stick work stuff and all the things that you’re not really competing against somebody with. But [Nichtern] was always competing against himself if he wasn’t competing against somebody else. So I tried to emulate him in that way my senior year.”

After going undrafted last spring, Eicher signed with the Chaos and continued to follow in Nichtern’s footsteps by having a dominant rookie season of his own. He was Carolina’s top scorer, leading the team in points (28) and goals (18).

“Army defenders do very well and make it into the league. It’s pretty rare to see two attackmen,” Nichtern said. “So I think there’s also a little pride aspect of that.”

Now, four years removed from their time together on the Army lacrosse team, the two will suit up in the same jersey as the Chaos look to hoist the Championship Series trophy. For Eicher, playing alongside Nichtern again isn’t just about familiarity on the field. It’s about lining up next to someone whose example he’s already followed once before.

“He’s probably the greatest Army lacrosse offensive player to ever go through that program,” Eicher said. “When he got picked up, we both were able to make it work in this Championship Series. It’s just an exciting moment. It’s going to be cool to run out on the field with him again.”

And Nichtern won’t just return to the field as a former Rookie of the Year. He’ll return as someone who has spent the last half-decade leading in far bigger arenas.

At West Point, he captained a locker room. At Fort Jackson, he leads soldiers through the earliest and most formative weeks of their military careers. The setting has changed. The stakes have changed. The responsibility has only grown. The same habits Eicher studied as a freshman — the preparation and discipline — are the same traits Nichtern now brings back to the PLL.

And when the Chaos take the field in February, they won’t just be adding an experienced attackman. They’ll be adding a captain who never stopped leading.