Gannon Matthews paving the future of small market lacrosse in the PLL

Growing up in Eagle, Idaho, lacrosse wasn’t at the forefront of Gannon Matthews’ mind. The local sports along the Boise River were football in the fall and snow sports in the winter.

Spring sports were up in the air for athletes to decide, and for Matthews, a life-changing decision was spurred by a local newspaper’s advertisement when he was in elementary school.

“I started playing in fifth grade when my mom saw, like, an ad in the newspaper for our local league,” Matthews said. “So, I started playing there and then I fell in love with it, like pretty quick.”

Balancing a love for football and lacrosse was the next challenge for Matthews. He was a free safety on the Eagle High School football team and loved the physicality and fight-or-flight adrenaline rushes produced by the game, but he also had a hunger to do what his “big brother” did.

“We had a big brother program when I got to high school, and it was a senior matched up with a freshman, and my big brother was the first ever kid to play division one lacrosse out of Idaho,” Matthews explained. “His name was Zane Friedt, he went to Fairfield, and so that kind of put it in my head [that] I would be the next one, and I wanted to do that. So I really bought in throughout high school, but I was also at the same time pretty into football.”

Laying thunderous hits on opposing running backs and hawking down passes in the Cover 1 defense was fun for Matthews on the gridiron, but an opportunity from Cleveland State to play lacrosse in the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) presented itself.

It was a chance that Matthews didn’t want to leave on the table, even though it meant he had to give up football. Despite having to stop playing the sport that molded his childhood, Matthews draws on his experiences on the gridiron when he touches the field for a lacrosse game.

“I would say definitely my downhill dodging ability out of the midfield came from football,” Matthews said. “My biggest takeaway is the training I think me as an athlete, like the way I trained in the gym, that competitive nature, the toughness and just how important staying athletic is.”

Matthews’ first season in Cleveland was in 2021, but he was a redshirt for the Vikings and didn’t see any action. It was a year of development for the underrecruited midfielder.

In 2022, he announced his name to the ASUN, registering 34 points (19G, 15A) en route to winning the ASUN Freshman of the Year award. He followed that up with a 46-point (22G, 24A) season in 2023 and was named the ASUN Midfielder of the Year.

Matthews’ 80 points in two seasons put his name on the map, and two hours down the road in Columbus, Ohio State head coach Nick Myers liked what he saw from the stellar Cleveland State middie.

So, Myers took a shot on him, and it instantly paid off. Matthews started all 30 games he played in two seasons at Ohio State, recording 49 points (35G, 14A), and his veteran leadership helped develop future generations of scarlet and grey.

“As a lacrosse player from him, that toughness component comes in,” Matthews said. “Like, [Myers] has that almost old-school, football mentality in terms of how he coaches and what he expects in his players. I think as a midfielder, he really showed me early on the importance of being a complete midfielder. I came in as a predominantly offensive-minded midfielder, and he was like the first coach who saw what I see in myself; I can do the two-way thing and be a piece in the ride and play some wings.”

It was Myers’ guidance that molded Matthews into the selfless leader he was on the Buckeyes. Matthews said he’d “forever be in debt” to Myers for giving him a chance at Ohio State, which he called “the pinnacle of college athletics.” And it was Matthews’ hard work on the field that opened eyes in the PLL, foreshadowing a path to the league in a new position.

That was the vision Carolina Chaos head coach Roy Colsey had for Matthews. After he went undrafted, Colsey and Chaos general manager Spencer Ford signed Matthews to come to PLL training camp to compete for a spot at defensive midfield and along the faceoff wing.

“My favorite part about playing sports is just being athletic, and I think that [SSDM] role is the one where you can do that the most,” Matthews said. “You know you’re not really bound by anything. It’s just going out there, making plays, being athletic and running the field. And I’m very confident in my ability to do that.”

Matthews’ opportunity with Carolina stemmed from his viral moment in the Big Ten tournament championship against Maryland.

Matthews absorbed a late hit from a Maryland defender that caused him to lose three teeth and forced him to switch jerseys because the blood from his mouth painted the canvas of his primary tarp.

“You’re expecting a hit when you come down the middle of the field – it’s just what happens – and I took the hit, and I remember, Marnie [Alex Marinier] picked me up by the helmet, and he was looking at me,” Matthews said. “He asked me, ‘Are you OK?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, dude, I’m good, let’s get this thing going.’”

The Buckeyes and Matthews got it going, ultimately winning the game 14-10 to secure the program’s first Big Ten tournament title.

Matthews’ juice play shifted the momentum in the locker room — and caught the eyes of the Chaos staff.

“I watched him get three teeth knocked out in the game, and he would not miss a minute,” Colsey said. “As soon as they got the bleeding to stop, they wanted to take him aside and fix him and help, but he was like, ‘There’s no way you’re getting me out of this game.’ I just made a little asterisk in my notepad about that kid. I know, as far as a toughness standpoint and a teammate standpoint, he checks all the boxes.”

Replacing teeth wasn’t in the newspaper advertisement in fifth grade, but it helped earn Matthews a chance at PLL camp. There, he impressed Colsey and Ford enough to make the team, becoming the first Idaho-born player to make a 25-man PLL roster.

Matthews’ lacrosse journey has been anything but orthodox. But from growing up in Idaho to tearing up the ASUN and learning how to become a full-field player in Columbus, the grit and determination have long been there.

“Being the first kid from Idaho to do it, I feel like I have a huge corner of support behind me, and I’m kind of going out there with the mentality that I got nothing to lose,” Matthews said before final roster cuts. “I’m definitely juiced up and gonna try to make as many plays as I can.”

Matthews sustained a minor injury in training camp that sidelined him for the Chaos’ season opener, but he made his professional debut one week later in Charlotte against the California Redwoods. However, he didn’t join the lineup at SSDM; he slotted in at offensive midfield.

Matthews’ injury, combined with camp injuries to Shane Knobloch and Sergio Perkovic, forced the Chaos staff to fill holes at SSDM in the early season, reopening the offensive opportunity for Matthews after he returned to the field.

The rookie quickly made his mark on the league, registering his first career assist on Adam Charalambides’ fourth goal of the game, the final score of the contest for either side.

Carolina fell short of victory against the Redwoods, dropping the contest 16-10. However, out on American Legion Memorial Stadium’s field, the 23-year-old from Eagle, Idaho, showed thousands of younger kids across small markets that they could one day be out there, too.