After suffering a season-ending injury in Salt Lake City in August, Tom Schreiber is on the road to recovery this offseason with his eyes set on 2026. The three-time MVP dealt with nagging issues throughout 2025 and has had surgery on both knees in the last eight weeks with the goal of being at his full capacity next summer.
“I can’t be that great of a player if my knees aren’t healthy,” he said. “I’ve begun that process and attacked the rehab with the same ferocity I attack my training with. When I can start running, I’ll start running as hard as I can, and when I can start getting my stick in my hand, I’m gonna do everything in my power to be as good a lacrosse player as I can.”
Schreiber had a relative down year in 2025. He scored a career-low 15 points (6G, 9A) in eight games while shooting 17.6%.
“Tom is still the core and captain of this team, and has a lot of great lacrosse left in him,” Utah Archers head coach Chris Bates said. “We’re looking forward to him being healthy and returning to the form that we’re all accustomed to.”
Schreiber will enter the 13th year of his career and eighth with the Archers as the club looks to return to its championship standard and bounce back from a 4-6 season in 2025.
“Obviously, last year was not how we wanted anything to go,” Schreiber said. “For me, it’s [about] how can we just get a little bit better than last year? How can we turn this thing around?”
Personally, Schreiber has learned that qualitative goals are more useful than quantitative ones.
In the past, he’d set target totals of points, goals and assists while pointing to the championship as a team-wide goal. Now, he favors a more process-oriented approach as a veteran.
“How do we get to a place where everybody feels a bit better about this?” he wonders. “How do I get to a place where I’m playing my best lacrosse?”
At 33 and as Utah’s unquestioned leader, he’s also finding time during his recovery to continue to be a guiding voice for the team as a whole. Schreiber keeps tabs on his teammates as they build toward next season.
“It’s making sure that we’re all getting the most out of our offseason while building on the success we’ve had in the past and kind of rectifying the issues we’ve had,” he said.
