Trevor Baptiste puts his head down and works. When he picks it up, you’ll see ‘a big smile’

New York Atlas faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste never felt pressure to win the championship in 2025. That doesn’t mean he wants it any less.

The Atlas have seemingly been it all in the PLL’s short history. They’ve been electric (2024), dreadful (2020) and average (2019). They’ve been the last team in the playoffs, and one of the first out (2023). They’ve been a first-round playoff bounce as a subpar threat (2022) and a second-round oust as a moderate one (2021). They’ve been on the losing end of sudden-death overtime in a semifinals (2024). They’ve been through three head-coaching changes. They’ve carouseled through a handful of captains.

Yet from the beginning — Day 1 — of Atlas LC’s history, Baptiste has been the constant. In his seventh season with New York, the still-dominant captain and longest-reigning team member is leading the Atlas into their first-ever championship appearance.

“I think we all feel extremely confident in what we have and what we’re building,” Baptiste, 29, said in May. “It’s not necessarily a feeling of pressure. We’re just ready to put the work in. We all gotta buy in.”

On the Atlas, the more things change, the more Baptiste stays the same. And the more Baptiste stays the same, the more his “relationship equity [and] leadership equity” increases, said John Crawley, Baptiste’s former Atlas teammate from 2019-23.

During Baptiste’s first PLL training camp in 2019, Crawley said he was most focused on his job: winning faceoffs. The more games Baptiste played, the more he played through, and he finished the season 164-for-261 (62.8%) with 73 ground balls.

“There were games he was so good at the faceoff X, but really what stood out is teams were game-planning for him, throwing the kitchen sink at him with different wing alignments and poles on the wings, trying to beat the crap out of him, and I think he just kept taking serious beatings and he kept his mouth shut and kept going to work,” Crawley said. “When you watch a guy really put his body on the line like Trevor did and does for his teammates — willing to take the checks, pick up the ground balls and do it with a big smile on his face like he does — I think you very quickly earn the locker room’s respect.

“He started as the guy, more quiet, just show-up-and-do-his-job guy. Then as his personality started to shine and he started to make that a part of how he played and competed, I think again he just continued to earn equity and respect from the team.”

From their inception, the Atlas were a team of veterans. Names like Kevin Unterstein and Steven Brooks — who both later joined the Atlas coaching staff — Tucker Durkin, Paul Rabil and Kyle Hartzell headlined the original roster. There wasn’t necessarily the space or need for more vocal leaders.

So Baptiste put his head down and worked. He approached the pandemic-shortened 2020 season similarly, his teammates said, going 57-for-106 (53.8%) as the Atlas finished 1-4. That wouldn’t stand for the “most focused and competitive” player Crawley said he’s ever seen.

Amid retirements and roster changes, Baptiste was named a captain heading into the 2021 season. After opening it with an 18-6 beatdown from the Archers, Baptiste talked with Durkin, his co-captain, about how the team could refocus, keep morale high and win the next week. From there, with two PLL seasons of hard-nosed play as his backup, Baptiste started to hold his teammates more accountable.

“It was such a tough loss for us. I think that season was the start of him emerging into a great leader,” Durkin said.

The Atlas won the next game en route to a 7-3 turnaround season. Off the field, Baptiste continued to gather teammates in hotel rooms for games of Catan or for walks to ice cream shops, assuring each rookie was coming and every veteran knew of the team plans.

“Not only on the field, you play a game of Catan with that guy, you see the competitive switch flip for him, and all of a sudden he has 10 points while everyone else has seven,” Crawley said.

“Trevor’s got that side of him where he can turn off the competitive side and just be a great friend, be a great listener, keep things funny, keep things light, but when it’s time to really partake in anything competitive, he’s as competitive as anyone I’ve ever been around,” Durkin said. “He wants to win. You see it in how hard he plays. Outside of his sheer talent, which has been on display throughout his career, an aspect of his game I felt like never got enough credit is just how hard he plays. Whether it be a ground ball, a faceoff, subbing through the midline or setting a pick in the early shot clock off getting a possession, he does everything full speed. It speaks to his competitive nature and what type of teammate he is.

“He’s got the two personalities: He can joke around, but when it’s time to play a game and to be competitive, you’re not going to find anyone that wants to win more than him.”

Every one of Baptiste’s 70 games in Atlas blue — good or bad — led him here. He’s a seven-time All-Star and five-time Faceoff Player of the Year (and a 2025 finalist for another). He ranks fourth all-time in faceoff wins in professional lacrosse history with 1,307. Now he returns to his native New Jersey for the 2025 U.S. Bank Championship between New York and the No. 1-seeded Denver Outlaws on Sept. 14 at Sports Illustrated Stadium.

The championship is always the team goal, Baptiste said in May, while continuing to be a supportive, approachable teammate is always his personal one.

That, too, is how Durkin describes his former Atlas roommate of five years, to whom Durkin says he talks weekly even after retiring in March 2024.

“Trevor’s a guy that genuinely cares about the people around him, about his teammates,” Durkin said. “He’s a total relationship guy, and by that I mean he’s an incredible friend, he’s a great listener, he will follow up after conversations.”

Baptiste said in May he felt the pressure in 2024 “to prove we’re a good team” that could turn it around after a 2-9 season. The return of Baptiste at the stripe, Jeff Teat and Xander Dickson on attack and Danny Logan and Gavin Adler on defense was a start. The addition of Connor Shellenberger, Liam Entenmann and Tyler Carpenter through the draft was a plan in motion. A first-round playoff bye that season bred confidence, and another this season bred hunger.

With the Atlas returning a durable, experienced core for what feels like the first time since 2019, the setbacks that have stifled New York feel conquerable. A championship is within reach, and for the first time, New York has the chance to snatch it.

“We had some really disappointing times, we had some talented locker rooms, we had some solid teams that underachieved, we had some teams that overachieved,” Crawley said. “But ultimately for Trevor to see all of that and to have that accumulate toward a championship is a testament to his ability to rise and help change a program into a championship culture.”