(Photo: Rocc Schramm/Instagram)

On Tuesday, Matt Karweck and the Colgate Raiders landed a commitment from Monte Vista, Calif., junior defenseman Rocco Schramm.

Schramm is the 10th commitment in the 2022 class for the Raiders, third defenseman, and the fifth player in the class hailing from west of the Mississippi River.

“The main part about Colgate that really attracted me with the sense of family that they created within their team,” Schremm told Lacrosse Bucket. They didn’t think of Colgate lacrosse as an organization or just a team, they thought of it as a brotherhood and a family which I thought was really cool and special.”

Schramm said that the staff at Colgate initially reached out to Schramm about a month ago and he has been in constant contact with the staff since then. While NCAA still has in-person recruiting on pause, the defenseman has been able to take a virtual tour with the staff and is planning to take a visit to see campus on his own with his family.

On film, Schramm shows to be a very physical defenseman. He knows how to and is not afraid to use his body to shut down his man. Additionally, he also shows a pretty strong IQ and can make an impact as an off-ball defender. He said that two areas of his game that he does want to improve is his speed and quickness.

A dual-sport athlete also playing football, Schramm said that having background in football has helped lead to him being such a physical player on the lacrosse field. “I don’t think that I would be as aggressive or as physical as I am now if I didn’t play football because in football you need to have physicality or else you won’t survive. That mindset has translated over to lacrosse and I believe it has helped me a lot by forcing me to be aggressive on and off the ball and try to make the ball carrier make a mistake.”

At the moment, the prospect of a high school season and what one might look like in 2021 is still very much up in the air in California. Despite the uncertainty, he said that he is still going to focus on his main goal this offseason of improving his quickness and speed.