Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/15/23
Staff report
Luke Mingioni didn’t have the spring he wanted. A Class of 2024 midfielder at Garnet Valley, he was confined to the sidelines the whole way, thanks to an ACL tear from the football season.
Joyful as it was to see the Jaguars follow their run to the 2022 PIAA Class 3A final with a return to states in 2023, it was also agonizing to watch his teammates have to do it without him.
But eight months after his knee injury, Mingioni is back, committed to college, and contributing for the Jaguars at last week’s Philly Showdown.
The recent Drexel commit played much of the day for the Jaguars, who went 3-0 Thursday on the second day of the tournament at the MSI Sports Complex in Aston. Though his workload remains limited as he returns to full fitness, he was a big part of what he hopes is a reloading of talent for a program that has been a recent fixture in states.
“That was probably the most painful thing of all time, sitting all season,” Mingioni said. “I just sat there every time and was like, oh what I would do to be back now.
“I was supposed to be cleared a little earlier than I was, so that was a bummer to not get cleared and not be able to play in playoffs, which was my goal. That was very difficult to do, sit through 18-plus games, travel. It was very stressful, very agonizing.”
Mingioni, a running back on the football team, tore knee ligaments on Nov. 18 against Downingtown East in a District 1 Class 6A semifinal. He had hoped to get back on the field if the Jags went deep enough in the postseason but missed that mark by a couple of weeks. Still, he’s grateful for a recovery period of less than seven months.
The Philly Showdown was his second tournament of the summer playing for Garnet Valley, which just hits a little different than individual showcases or playing with his club, NXT.
“It’s very exciting,” he said. “It’s fun to be back with the guys I grew up playing with. It’s really amazing. It’s a lot different from true club, because we all come from different schools and we don’t all hang out together. Here, these are my guys. It was just great to be back and play with them.”
The excitement is evident on the field. While Garnet Valley loses a couple of key pieces from last year, including Penn State-bound Kris Henning, most of the main contributors return. That includes goalie Drew Keaveney, defensive anchor Trevor Saccomandi, faceoff linchpin Kai Lopez and Towson commit Drew Goldt. As juniors, they were part of a somewhat surprising states run, shaking off a 2-4 start to go 14-10, finish fifth in District 1 and push La Salle to a one-goal loss in the first round of states.
That deep class of 2024 has been together for a long time, part of why Mingioni is so eager to be back.
“I think this group is the group,” he said. “We’ve been playing since we’ve been six or seven years old. We’ve literally been playing since kindergarten together, literally 12 years of playing as the same team. We’ve got the chemistry, we’ve got the talent, we just need to lock in and get done what we need to get done.”
It helps that Mingioni has his college fate settled. He and Drexel had talked in the fall before his injury. He kept in contact with the staff, and once he was back in the summer and Drexel got its eyes on him, they offered. Mingioni jumped at the chance.
“I went on my visit when I could walk again and absolutely fell in love with it,” he said. “So they bumped up to my No. 1 school. They watched me play, they liked what they saw, and then two tournaments in, I went to a showcase and I committed.”
The Jaguars excelled against a stacked field of teams, hailing from six states and playing before dozens of college coaches. GV started the day by beating Michigan’s Brother Rice, 9-6, the only loss the Black Grizzlies suffered in six games over two days. Garnet Valley eked out a tight 9-8 decision over Upper Arlington of Ohio, which went 4-2, and capped it by controlling Malvern Prep in a 6-1 victory.
Garnet Valley finished atop its group, as did La Salle Thursday, the Explorers going 3-0. They allowed four goals and scored 31. It’s similar to the performance turned in by an impressive Haverford School team Wednesday, the Fords allowing four goals and scoring 39 in a 3-0 performance.
St. Joe’s Prep showed well Wednesday, going 2-1, the only loss to Brother Rice. Radnor went 4-1-1 over two days, the loss on Thursday to New York’s Baldwinsville.
