By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 6/21/23
The fact rising senior Joseph Fox received All-Central Maryland Conference honors the past two years as a goalie at South Hagerstown (MD) is just a small tidbit in a story about overcoming adversity.
Fox’s team did not have enough players to field a squad in 2021 and last year he helped recruit enough guys – none who had ever played – to struggle through an 0-13 season while being outscored 228-15. Still, Fox was honorable mention all-conference.
Then this year Fox’s team went 0-14 and was outscored 267-33. It clearly wasn’t his fault; his defensemen had never played and he posted 326 saves (56 percent) and had two games with over 30 saves and one with 28. He made second-team all-conference.
So as he prepares for Friday’s Victory Events Gold Standard Showcase at Calvert Regional Park in North East, MD., Fox is an intriguing Player to Watch.
There are limited spots for the event at attack, midfield, and defense (open to the classes of 2024, 2025 and 2026). The registration (see link here) is $299 and also includes a custom reversible jersey, 3 showcase games, and game film. The game film will be sent to all D1 and D2 programs and players receive a free SportsRecruits profile.
“Our school’s program started in the mid-2000s (decade) and folded in 2019,” said Fox. “My sophomore year we got it back and I was one of three guys who had ever played. My three close defenders had never picked up a stick until the season. In one game we didn’t have enough players and we had to play 9-on-9.
“This year we had 30 guys on the roster and consistently we had 25 guys to play. That’s a massive gain from the year before. And so many of these kids had never picked up a stick before or even played an organized sport and slowly they started to see how slides work and how to set up an offense.
“Things looked rough at the beginning of the season, but as it progressed we actually looked like a lacrosse team. You could tell we had camaraderie and the guys were having fun. Obviously losing like that is rough, but everyone has fun.”
Fox faced over 40 shots a game these past two seasons. “Most of those shots were high quality,” he said.
What does he have to offer a college program?
“With me, it’s always been difficult to gage my skills (in high school),” he said. “I didn’t play as a freshman and I couldn’t play summer or fall lacrosse that year so I took a full year off. Then after sophomore year I started to see real improvement.
“I can identify that I need to work on my clears, but one thing I can do well is save the ball. I have to help my defensemen – it’s not just saying who is hot. It’s telling them what being hot means. People who saw me play (in high school) would say, ‘I don’t know how you do it’ whenever the score was 18-0 and I had 25 saves.
“I think I have resilience over certain goalies. All goalies have to have kind of a short memory and the ability to go to the next shot, but my circumstances have helped me get to another level.’
Fox, who is 5-foot-9, 180, admits he is not far in the recruiting process and is just looking to compete this weekend.
“I had my first summer showcase last weekend at First Exposure at Frederick and I think I did pretty well,” he said. “I am excited for this one, hopefully I’ll be talking to a few more coaches and getting on more schools’ radars.”
