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HERRIMAN — Will Manny still remembers the start of Utah Summit Lacrosse Club.
The former University of Utah assistant coach was wondering what to do next, after head coach Brian Holman left to pursue other opportunities within the game and his staff that included Manny, Marcus Holman and goalkeeper coach Adam Ghitelman found themselves without a job.
Neither Manny nor Ghitelman wanted to leave Utah, and they both saw the roots of a primarily east coast-based sport entrenching themselves at the base of the Wasatch Mountains.
Thus, with a little help from college stars from Utah and a handful of high school coaches up and down the Wasatch Front, Utah Summit grew to include hundreds of boys on nearly a dozen teams and four more teams from sister club Utah Lynx LC.
"That's what lacrosse is, as a sport," said Manny, who played collegiately at UMass but now lives in Utah. "It's very easy to give back in many ways. For the whole PLL to help me do that and allow my kids to smile and come to a pro game, I'm very grateful."
Manny will be on full display this weekend with Whipsnakes Lacrosse Club as the Premier Lacrosse League makes a return to what has become an annual stop to Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, where the PLL staged its league-wide tournament during the COVID-19 pandemic.
His Whipsnakes will face Cannons Lacrosse Club (6-3), the team of former Brighton High star Bubba Fairman, arguably the greatest prep lacrosse prospect to come out of Utah, at 5 p.m. MDT, the first of two matches on the day that will air live on ESPN+. Chaos and Chrome will follow at 7:30 p.m. MDT.
Among what is expected to be a near-sellout crowd at 5,000-seat Zions Bank Stadium will be hundreds of lacrosse-loving youngsters, and several from Manny's own Utah Summit.
"Not having to travel for a weekend is always nice," Manny said. "I'm very grateful for the PLL for incorporating our club here and being able to play against Adam and Bubba and the Holmans, who I have a really good relationship with. I'm excited. The family's in town, and it's going to be a really good time."
Saturday will also be a homecoming for Fairman, who led Brighton High to a pair of state titles before playing at prep schools in Maryland and Massachusetts prior to enrolling at Maryland, before being drafted No. 11 overall by the Cannons in 2022 and making a return home to play professionally a year ago,
Like Manny and Ghitelman, Fairman — whose father Jay started some of the first lacrosse clubs in Utah — also works with Summit as a pro coach and director of business development.
"Last year was a surreal moment, being able to come home and play professional lacrosse in front of my family. I'm really looking forward to doing the same thing this year," Fairman said. "It's cool, being a part of Utah Summit and helping to connect with all the little kids I have been coaching. Now they get to see me play, so I'm not just spewing B.S. anymore, right? It'll be fun."
A finalist for the PLL's George Boiardi Short Stick Defensive Midfielder of the Year award, Fairman has been called a "defensive straitjacket" for his aggressive game play that disrupts some of the league's best offensive players.
Fairman was the No. 2 overall recruit in the country in 2017 by Inside Lacrosse and an Under Armour All-American — the first-ever from the Beehive State.
In five seasons with the Terps, the three-time All-American totaled 79 goals, 42 assists and 89 ground ball pickups in 75 games, including 57 starts, capped by the 2022 national championship.
After making it to the height of an emerging sport like lacrosse, Fairman — whose given name is Cole but was called "Bubba" after weighing in at 13 pounds at birth — wanted to give back to his home state. That's when he joined up with the Utah crew and Summit.
"Growing up, college seemed like a far stretch. Now we're playing the best lacrosse in the world – and in my backyard," Fairman said. "I think it makes the dream a little more tangible. It's on the field in front of you, in your home state. Any young kid can watch guys like us play, and feel that sense of working for it. It's special to be a role model like that, and I think it's an honor."
Despite the sport's emerging status — lacrosse earned sanctioning by the Utah High School Activities Association just three years ago — Utah has produced its share of talent in the "fastest sport on two feet."
That includes in the PLL, where Marcus Holman — the same former Utah assistant who plays for father Brian at Cannons LC — is among the league leaders in one-point goals with 25.
Cannons' roster also includes reserve attack Josh Stout, who prepped at Lone Peak before playing for the University of Utah and signing with the Cannons.
The PLL, which was founded in 2018 and currently boasts eight teams playing a round-robin season from June-August in 11 different markets, will also soon fundamentally change the way the sport operates.
In 2024, the league will assign home cities to each team, maintaining its touring model of playing in one city of a two-day weekend. But the home team in each market will play a double-header in that city, rather than one game per weekend, as has been the custom.
Salt Lake City and the Rocky Mountain region are currently among the finalists for host markets at pllvote.com.
If the sport continues growing at the rate lacrosse has seen over the past few decades, a pro team may not be far away.
"It's allowing a lot of high schools to grow and expand, and kids are seeing how great of a sport (lacrosse) is," Fairman said. "But putting a stick in the hands of kids across the state, they're able to see it's something amazing and something I wish I could've been a part of growing up. But I'm fortunate now to be able to give back a little bit to it, too."
After the regular-season final weekend in Salt Lake City, the PLL playoffs open Sept. 4 in Boston, with the championship match scheduled for Sept. 24 in Philadelphia.
