Johns Hopkins senior attacker Maggie Schneidereith recently spoke to PressBox about growing up playing the game with her sisters, playing against them in college and more. Schneidereith, a Lutherville, Md., native and Towson High graduate, is a quadruplet. Her three sisters all play college lacrosse, too. Jamie and Lucy play at Drexel, while Georgia plays at Albany. Johns Hopkins played Drexel earlier this month. Maggie posted 77 points (48 goals, 29 assists) in 2019.
PressBox: How did you and your sisters become interested in lacrosse?
Maggie Schneidereith: My dad played lacrosse growing up, so when we were young he kind of just threw us into every sport possible because he wanted his daughters to play sports, because he had all daughters, no boys. We got into every single sport. We played soccer, basketball, we did swimming, played tennis, and we played lacrosse. There’s something just about lacrosse, at least for me. I think at one point all of my sisters wanted to quit. So we’re like, “No, keep going. It’ll be fine.” So we ended up playing. There are only club teams around Baltimore, so we started playing year-round. It was something that we all kind of just did together. At one point, one of us stopped playing soccer and someone stopped playing basketball, but lacrosse, we all just kind of fell in love with. We always were on the team together, could play. … When we realized we could all play at the college level, it was kind of like, we were honestly shocked. We started getting interest from coaches and it kind of went from there. Tere’s something about lacrosse that I think just stood out over all the other sports, and I think it was realizing that we could take it to the next level. … Lacrosse is such a Baltimore thing, so that definitely helped. But I guess lacrosse stood out because we realized it was something we could continue doing.
PB: Is there a memory in particular that sticks out from when you were playing lacrosse with your sisters growing up?
MS: This is probably the one that sticks out the most. We kind of were split up sometimes into different teams. So our last year playing rec lacrosse in like eighth grade, usually it was like two of us on the A team, two on the B team. They never wanted to place all of us on the A team. So it was our last year playing rec. My dad was coaching the B team. So we were like, “OK, let’s all just play together on the B team.” So we all played together and my dad was the coach and we got all our friends to play with us, and we actually ended up doing really well that year, made it to the championship game. That was just so much fun. So many coaches never want to take all of us on one team because that’s so many of us and it’s hard to do. We were just like, “All right, well, we don’t really care who’s on the A team and the B team. We’re all just going to be on the B team together because we weren’t sure what was going to happen in high school.” So that was definitely one of the best memories I have, playing with all of them.
PB: What’s it like to face off against Jamie and Lucy when Hopkins plays Drexel?
MS: It’s funny because they’re defenders. Like, they will defend me sometimes. We just like look at each other and start laughing. I remember last year in the game I checked the ball from Lucy and then the ref called it or whatever. When the play was dead, she shoved me a little bit. Any other ref, if they didn’t know we were sisters, it would’ve been a card, something. It’s just so funny. We don’t take it too seriously. Obviously we have to do our jobs, play as hard as we can and try to keep it serious, but it’s funny. When the ball’s on the other end, we’ll talk to each other. It’s a really fun time for our family.
PB: Why did you come to Johns Hopkins?
MS: It’s just like a feeling, obviously. Great academics, such a great program, but the second I walked onto campus and walked into the Cordish Lacrosse Center, the coaches were so welcoming. I still remember walking up those stairs. I’m like, “Oh, we’re huggers here.” So welcoming. It’s such a homey environment. It’s kind of like a feeling that you get. Yeah, there are so many great things about Hopkins that definitely made me want to go to the campus in the first place, but once I got here, I kind of felt at home and I loved that I was close enough that my parents could come to all of my games. My family could come to all my games. It’s a great place to get a degree at the same time. I felt like it was a great all-around place for me.
PB: What are some of your favorite memories at Hopkins?
MS: I guess the first year we played Drexel. That was an insane game. It went back and forth the whole time. I think Lucy had like three goals when I was like, “Oh, no.” I think they were beating us at one point. My whole family was there. It’s always nice to have it at Hopkins because my whole family’s from Baltimore, so that was a really great memory. There’s so many, it’s hard to pick just one.
PB: What are your goals for after lacrosse?
MS: Trying to figure that out right now. I’m hoping to stay in the lacrosse world in some capacity, whether that’s coaching. I really want to stay involved in sports in some way — lacrosse would be ideal, but I just love sports so much that I feel like that would be the kind of job that I would love to go to work every day, so hopefully something like that. Still trying to figure that world out, but we’re getting there.
PB: Who’s your best friend on Hopkins and what’s a story that underscores your friendship on and off the field?
MS: It’s hard to pick just one. I would say Eva Klaus. We room together. We live together this year. I would say it’s very close to some other girls, but once we started living together, we’re both just very chill, relaxed people and we don’t really stress out over the little things. We get along in that way. We’re just kind of go-with-the-flow people. She’s like, “You want to do this?” I’m like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” But she’s honestly such a great friend. She’s so willing to do whatever for me, always has my back. I would say our relationship has grown a lot in the past two years.
PB: What’s some advice you would pass along to younger lacrosse players?
MS: I would just say to have fun and not take it too seriously, especially at such a young age. I’ll go to some games to support my cousins and family friends, and these coaches and parents are just taking the games so seriously. It’s really not that crazy at the college level. Yeah, it’s intense … but the most important thing that my coaches instilled in us is to have fun and play with joy. I think so many kids get burnt out at such a young age because their parents are pushing them to do it, their coaches are just so intense and they care so much just about winning games, and these kids are like in middle school. Even high school, it’s kind of crazy. The only way kids are going to make it far is if they really love the game. [I would say] not to take it too seriously, have fun and just make sure it’s really what you want to do.
Photo Credit: Jay VanRensselaer/Johns Hopkins Athletics