Navy men’s lacrosse sophomore attackman Henry Tolker had an eye-opening experience when he started at the Naval Academy two summers ago, especially considering what the tail end of his time at Loyola Blakefield looked like.
The COVID-19 pandemic struck during Tolker’s junior year of high school, with Zoom classes becoming commonplace in the months that followed. Like with most students during the pandemic, it was easy for Tolker’s mind to drift.
“You’d always go to one of our teammate’s houses and play basketball or do whatever during class,” Tolker said on Glenn Clark Radio April 20. “It was definitely a culture shock coming from high school, always attending class in your pajamas and hanging out, maybe playing Xbox during class when your camera’s off on Zoom. So it was definitely a culture shock. Plebe summer definitely blew my mind a little bit, but once you do that and get through freshman year, it starts to become second nature and start to figure it out a little bit and the discipline aspect of it.”
Navy’s academics might have been a shock to the system, but Tolker has been his same productive self on the lacrosse field since he transitioned from the MIAA A Conference to the Patriot League. The 5-foot-10, 189-pound attackman has scored 45 goals and dished out 12 assists in 27 games (24 starts) since the start of last season.
Tolker is tied for the team lead in goals this year with junior midfielder Max Hewitt, both of whom have found the back of the net 22 times. Tolker’s best one undoubtedly came during a 10-8 win against Boston University on March 31 with the shot clock ticking down:
“Definitely not planned,” said Tolker, a native of Catonsville. “I remember looking up at the shot clock and it was winding down. I’m not really sure how to describe it. Just saw the ball on the ground, picked it up and I knew if I were to pull it out, there’d only be like two seconds on the shot clock so I was like, ‘Why not? Let’s see what happens.’ Luckiest goal. It was all luck.”
The victory against BU is part of a four-game winning streak that Navy is riding heading into its game against Army at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium on April 22. The Mids are 7-6 overall and 4-2 in the Patriot League, while the Black Knights are 9-2 overall and 6-0 in the conference. Navy has won four of the past five matchups in the rivalry, including a 12-11 overtime victory in West Point, N.Y., last year.
Competing in the Army-Navy rivalry is certainly a special part of playing lacrosse at the Naval Academy. However, Tolker’s dream school growing up was North Carolina, and he envisioned himself taking part in the Tar Heels’ battles in the ACC.
The decision to come to Annapolis was multi-layered for Tolker. Second cousin T.J. Hanzsche played at Navy from 2013-2016, so he had some familiarity with the program. After talking with former Mids assistant Brad Ross, Tolker visited campus a couple times and saw how beautiful it was. The opportunities he’d have with the education at Navy began to sink in.
Now, Tolker is ready to take on Army for the second time in his career.
“Growing up I attended Navy games and really my high school days coming down here for a couple Army-Navy games, it really opened my eyes to like, ‘Wow, this is so much bigger than I could’ve imagined,’ the support from the alumni, the alumni love it, Annapolis natives,” Tolker said. “It’s a huge game. Just to be a part of something like that, words can’t describe that. The preparation for the week, you can tell that it’s a big deal. I’m just so fortunate to be a part of something like this.”
This game features two teams playing at a high level, but it didn’t always seem that would be the case. Navy lost six consecutive games from Feb. 18 to March 21. The Mids were outscored, 79-51, during the stretch, which was punctuated by an 11-goal loss to nonconference foe Villanova.
Tolker credited head coach Joe Amplo for keeping the Mids focused during the tough stretch.
“During that six-game losing streak he said, ‘It might be tough right now, but if we keep stacking bricks and being disciplined, I wouldn’t want to play us in May if I was another team,'” Tolker said, referring to the Patriot League tournament that runs from May 2-7. “So I think especially the past three weeks, four weeks have helped a lot with that, just giving us some confidence moving forward. I’m just excited to see what happens this weekend.”
For more from Tolker, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Phil Hoffmann/Navy Athletics