Denver Outlaws midfielder took the call outside in Las Vegas, where the company he co-owns with teammate was putting on clinics for young players. The wind whistled in his phone as he moved to a better spot.
“Fortunately, it’s a little breezy here,” Sieverts, 28, said at midweek. “Otherwise, we’d be in big trouble. It’s like 104 here.”
Such is the multitasking life for even the top players in Major League Lacrosse.
With 14 goals and 26 points in eight games, Sieverts is the for the Outlaws, the defending league champions, but MLL salaries are modest. Separate from the clinics endeavor with Schmidt, his former University of Maryland teammate, Sieverts also owns a lacrosse-oriented business, Sieverts Lacrosse LLC, and is a high school coach in Southern California during the offseason.
This week, the Outlaws (4-4) will convene for a Friday practice, a team dinner, a Saturday shootaround and a 7:30 p.m. game Saturday against Rochester at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Only a few of the Outlaws live in Denver year-round. Sieverts, an all-MLL choice the past two seasons, compromises: He is based in Denver during the four-month season. The majority of Outlaws commute to the road city or to Denver for games. Conventional full-team daily practice sessions aren’t feasible.
Sieverts started his collegiate career at Butler but transferred to Maryland when Butler dropped the program. He joined MLL’s Chesapeake Bayhawks in 2010 and got in the final three games of the regular season.
In 2011, Sieverts took the MLL season off to earn a master’s degree in business management from England’s prestigious He played on and helped coach the school’s lacrosse team, which included players new to the sport.
“You learn how to coach players who never really have been exposed to the sport before, which I think was invaluable,” he said. “It’s carried over for me in coaching and running youth camps.”
After he returned to the U.S., the Outlaws acquired him and defenseman Joe Cinosky from Chesapeake for Drew Westervelt, one of the top attackmen in the league. The deal was complicated because of an imminent expansion draft and only 12-man protected lists. Cinosky was coaching at Duke and was shipped on to the expansion franchise at Charlotte, so the deal ended up looking especially lopsided.
“Drew Westervelt was a three- or four-time all-star, and at the time I had played three games in the league,” Sieverts said, laughing. “I can remember the talking heads of MLL were kind of like, ‘This is the dumbest thing that the Outlaws have ever done.’
“Not only did Denver trade for me, but then they protected me in that draft. So for me it was a fresh start. I ended up in Denver, and I can’t imagine it being any better than it has been, other than maybe winning a championship a little earlier than we did.”
Now in his fourth season with the Outlaws, he has 90 goals and 158 points in 49 games for Denver.
“I’ve been an all-star every single season, and that’s a credit to the coaches and my teammates,” he said. “They’ve shown a huge amount of confidence in me, and I have it for them.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
Outlaws leading scorers
Drew Snider, midfield: 18 goals, nine assists, 27 points
Jeremy Sieverts, midfield: 14 goals (one two-pointer), 11 assists, 26 points
Michael Bocklet, attack: 15 goals, three assists, 18 points
John Grant, attack: Seven goals, 10 assists, 17 points
Chris Bocklet, attack: 12 goals, two assists, 14 points
