Hunter Earle: Middlebury College - Lacrosse

Riverdale Review: How long have you been playing your sport?  

Hunter Earle: I’ve been playing lacrosse since kindergarten, so I guess this is twelve years now.

RR: Who has been your greatest inspiration or role model during your athletic career? 

HE: My biggest role model has probably been my club coach. His name is Mike Bockleton. He played professionally and he’s been coaching me since about 6th grade. He was always like the smartest player on the field and he’s translated into being an amazing coach. And he’s just really helped me, my understanding of lacrosse, and everything and my abilities. So he’s really been able to help me out and turn me into the player I am.

RR: What are you most looking forward to about continuing your athletic career at Middlebury? 

HE: I’m really looking forward to playing at a super high level of lacrosse. I’ve never obviously played at such a high level and I mean Middlebury is always in the competition to win the D3 national championship, so it’s a level of lacrosse that’s really exciting to me. And also, I think, as a college team, I’m assuming they’re incredibly close and that’s what I’ve heard, so I’m really excited to be on a team that’s that close. 

RR: Were there ever moments when you doubted yourself and your athletic talent? If so, what did or do you do to get past those doubts? 

HE: Yeah, I definitely have doubted myself before. Mostly like coming into high school and then going into club, there’s a huge jump in competition. Everyone got a lot better because like they are all playing high school lacrosse, which makes you a lot better. And kids are starting to try to get recruited, so there’s a lot of motivation. So, that’s when I started to feel a little bit of doubt. But what helped me [was] really just being able to get reps in at practice and stuff because my teammates were all getting a lot better and that was motivating to me to just help get me back to where I want to be. And so I could just take a lot of reps of practice and get over the fear of making mistakes, I guess. So, being able to make mistakes and practice and learn from them really translated well to playing club in high school.