Freshman secondary education major and lacrosse attackman, Jake Klein, recently scored the game-winning goal against the nation’s top team, Salisbury, in overtime. Klein has be given a lot of playing time for his first season at Cabrini.
Klein started playing lacrosse when he was a kid growing up in Berks County.
“Lacrosse hasn’t been around where I’m from for a long time. It just started up when I was on fourth grade so it was a big deal and they tried to get a bunch of people to sign up for it,” Klein said.
Klein enjoyed lacrosse because it was a different sport. In his eyes, everyone played basketball and football but lacrosse was unique.
While attending Wilson High School, he played both football and lacrosse but decided to stick with lacrosse in college.
“I had an opportunity to play college lacrosse and I didn’t want to play college football. It’s too much. Honestly its a really hard commitment,” Klein said.
When choosing colleges to attend, Klein was also looking at Widener University and a college in New York but decided on Cabrini due to their fantastic Division III lacrosse team and secondary education program.
“I always knew I wanted to major in education and when I came for my first visit they showed us the education hall in Founder’s and I thought it was really cool how all the classrooms were set up like kid classrooms. Obviously I came here for lacrosse, too. The team has such a great reputation in Division III,” Klein said.
As a first-semester freshman last fall, Klein felt that he was juggling college well. However, due to lacrosse season beginning, he is facing more of a challenge.
“I handled it pretty well in the fall semester. This semester’s definitely been tougher. Being able to balance lacrosse and also my school work. I wouldn’t say I really struggled but it’s definitely been tougher this semester,” Klein said.
Though he is trying to balance schoolwork and sports, Klein is having a great season so far. He has had 90 minutes of playing time, seven assists, five shots-on-goal and three goals.
“It’s going pretty good,” Klein said. “I feel like being a freshman on any team is difficult to get playing time because there’s always the older kids that are more developed and faster. Especially a team like Cabrini. They’re always top notch, Division III every year. I didn’t expect to come in and fit in like I do right away”.”
Klein was a midfielder but once an attacker got injured, he was asked to step in and take his place.
“I don’t think too much was expected from me but I feel like I’ve been doing pretty well,” Klein said about taking on this new position. He will be returning to midfield next year.
On April 14, Cabrini won in overtime against the number one team in the country, Salisbury. Klein scored the winning goal in overtime, beating Salisbury 11-10.
After scoring the winning goal, Klein was awarded Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) South Offensive Player of the Week and the region’s Rookie of the Week.
“I kind of just didn’t believe it was happening. It didn’t seem real,” Klein said while reflecting on that moment. “No one really thought we were going to win.”
After graduation, Klein plans on teaching history to high school students and already has a vision of what his future will be.
“I kind of have this plan set out that I hopefully can do. After I graduate I plan on moving out to California and trying to get a teaching job out there. And being a teacher you get your summers off so I was thinking maybe I could lifeguard at the beach or something”
