Although it was an up-and-down season for the boys’ varsity lacrosse team, junior Mason Romm was a dominant force the entire way.
He was named first team all-division and first team all-county for the second straight year.
Romm was named an All-American and a Kelly Award finalist. In Montgomery County All-Americans are the four or five best players in the county for that specific season. All awards are chosen collectively by all of the coaches in the county. He was the only Wootton player to receive any of those awards, though other players were selected for different all-county and all-division awards
The Kelly Award is the biggest of them all. While the state of Maryland can have almost 30 All-Americans each season, there are five Kelly Award winners, and from the five, one overall winner is chosen. The overall winner is usually from a private school, but winning one of the public school awards is still a huge accomplishment. His brother Myles, class of 2015, was also an All-American and a Kelly Award nominee during his junior season, as well as his senior season.
This year, sophomore Matt Kelly got hurt in the second game of the season, which resulted in Romm facing even more pressure from opposing defenses. With that pressure he still amassed 56 goals, 26 assists, and 50 ground balls, all team highs. “His 26 assists show that he is an unselfish player and that he created so much offense for us,” freshman attackman Nate Gilkey said.
Romm comes from a family full of players with great lacrosse ability. His father, Jon Romm, was an All-American in college and his two older brothers are currently playing Division 1. Jon Romm is also currently the offensive coordinator for the Wootton boys’ varsity lacrosse team, and has played a large part in his success. “My dad coaching at Wootton is a huge reason for the success of the team over the past few seasons, and I would be a worse player if it were not for him,” Romm said.
In three years, he will be the fourth in his family to play Division 1 lacrosse as he is currently committed to Bucknell, which is where his dad played.
There are three public school and two private school Kelly Award winners yearly, or one from each conference, and then an overall winner. Nobody from Montgomery County has ever taken home one of the public school awards, let alone the overall one. “It would be really cool to win the award, and I am hopeful,” Romm said.
He still has another year left at Wootton, and hopes that the team can take care of unfinished business. “We are going to be an older team next year than we were this year, and I hope that will lead to more success and a deeper playoff run,” he said.
Max Pasternak
Senior News Editor
