HAMBURG, N.Y. - Jake Phillips started life as a football player - he only took up lacrosse to stay in shape, before it became his favorite sport. Phillips is Hamburg's only player to commit to a Division-I school, even though playing goalie was another backup plan.

"I started off playing attack in fourth and fifth grade," he says. "The summer going into my seventh grade, my coach had the idea to put me in as a goalie because I was one of the bigger kids. That's what you do when you're younger. I wasn't as skilled as everyone else, so I didn't really play."

Phillips stuck with goalie, but he changed schools to try and further his lacrosse career. He transferred to Bishop Timon as a freshman before playing at Saint Francis as a sophomore. Phillips missed his friends and returned to Hamburg for his junior year - he says he didn't have much trouble transferring between schools.

"You make friends as you go. You get close to the guys on the team. The transition wasn't too hard, it was just having to make new friends at the beginning of the year. That was the only issue."

His father, Chris, also looks on the bright side of being a triple-transfer.

"He got a chance to see multiple schools," he says. "Each school has its own dynamic, and I think he's ultimately better off for doing those."

Phillips passed the 500-save mark on senior night, showing the skill and consistency that earned him two Division-I offers and a commitment to Manhattan. He also brings toughness - the senior once played through an offseason tournament with a broken bone in his back.

"Ice it up, I'm going to lay here, take a nap," his father remembers Jake saying. I asked where his son got that type of focus and resiliency.

"He got it from his mom," Chris adds with a chuckle. "He didn't get that from me."

Wherever he got it from, Jake has fought through a winding road to become one of the best goalies in section VI.