From football to lacrosse, Ricky Miezan finishing collegiate career with UVA

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - The University of Virginia Men’s Lacrosse team has some of the nation’s best players. The Cavaliers added even more talent this year with a 23-year-old former football player.

Five years ago, Ricky Miezan was the #1 ranked lacrosse recruit in the country coming out of high school in northern Virginia. Things changed when he got a scholarship offer to play football at Stanford.

Now, Miezan is finishing up his collegiate athletic career playing lacrosse at Virginia, and could end up being a key piece in the Cavaliers’ quest to win a national championship.

“Sometimes you have this feeling inside you where you want to do something and you just have to go with it. That’s what lacrosse was for me and I just really missed it,” Miezan said.

A linebacker at Stanford, and team captain his senior season, Miezan battled through a handful injuries before ultimately choosing not to pursue a career in the pros.

“Football weighed a lot on my body. I came to the realization that this wasn’t quite what I wanted to do,” he said.

Miezan joined the Cavaliers two weeks before this season started.

“With football it’s so rigid: You have to run that play, you have to do your job. With lacrosse you get a little more freedom to do what feels right to you, and there’s a creative aspect to you,” he said.

UVa lacrosse coach Lars Tiffany says, “This is a guy who was in the trenches, and yet he has a really sophisticated skill set and it’s emerging in front of us”.

Miezan say Virginia was the only place he wanted to continue his athletic career. The Alexandria native wanted to be close to home, and play for a winning lacrosse program.

His top goal? “Number one is end of the year throwing the helmets up, hugging celebrating a national championship,” says Miezan. “And just growing into the player I want to be. Dominant, that’s what I was five years ago and I want to get back to that level of play but it takes time to get back to that”.

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