DJ Giacobbo, a product of the short-lived but highly successful Athabasca Hitmen minor lacrosse program, has parlayed his almost accidental introduction to the sport into a successful U.S. collegiate career, with the possibility of professional lacrosse in his future.
Giacobbo, 24, starts his senior season with the Buffalo, N.Y.-based Canisius College Golden Griffins next month, his second in a captaincy role with the team.
“I’m definitely the oldest guy on the team,” Giacobbo said. “With the young guys who are coming in, I’m just trying to help them out in whatever way I can. I know what it takes to win, I know what it takes in practice and outside of the field.”
Giacobbo forecasts good things this season for the Griffs, who play National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 lacrosse in the Metro Atlantic Conference.
“I feel great,” he said. “This season I feel like it’s a different team. We’re fast, young and athletic, and the guys are working really hard.
“To me, this is a team I think is the best I’ve ever been part of from Canisius,” Giacobbo continued, noting that the team’s most recent success came in 2012, when they won their conference title but lost in the first round of the 16-team NCAA tournament.
“Our goals are higher this year,” he said. “We want to do something no Canisius team has ever done. We want to dominate our conference.”
Personally, Giacobbo said he’s feeling good after two injury-plagued seasons. He missed almost all of the 2012 season with a knee injury, plus half of last season follow surgery to his hand.
“I’m good; I’m 100-per-cent right now,” he proclaimed. “I’m in some of the best shape I’ve been in.”
Giacobbo’s introduction to lacrosse came in Athabasca about eight years ago, when he was one of a group of hockey-playing friends invited by founder Bruce MacDonald to join the fledgling Athabasca Hitmen program.
“I knew nothing about it when I first went,” Giacobbo said, recalling that he and his friends originally viewed lacrosse as simply a means to stay in shape during hockey’s off-season. “We were all just going to go for fun, (and) a couple of us ended up loving it. It just kind of worked out.”
Giacobbo said lacrosse appealed to him because of its similarities to hockey.
“It’s kind of like hockey in that it’s a physical game, but a fast-paced game,” he explained. “It’s a fun game, a rough game.”
After a couple of years with the Hitmen and league championships at both the bantam and midget divisions, Giacobbo graduated to play Junior B in Sherwood Park and Junior A with the Edmonton Eclipse. His junior experience got him the exposure that eventually led him to Canisius College.
Giacobbo is quick to credit MacDonald for kick-starting his development in lacrosse. “I never really thought going to school with lacrosse was one thing I would ever do, (and) I’ve pretty much got him to thank,” he said. “He was the one who started lacrosse up in Athabasca.”
For his part, MacDonald said Giacobbo has earned his success in the sport.
“It’s him,” MacDonald said. “He’s a great athlete and has all the work ethic that goes with it.
“All I did was open the door. He got real good, real fast.”
MacDonald said one advantage the Hitmen had was that as the only spring/summer users of the old Athabasca Arena, they got in all the practice time they could handle.
“We had it as long as we wanted. We’d play and play till 11:30 at night,” MacDonald recalled. “We all kind of learned the game together.”
Even quite a few years later, MacDonald said he can remember Giacobbo talking about a possible future in collegiate or professional lacrosse.
“I remember him saying, ‘I could be that,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, you could,’” he recalled. “For him to get into that (Canisius) program is just amazing. It’s kind of hard to believe.”
Giacobbo’s collegiate career will conclude after this season. He’s already earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and will add a master’s in sport administration by the end of the year. “Having that injury and missing that whole season worked out pretty well,” he quipped.
“I don’t have a career path per se in mind,” he said. “I’d like to get involved in a marketing/sales kind of role. I don’t really have that figured out yet. I’ve got a little bit of time.”
What Giacobbo has figured out is that he wants to keep playing lacrosse. He’s played senior lacrosse with the Edmonton Outlaws over the past few summers.
“Hopefully after my college career, I’ll throw my name in the NLL (National Lacrosse League) entry draft — that’s the goal.”
The professional indoor league currently his nine franchises across North America, including the Edmonton Rush.
