Lyle Thompson (born September 9, 1992) is an

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

professional

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

player at the attack position for the

Cannons Lacrosse Club The Cannons Lacrosse Club are a professional men's field lacrosse team in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) . Formerly based in Boston, Massachusetts, they played in Major League Lacrosse (MLL) as the Boston Cannons from their inaugural 2001 sea ...

of the

Premier Lacrosse League Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) is an American professional field lacrosse league, composed of 8 teams. The league's inaugural season debuted on June 1, 2019, and included a 14-week tour-based schedule taking place in 12 major-market cities. The le ...

and the

Georgia Swarm The Georgia Swarm are a box lacrosse team in the East Division of the National Lacrosse League. They have been playing at the 13,000-seat Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia since their 2016 season. Originally formed as the 2002 expansion Montre ...

of the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

. He shared the 2014

Tewaaraton Trophy The Tewaaraton Award is an annual award for the most outstanding American college lacrosse men's and women's players, since 2001. It is the lacrosse equivalent of football's Heisman Trophy. The award is presented by The Tewaaraton Foundation and th ...

with his brother Miles while winning it again in 2015 alone. He is the only player in history to win the award twice consecutively.

Early life

Lyle grew up in the Onondaga Nation, NY, one of the five children of Doloris and Jerome Thompson. He began playing lacrosse from a very early age as lacrosse carries spiritual and cultural significance with the

Onondaga Onondaga may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Onondaga people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois League * Onondaga (village), Onondaga settlement and traditional Iroquois capita ...

. He attended LaFayette High School for his Sophomore and Junior years and Salmon River High School where he was an All-American and scored 66 goals and 54 assists in his senior season.

College

Lyle attended college at the

University of Albany A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

, majoring in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

, although he initially pursued an

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

major as he has a passion for

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

. He was recruited to play for the school's Division 1 lacrosse team under head coach Scott Marr. Initially, he started at midfield in his freshman season in 2012, scoring 22 goals and 16 assists along with 32 face-off draws. That was his last collegiate season scoring less than 100 points. Moving to attack in his sophomore year, Thompson had 113 points in 2013, 128 in 2014, and 121 in 2015. Lyle, along with his brother Miles were the first Native American players to win the Tewaaraton Trophy; ''tewaaraton'' being the

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...

term for the precursor of modern lacrosse.

Major League Lacrosse

Lyle Thompson was drafted as the top overall pick in the 2015 Collegiate Draft by the

Florida Launch The Florida Launch were a professional men's field lacrosse team based in Boca Raton, Florida. They joined Major League Lacrosse (MLL) as an expansion team for the 2014 season until 2019. The team played its home games at Florida Atlantic Univer ...

; his brother Miles was drafted by the Launch the previous year. Lyle's first game was played against the

Ohio Machine The Ohio Machine were a Major League Lacrosse (MLL) professional men's field lacrosse team based in Obetz, Ohio. They first played in the 2012 MLL season and continued through the 2018 season. On August 19, 2017, the Machine won their first cha ...

, and he played a total of eight games for the Launch during the 2015 season. He had 22 goals and 16 assists in his first season in

Major League Lacrosse Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001. Teams played anywhere from ten to 16 games in a summertime regular season. This was followed by a four-team playoff f ...

. On March 3, 2017, Lyle Thompson and his brother

Jeremy Thompson Jeremy Gordon Thompson (born 23 September 1947) is an English journalist and former news presenter for Sky News, the 24-hour UK television news service operated by Sky UK. He was based at Sky News Centre in west London. He started out as a jou ...

were traded from the Florida Launch to the

Chesapeake Bayhawks The Chesapeake Bayhawks were a Major League Lacrosse (MLL) professional men's field lacrosse team based in Annapolis, Maryland since 2010. They played in the greater Baltimore metro area beginning with the MLL's inaugural 2001 season, as the Balti ...

. In 2018 Lyle appeared in 6 games for the Bayhawks netting 20 goals, 1-2pt goal, 8 assists, and 17 ground balls.

Premier Lacrosse League

Lyle Thompson is an attackman on the

Cannons A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during ...

team of the

National Lacrosse League

On September 28, 2015, Lyle was drafted first overall in the 2015 NLL draft by the

. Lyle played alongside his brother Miles on the Swarm. In

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, Thompson was named both league

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

and Championship MVP as the Swarm won their first NLL title. Heading into the

2023 NLL season The 2023 National Lacrosse League season, formally known as the 2022–2023 season, is the 36th in the history of the NLL. The season begins on December 2, 2022, and ends with the NLL final in late spring of 2023. This is the inaugural season for ...

, ''Inside Lacrosse'' ranked Thompson the #4 best forward in the NLL.

International competition

As a player for the

Iroquois men's national lacrosse team The Haudenosaunee Nationals Men’s Lacrosse Team, formerly known as the Iroquois Nationals, represents the Iroquois Confederacy in international field lacrosse competition. They are currently ranked third in the world by World Lacrosse after wi ...

in the 2014 World Lacrosse Championship, Lyle helped the Iroquois Nationals place third, their best-ever result in international field lacrosse competition. Lyle played for the

Iroquois national indoor lacrosse team The Haudenosaunee Nationals Indoor Lacrosse Team, known as the Haudenosaunee Nationals, represents the Iroquois Confederacy in international box lacrosse competitions. They are currently ranked second in the world by World Lacrosse and have won Si ...

at the 2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship. The Iroquois won the silver medal, falling to Canada in the final match on September 27, 2015. Lyle again played for the Iroquois in the 2018 World Lacrosse Championship in Israel. They placed 3rd.

College statistics

:^''(a)'' 1st in NCAA Division I single season points :^''(b)'' 1st in career assists :^''(c)'' 1st in NCAA Division I career points

NLL career statistics

MLL career statistics

PLL statistics

Awards

References

External links

New York Times profile

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150501102242/http://laxmagazine.com/college_men/DI/2014-15/news/043015_overtime_with_paul_carcaterra_lyle_thompson_albany_lacrosse Lacrosse Magazine interview with Lyle Thompson] * https://thompsonbrotherslacrosse.us/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Lyle 1992 births Living people Iroquois nations lacrosse players Native American sportspeople Albany Great Danes men's lacrosse players National Lacrosse League major award winners Georgia Swarm players Onondaga people People from Onondaga County, New York Premier Lacrosse League players Florida Launch players Chesapeake Bayhawks players Lacrosse forwards University at Albany, SUNY alumni