It all started when a ten-year-old Jackson Rose received a lacrosse flyer in the mail.
“We got a flyer in the mail, from a town 20 minutes away from us,” graduate student attacker Rose said. “I’d never really seen it or played it.”
Since then, Rose has procured a long list of lacrosse achievements. In high school, he scored 80+ goals during his junior and senior seasons while also being honored as a U.S. Lacrosse All-American in 2018.
Prior to transferring to Marquette this past offseason, Rose spent the last four years at St. Bonaventure University. During his final season with the Bonnies, Rose set the team’s all-time single season goal scoring record with his 40-goal season while posting the second highest shooting percentage in the country.
“It wasn’t necessarily a goal of mine, the record,” Rose said. “It was more about helping the team find success. Knowing what we’d all been through together and we wanted it all, to get to the same spot and to win a conference championship.”
Marquette head coach Andrew Stimmel said knew he wanted Rose on his team when he saw his senior year stats.
“The first impression we had was watching film and looking up his stats,” Stimmel said. “And seeing that he had the second-best shooting percentage in the country. He was an incredibly efficient player.”
Rose said that his official visit and connection with the coaches sold him on transferring to Marquette for his COVID-19 extra year of eligibility given by the NCAA.
“Instantly, I loved it. I hit it off with coaches really well,” Rose said. “Their team culture here is like nothing I’ve really ever seen before. They take pride in their relationships. That made the decision pretty easy for me.”
Rose joins an offense headlined by Marquette’s record holder for goals in a single season, sophomore attacker Bobby O’Grady, and a back-to-back All-Big East selection in senior attacker Devon Cowan.
“Having Bobby from the left and having Jackson from the right evens it out,” Cowan said. “It’s gonna be a nightmare for defenses, not knowing which side it’s gonna come from. Being able to have a threat on both sides of the field is pretty sweet.”
After scoring three goals in the team’s first two games, Rose has discovered his goal-scoring touch with the Golden Eagles.
Though, Rose said he will fill whatever role is needed of him for the success of the team.
“Out of me, you can expect passion and doing whatever I can to help this team,” Rose said. “We all have really big goals and we all want to get there.”
Stimmel said Rose’s humility is what makes him a versatile player.
“He’s humble, he’s really efficient in his role,” Stimmel said. “He does not need to have the ball a lot, which I think sometimes some guys do; they need to shoot a lot, they need to have the ball to be productive. Jackson is a guy that you could put him in a lot of different lineups, and he’s going to be productive because he’s efficient.”
Cowan said Rose may not be flashy on the field, but he will contribute in important ways.
“He’s always going to be super humble,” Cowan said. “He’s going to be on the field, basically, making a simple play. He’s not going to be dodging in causing havoc, but the second a defender turns his head, he’s going to be one cutting in and catching the finishing balls.”
Despite being naturally quieter, Stimmel said Rose is a leader on the team through his actions.
“He has great habits in terms of how he finishes the ball, how he chooses what he does before and what he does after practice,” Stimmel said. “I think guys see that he’s (a) great leader, by example. He’s still quiet, we’re still trying to get him to talk a little bit more, we feel like that’s gonna continue to make us better and him better.”
When Rose first got to campus, Cowan said it took some time to get through Rose’s quietness.
“When I met him here, he was super quiet to start off,” Cowan said. “But once you get to know him and go out to eat or get some one on one time, he really opens up.”
Earlier this year, Cowan and some teammates went down to visit Rose and his family in Texas.
“It was cool to show them what I like to do, and they got to see my home,” Rose said. “It was really exciting to get them out there and hang out with them.”
The connection between the team and Rose has grown to be more than just teammates.
“Once he started opening up, and his true colors were showing, all the guys have fallen in love with him as a teammate and brother,” Cowan said.
This story was written by John Gunville. He can be reached at j[email protected] or on Twitter @GunvilleJohn.
