Starting in kindergarten, junior Landen Fazio has grown a love for lacrosse, stemming from his dad playing in both high school and college. Despite having a small lacrosse scene in Austin, Fazio has found a way to play through club teams and the few school teams throughout the city.

“In kindergarten, there was this summer camp that my dad’s friend was hosting,” Fazio said. “I did that camp and that kinda got me into it. Then my dad started doing this training stuff, cause he noticed that I liked lacrosse, to get me really into it, and it kinda just grew on from there.”

For Fazio, part of the appeal for lacrosse was its similarity to football from a physical standpoint, and he felt he had natural talent for the sport. Currently, Fazio plays for Anderson High School since McCallum no longer has a team, after it disbanded in 2022. Because of the lack of popularity in Texas, he also plays for a club to get experience and to play in more tournaments. Between both teams and time outside of those, Fazio practices four or five times a week to ensure he is playing at his highest level.

With his teammates at Anderson, Fazio feels like he has another friend group, and he has been able to connect his friends from both schools to foster a larger network of friends. He feels like there is a sense of community, and he sees them as more than just his teammates.

“It’s people that I connect with,” Fazio said. “Any team you play for, you build a bond with those guys. They’re like your brothers, and you know everything about them; they know everything about you.”

As far as his club team, Fazio travels to tournaments all around the country and loves being able to see new things at every place he visits. Those trips help with his recruiting process and getting noticed by coaches.

“There’s a lot of challenges recruiting-wise,,” Fazio said. “All of my recruiting events I have to travel for. This summer I’ll be going to Maryland twice, Florida, California; there’s not that many in-state opportunities to get recruited.”

Fazio feels like the effort to get recruited is worth it in order to have opportunities to get to know coaches and a chance at playing in college. He thinks that the recruiting process is going well. He’s been invited to a couple of prospect camps for Division I schools, and he has heard back from several coaches that he’s reached out to.

“You really have to put in extra work, go practice the stuff that you need to do, listen to your coaches,” Fazio said. “Lacrosse right now is full of networking and getting connections with coaches. My coaches who went to certain universities are reaching out to their coaches and trying to get me opportunities.”

Brian Donovan is the head coach of the Anderson lacrosse team. Donovan grew up in New York, where lacrosse is a more prevalent sport, but he says that there has been major growth in the sport in Texas over the last decade. Donovan met Fazio about a year ago and immediately realized his potential.

“Just right away, very athletic, very athletic kid,” Donovan said. “[He’s] one of those guys who over time [you] come to realize he’s a guy who’s a game changer. He does everything on the field in terms of offense, defense, scoring goals, making clears and picking up ground balls. He’ll take faceoffs if he has to. He’s just one of those guys that can do everything. And because of that, he’s a weapon when he’s out there.”

The roster of Donovan’s team is interesting to say the least because even though it is mostly comprised of Anderson students, there are kids from McCallum, a homeschooled kid and at one point kids from LASA. He thinks that despite this various school allegiances of his players, they work well together because they all share the same passion.

Donovan says Fazio is a hard worker who recognizes that to play at a high level, he can’t just be the best on his team: he has to constantly improve because there is competition from players all around the country.

“He’s going to have to raise the bar for himself, personally, to be able to reach [the next level],” Donovan said. “He’s always been a very well-rounded player, and I think his speed and his lower body strength have gotten better over the last year. I think that’s just him turning from a 15-year-old to a 16-year-old to a 17-year-old and just naturally growing as a human being.”

Although Donovan hasn’t started the recruiting process for Fazio yet, when the time comes he will be writing letters of recommendation and calling college coaches to help get Fazio find an opportunity to play at the highest level that he can. Donovan sees the next few months as being the most important to getting noticed and will use his network and knowledge to help find the best fit for Fazio.

One of the players on the Anderson team with Fazio is junior Hank Holland, a fellow McCallum student who switched to the Anderson team when McCallum no longer had a team. The two have played together since they first started high school and when Holland first saw Fazio play, he knew that Fazio was one of the biggest assets on the team.

“He’s always out there working,” Holland said. “He’s always getting better at something. He’s always out there getting extra reps in.” 

Holland sees that Fazio puts in a lot of extra work during the off-season to get better, as well as being on select teams to play year-round. Holland thinks that Fazio’s best skill is his ability to shoot and that he can run the ball in transition.

“He’s always out there, he’s always fighting,” Holland said. “He can go do anything if he puts his mind to it.”