I sat down with senior lacrosse player Jon McMahan in this week’s “Athlete of the Week Q&A” to find out more about his love for lacrosse, his journey back from two serious knee injuries and even a recent engagement.

You’re from New York so tell me a little bit about the popularity of lacrosse in comparison to here.

Every high school has it. It’s just like your typical soccer team. My brother started playing [lacrosse] and so I got to see it and then I kind of transitioned into it from there and started playing.

So what brought you to Biola?

I wanted to go to Biola anyway, so I only applied to Biola, and it turns out that my dad is a faculty member here now. My dad was a faculty member out in New York at The King’s College and he transferred out here when I was a senior in high school so he came out early and my mom and I stayed back for my senior year in New York and then my whole family came out here.

Your dad is also an advisor for the lacrosse team, what’s it like having your dad be a part of the team?

It’s a lot of fun. I’m living at home because we live so close. But yeah, it’s fun. He comes to all the games, but he’s not as much involved in the team organization. He is more in charge of the finances.

What’s it like for you, and your teammates as well, in terms of getting recognition from students and the school as a whole because lacrosse is a club sport? Do you feel like you get a bit overlooked?

A little bit, but with AS we still get the funding that we need theoretically. We charge our guys “player dues” so that helps pay for refs and everything. So if we were varsity we wouldn’t have that. But I think the support from the students of Biola counts us as a varsity sport because we still get good amounts of fans, so that’s really cool. It would be more convenient if we were a varsity sport.

What has it been like working your way back from your two ACL surgeries?

I played my freshman year and played the whole season and then tore my right ACL in the last game of the season and had surgery a month later. The rehab for that was about a year. It was six months of physical therapy and then stuff on my own before I could get cleared to play with full contact. So then I came back my junior year and went through “fall ball” and in the practice before our first game I tore my left ACL. So the timing was just awful. I was captain that year with my brother and ended up playing a couple games with a torn ACL with a knee brace on it. I couldn’t do much. I had surgery in the summer and then came back as a fifth year senior. And so this year I’m back into it but I’m still wearing a knee-brace and not wearing cleats.

Is it pretty obvious when you have a significant injury like that?

My first one was pretty gnarly to the point where everybody heard it crack and my second one I knew it because I could feel my knee shift.

So by wearing non-cleats now, does that have an effect on the way you play the game?

I can’t cut as hard but for me that’s better. I would rather slip and fall then have it stick to the turf. There is definitely still a fear factor for me cutting and anything like that because I don’t want to do it again. I can’t dodge as much and take guys one-on-one as much but I can still be a threat between gaps.

What drove you to persevere and get back from your injuries?

Honestly, I love lacrosse so much, but it was mainly the team. I like the community, it’s a brotherhood to the point where every one is a friend. I don’t feel excluded if I’m not playing lacrosse, but playing just allows me to interact with them differently.

Your roster is massive, how is it having so many guys on the team?

There’s about 30 players but 10 play on the field. The reason why we have so many is because of the midfield and since it’s like hockey you change on the fly. So guys are coming in-and out in-and-out and you need guys with fresh legs. It’s a lot of fun though. You can’t connect with everybody on the same level so you kind of have your core group of friends on the team but still everyone on the team are good friends with each other, which is sweet.

What’s your role on the team right now? In terms of both position and leadership.

Right now I play midfield, which is what I’ve always played. I play more of an offensive midfield and they try to keep me off of defense because of my knees. If I get stuck back there I can do it because we play a zone defense so we aren’t really moving that much. But leadership wise, I was a captain my junior year and after I got hurt, my coach asked me if I wanted to be an assistant coach just because I have that knowledge from high school and everything, so I agreed. I helped out coaching but it was pretty minimal though and it wasn’t too intense. If guys needed help on the side I could help them. Then this year, I’m not in any official leadership position just because I wasn’t sure if I was going to play. But I love it though. I can help guys on the side if they need it and I can still be a leader without being deemed a leader.

So I heard you are engaged now, how has it been balancing school and lacrosse and adding that dynamic into the mix?

She’s been very supportive of me, to the point where I’ll ask her if she thinks its okay and she backs me 100% in the process because she knows what it means to me. But with school, she graduated in December and is going into grad school for speech therapy so she’s waiting to get accepted and also timing and planning because of that just because each grad school’s breaks are different. But it has been a weird dynamic because she’s been at home but she’s been great. She’s supported me in every decision whether it’s lacrosse or school or anything ive done.

How has the team progressed this year? Talk about some of the team’s goals.

Last year was a rebuilding year where we had new guys coming in who had never played before and it was a little bit of a rough season last year. But then this year those new guys have progressed and are good enough to where they can step up and take control of the team themselves. We have a lot of potential. We haven’t executed perfectly obviously, yet, but the games we’ve lost we could have won, we just had stupid mistakes. So this year, hopefully we’ll go to nationals. We should win our side of the conference. Our goal right now is to go undefeated in our conference and get the number one seed for playoffs. That way we get a bye.