Junior gets comfortable in boys lacrosse
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Jordan Metro hasn’t been to one practice with the Princeton High School baseball team, and until playing catch on Sunday, he hadn’t even thrown a baseball in a year.
But he still has friends who want him to give it a try.
”My friends on the baseball team, they always tell me I’ve got to come out for baseball,” Metro said. “One of them told me they’d pay me. They’d raise money with a bake sale for me to come pitch for them.”
Metro, a former Babe Ruth all-star, walked away from his first love for lacrosse, a game he had never played before the ninth grade.
”When I got to high school,” Metro said, “I found out they had such a good program and I wanted to be a part of it.”
The junior midfielder is now in his third season of lacrosse and second on the varsity with the Little Tigers. He’s proven that he can help PHS win on the lacrosse field. He scored the first two goals of the Little Tigers’ 18-9 win over Princeton Day School on Friday as they evened their record at 1-1.
”He’s one of the guys we’re thrilled about,” said PHS head coach Peter Stanton, whose squad was scheduled to play Pennington on Monday. “Jordan is a junior. He’s new to the sport. He played last year and as a freshman. I don’t think he played lacrosse before he came to high school. I think he’s kind of the kid who came out for lacrosse because it could be something fun to do, and he’s realizing his potential at the sport now.”
Metro has a lot of the attributes that can make him a talented lacrosse player, especially in the midfield. While the Little Tigers originally tried him on attack as a freshman, he has the tools to be a solid midfielder, and is showing it in his first year of starting after developing quickly the past two years.
”It’s a little more awareness,” Stanton said of the difference this year in Metro. “He knows the game a little better. He has a better sense of his abilities. He’s a big kid. He’s 6-3 and he’s very fast.”
It’s a strength that the Little Tigers hope will pay off this season as they move away from trying to set their offense so deliberately every possession. The midfield holds one of the keys to a faster paced attack.
”We feel like we have middies that can run the field really well,” Stanton said. “We actually look to push transition whenever we can. We want to try to get easy goals. We feel like scoring goals 6-on-6 is hard, and if we can get easy transition goals — off of turnovers, off of rides — those are real momentum building plays.”
If the Little Tigers don’t score, Metro is confident that there is plenty to get the job done. After opening with a loss to state power Hunterdon Central, PHS made a big jump to dispose of PDS.
”We started off the season against Hunterdon Central, who’s a very tough program,” Metro said. “That made us elevate our level of play. That led us into the PDS game. We learned lots of experience just from one game.
”It was definitely a valuable experience. We have a lot of inexperienced players on our team and they’re just learning.”
Metro figures that he is somewhere in the middle. With a wealth of baseball background, Metro is just starting to catch up in lacrosse. His athleticism — he played with the boys basketball team that reached the Central Jersey Group III championship — has helped.
”I think I’m definitely working my way into the experienced category,” Metro said. “I still have a lot of work to do.”
He credits the lacrosse coaches with helping to make his transition easier. Though it’s apples and oranges between baseball and lacrosse, there were only minor struggles for him.
”Maybe the speed of the game compared to baseball,” Metro said. “It’s a lot different, but once you get thrown out there, you don’t have much of a choice.
”Freshman year, I really had no idea what to expect,” he added. “Right now, I’m pleased at my progression and I hope to continue getting better.”
Metro is part of a junior class that has nine players in it. Like Metro, all of them are trying to fill in bigger roles this year.
”A big point we’ve made is we don’t want to wait until next year to be good,” Stanton said. “As young as we are, we feel if we have to wait until next year, we’re never going to have it.
”Coach (Jason) Carter and I are pretty demanding,” he added. “We have pretty high expectations. We keep saying how athletic and how much potential this team has. We realize it will take a while to develop that potential. We’re trying to stick to that balance between teaching and demanding. We feel we’re just starting now to scratch the surface of how good we could be.”
The Little Tigers are using more of their players in games, giving them the chance to show what they can do. In Metro, PHS has seen those flashes.
”This year, we have a ton of potential,” Metro said. “We have the potential to be a really great team. I hope we fill all the potential we have.”
Once, Jordan Metro showed promise on the baseball diamond. Now he’s focused solely on a PHS lacrosse team on the rise.

