Team 24/7 Lacrosse Player Spotlight
2021 Ty Keaton
Learn more about some of the top High School lacrosse players in the Carolinas with the Team 24/7 Lacrosse Committed Player Spotlight
Getting to Know Ty Keaton
Player Name: Ty Keaton
College Commitment: Salisbury University
High School: Nation Ford High School
Position: Attack/Midfield
Graduating Class: 2021

What other schools did you consider?
Roanoke, Washington and Lee, Lynchburg
How did the school you chose separate itself from the others you considered?
The things that stood out to me the most about Salisbury during my recruiting process are the consistent high level of performance from the program, my connection with the coaching staff, the academics and the location.

How would you describe your recruiting process overall?
Overall, I enjoyed the recruiting process. I enjoyed learning about all of the different schools, visiting campuses and getting to meet coaches. It ultimately got me to where I needed to be to get a good degree, play at the next level and accomplish my goals.

What was your favorite part of the recruiting process? 
My favorite part of the recruiting process was seeing all of the different schools and learning about all of the different possibilities. My goal was always to play college lacrosse and I enjoyed learning about all the different opportunties to do that.

What opportunities and information assisted you during your recruiting process?
The thing that helped me the most during my recruiting process was the opportunity to play in the biggest tournaments. 24/7 always made sure we were at the right events and playing in front of the right coaches. I also always felt like 24/7 was providing us with the tools to reach out to coaches and guiding us through the process.

Did you feel like you had support from the Team 24/7 Staff during your process? If so, how?
Yes. I feel like I always had the support of the 24/7 staff throughout my career. The staff was always focused on my development and bringing my game to the best it could be. They always put me in a position to be successful on the field and had a plan for how I could show my skills when I was playing.

What individual or showcase events, if any, did you find the most beneficial during your process?
I did not play in a ton of individual events. The two events that I found most beneficial during my recruiting process was playing at Crabfeast and the NXT Philly Showcase and Philly Invitational.

What would you tell younger players or parents to help them prepare for the recruiting process?
The best advice I would give to a younger player is to have faith in your abilities as a player and play smart lacrosse when you are at tournaments or events. If you do that, you will end up in the right place.
Coach Flanagan on Ty
If we kept stats, Ty would go down as having the highest shooting percentage of anyone that has ever come through our program. It didn’t matter if it was practice or a game, all he did was score goals. If he got his hands free, he was putting a ball on net and forcing the goalie to make a save. 
What made it really impressive was that he isn’t a guy that shoots the ball 100 miles per hour, he just makes the goalie work. He has outstanding fundamentals as a shooter and places the ball really well so everything is on cage and it forces the goalie to make a great save. We have had guys that will hit 3 out of 10 shots and the ones that hit may look pretty but Ty hits 7 out of 10 shots and a lot of times it leaves you scratching your head on how he made it happen. 

While Ty is a man of few words, there is a ton that I can say about him but there are three things about him that I will always remember and attribute that I hope every player that comes through our program has.

In Ty’s first fall with us, he was on a “B” team. He came to tryouts and we didn’t have an opening on the “A” team but it didn’t phase him. He just came to play every day and kept getting better. That same scenario would play out in the summer going into his junior year. He was a really good player but we had merged our high school teams with another club and he was on what was considered the “B” team. Again, it didn’t matter. He never said a word about it, never questioned us and never complained. He trusted us, he kept working to improve and he played great that summer. I’ll always remember Ty when we have a parent or player question/comment being on a “B” team. Here is a guy that experienced it several times in his career with us, including the summer that is supposed to be extremely important to his recruiting process, and he is going on to play for one of the best college programs ever. He never made an excuses or pointed the finger, he just kept getting better.

The other thing that stood out to me was how he embraced his role and trusted us to put him in a place to be successful. Ty grew up playing attack and has always played attack for his high school team. We asked him to come out of the box as a midfielder. It was going to allow him to dodge on short sticks and would give us an advantage in a lot of matchups offensively. It was also a way to get him on the field more. We have these conversations a lot with guys because you can play 6-9 midfielders vs. only playing 3-4 attackman and we get a mixed response from kids. Some fight it while some embrace it. In Ty fashion, he never said a word and just tore it up as a midfielder. He ran by short sticks all summer and was arguably our best player on a very good team. We could have given him a long pole and it wouldn’t have mattered. The kid will do anything you ask and he will be good at it.

The last thing I’ll always remember about Ty was a conversation we had walking off the field of one of his last games. We were in the playoffs at Crabfeast and just beat one of the top 15-20 teams in the country to advance to the final four of arguably the biggest tournament of the summer.  If I had to guess, I would say Ty had 4-5 goals in the game. It seemed like he did almost everything for us offensively. As we are walking off the field, me and one of the other guys asked him how many goals he had. He honestly had no clue. He didn’t care at all. The only thing he cared about was that the team played well, we won and we got to play one another game together. 
It was a moment that I wish we could bottle up and share with every player and parent in our program. Here was a kid that just tore it up in what was probably the biggest lacrosse game he had ever played up until that point with a ton of college coaches watching live or on video and he didn’t care about his individual play or his stats at all. It was all about the team and it’s why all of his teammates and coaches loved him. 

Ty is a special kid and I can’t wait to see what he does at Salisbury.
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