Can this ‘incredible’ Charlotte lacrosse star lead his top-ranked team to a state title?

Just as much as his behind-the-back goals, Jack Ransom is commended for his leadership.

The senior attackman is a captain in more ways than being the mover and shaker of Charlotte Catholic High School’s top-ranked boys’ lacrosse team. He’s always breaking down film to his teammates and picking his coach’s brain about what shaped the greats who came before him.

Ransom is a 5-foot-11 dark-haired athlete committed to Georgetown. He totaled 92 goals and 59 assists last spring for the Cougars, who fell two goals short of the N.C. 4A state championship. Catholic, coming off a remarkable 22-3 campaign, hasn’t won a state title in a decade.

But with Ransom in his final season leading the Cougars, still undefeated as conference play ramps up, this may be the time. Ransom wants nothing more.

“It would mean the world,” Ransom told The Charlotte Observer after scoring six goals to push Catholic past rival Myers Park. “We want to get back from last year. It would be the absolute best to win the whole thing.”

After notching the first of those six goals off a feed from junior Jack Baade, Ransom caught a pass at an unusual angle from fellow captain Brendan Leonard behind the goal. Ransom stepped up past the end line, turned around and rocketed a sensational wraparound shot into the cage.

His teammates, positioned on the opposite sideline of the grass field at Keffer Stadium, all sat down and appeared to mimic rowing a boat in unison.

“We got a great celly (celebration) squad over here,” Ransom said with a laugh.

From Long Island to Charlotte

Ransom has played lacrosse most of his life. He said the first time he can recall playing an organized form of the sport may have been in kindergarten.

His family moved to Charlotte from Long Island, New York, when he was in seventh grade. Growing up in one of lacrosse’s biggest hotbeds, Ransom was immersed in the sport from a young age.

Ransom, who currently plays for the Team 91 Charlotte lacrosse club, initially suited up for Team Carolina’s travel ball program upon moving to Charlotte.

It was at Team Carolina where he first met Bo Turner — his head coach at Charlotte Catholic.

“You could always see what a great player he was going to be,” Turner said. “But he’s gotten more athletic. He’s gotten bigger and stronger. He’s just smart — he knows the game, and then sees the field well. He’s incredible.”

Ransom wants to surpass other greats

Throughout this offseason, Ransom constantly talked to Turner about game plans for different teams on the Cougars’ upcoming schedule. “A lacrosse rat,” as his coach described him, he also often asked Turner about the all-time players he coached in previous heydays at Catholic.

Mike Sawyer went on to become a 2012 national champion and Tewaaraton finalist — the award known as the “Heisman of lacrosse” — at Loyola (Md.) University and was a prolific scorer for the Cougars during his All-American high school career. Ransom has been learning more about Sawyer and asks Turner about intricacies that he mastered.

“My boy Matt Bohmer up there killing it at St. Joe’s — we talk all the time,” Ransom said about Bohmer, a top attackman at St. Joseph’s (Pa.) who made the 2019 All-Observer First Team while at Catholic. “We get to work whenever he’s here. He’s awesome. Mike Sawyer, I know he was here (Monday) night, which is great to see. It’s been awesome, it really has.”

His talents are being noticed by more than just those in his circles.

After the Cougars’ 16-7 win at Dutch Fork last Thursday, Mark Goldsmith, the head coach of the South Carolina power who previously guided Greensboro’s Northwest Guilford, walked away particularly amazed at how way Ransom saw the field and made decisions. Goldsmith had seen plenty of film on Ransom, but watching him play in person was even more impressive.

“He’s just driven,” Turner said. “He’s not cocky. He’s confident, but not cocky by any means. He wants to win. His goal is: ‘I want to win a state championship.’ So that’s what he pushes for. That’s his next step — I want the team to win to win a state championship.”

Admittedly, previous Catholic teams may have had players who were more likely to sit back and watch their elite scorer go to work. But as Ransom continues to improve, it’s strengthening his teammates — as they know that if they can get open, Ransom is not just there to score goals himself.

He may be better able to put lacrosse balls into a net than anyone else in the Queen City. It’s his leadership that’s setting him apart, and his teammates are benefiting.