After a hard fought season in 2025, the Springfield football team packed up their lockers as returning players set their focus on the offseason to prepare for 2026 — that’s for everyone besides Owen Dawson, Sal Posillico and Carter Shaw; their offseason is the onseason.
The three Springfield underclassmen are two-sport athletes juggling two of the most physically demanding team sports in football and lacrosse, and their competitiveness drives them forward to succeed at a high level in both.
Dawson is the ultimate competitor. He’s the type of guy that people are afraid of on the turf. An offensive weapon in football and short stick defensive midfielder (SSDM) in lacrosse looks ready to kill at all times, wears an immense amount of eyeblack (along with Posillico), and has a knack for the ball.
Posillico plays receiver/punt returner in football and SSDM in lacrosse, yet his punt returning ability seeps into the spring. In the lacrosse season this year there were multiple instances where people were yelling “punt return”. That’s because the sophomore would get the ball off of a turnover or a save, then would take matters into his own hands, running through and around defenses for nine points this year.
Shaw plays exactly how someone would envision a football player to play lacrosse. His shoulder is used well often, and worked on multiple occasions as he plummeted a Western New England defender resulting in a goal en route to a 14-4 victory in March.
While all three have thrived at times, their journeys have differed.
When reigning from Western Mass., it can sometimes be difficult to find a path in collegiate sports, but Dawson has found a way. The South Hadley native was originally recruited to just play football, and he did so for his freshman year on Alden Street. This year, Dawson got connected to Sean Quirk, the men’s lacrosse head coach, and ultimately decided to try out and join the team. Socially it can be a burden, considering the football team holds over 100 on its roster, and lacrosse holds over 40, but Dawson balances it well.
“One semester I’m running the triple option offense, and then the next I’m playing defense with a stick,” Dawson said. “But it’s awesome. I meet a bunch of different people every year and it’s always fresh. The guys that I know on the football team are my closest friends and I’m starting to bond well with the sophomore group (on the lacrosse team).”
The student-athlete balance is hard enough, yet Dawson’s two sports are piled on top of majoring in physical therapy, so he knows a thing or two about staying healthy.
“I have to be taking care of my body first,” Dawson said. “Going to AT a couple times a week, making friends with the people there —They treat you right. They want you to be on the field, they don’t want to take you off the field.”
Although he hadn’t played organized lacrosse since his senior year of high school, Dawson saw impact minutes as soon as the Pride’s first game — he even scored his first career goal on a crease dive against Stevens in late February. Dawson had four goals and 11 caused turnovers on the lacrosse season, providing a major spark to the defensive unit.
“I was in the spot where I knew that I could help the team and leave a positive mark on the team, butI came in with zero expectations,” Dawson said. “Nobody ever saw me play. I had to go out there and prove myself.”
The professional realm has seen a few athletes play both in the PLL and NFL, such as Jared Burnhardt and Chris Hogan. The crossover stems from the physicality but also the nature of certain movements in each sport. It’s even more dramatic in Posillico’s situation.
“I would say wide receiver and like playing midfield really translates well,” Posillico said. “I’d say playing defensive midfield, when you’re jamming people, is basically like you’re stalk blocking. Those two positions that I play really blend in with each other.”
Posillico made plenty of plays on the football and lacrosse field this past year. He had a receiving touchdown against Johns Hopkins in the NCAA Second Round, and fast forward to lacrosse season, where the Farmingdale, N.Y. original scored a game-winning goal in double overtime against MIT on March 29, and his big play ability comes from his will to win.
A lacrosse career seemed to be coming to an end for Posillico in his senior year of high school after being heavily recruited for football. After his lacrosse season, right before graduating, Posillico made the choice to send his lacrosse tape to Keith Bugbee, who was the men’s lacrosse coach at Springfield before retiring last year. Bugbee liked what he saw and gave Posillico a spot, leading him to become a key piece in both football and lacrosse.
“Winning the NEWMAC Championship in football is a moment I’ll definitely remember and I’d love to do it in lacrosse too,” Posillico said. “I like to compete in everything that I do. If I wasn’t playing two sports I’d be training, but I just get such a high off winning games, so I couldn’t imagine what I’d be doing if I was just training.”
As the semester comes to a close, so does Shaw’s first seasons with both programs, and it wasn’t always easy.
“I had a tough time in the middle of the lacrosse season, basically all week before Babson. Just a lot going on, a lot of work in school, and I wasn’t playing well,” Shaw said. “But I’ve prided myself now my whole life that I’m not a quitter because I love the team. I’m not gonna quit. It’s just something that I stand by.”
Freshman year is a rollercoaster for just about any college student, let alone playing two sports while trying to stay afloat. Having two other dual-sport guys alongside Shaw has guided him well.
“If you didn’t love the game, you wouldn’t still be playing it. It’s really commitment, but when you have people around you that do the same thing, like Sal and Owen, it’s very helpful,” Shaw said. “I was kind of nervous coming in, but then I realized I had Sal who was in my situation last year, which was helpful from a mental aspect.”
The inside linebacker in football and midfielder in lacrosse brings power on Stagg Field, and Shaw is looking to add to it in the slim offseason that the two-sport athletes get.
“It really just comes down to the weight room at this point. Getting faster, stronger, all the above,” Shaw said. “A lot of the skills in the two sports are transferable. I’m changing directions a lot in football so it can help with dodging stuff that started working a little bit more throughout the season.”