When big kids pick up lacrosse, coaches usually hand them a goalie stick. Val Queiroga handed Carson Hall an attack stick instead.
“I've seen big dudes playing attack. If your stick is right and you know how to work the inside and use your body, you could be super successful,” said Queiroga, who coaches lacrosse and the offensive line at Blythewood High School in South Carolina. “I try not to pigeonhole those kids into the cage. It’s not the best spot for them.”
Hall, a 5-foot-9, 295-pound junior, is making his coach look smart.
He played in nine games for the Bengals as a sophomore reserve, finishing with five goals and four assists. Queiroga still talks about a four-goal game Hall had in one of the team's jamborees.
Scoring was part of what drew Hall to attack in the first place. It's something he never gets to do as an offensive lineman for Blythewood’s football team.
Queiroga's message to his players is simple.
“I always tell kids, ‘If you're a big man, play like a big man. If you're a speed guy, then play with speed,’” he said. “Carson owns it. He's not trying to split dodge a guy and run past him. He's gonna back down on the crease and work his skills like a big man. As long as you own your body type and you own your strengths and your weaknesses, anybody can play the game.”
Hall first gained recognition in lacrosse circles in the summer of 2025, when he circled around from X for a goal and hit the “Sexy Dexy” at the urging of his Lake Marion Mallards club teammates. That play and celebration — a nod to NFL lineman Dexter Lawrence — has drawn nearly 285,000 views on TikTok and spawned an exchange with lacrosse content creator Scotty Royster.
“That was like a big-time moment for me,” Hall said. “It was fun.”
He went viral again this past summer. Playing for Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), he caused a turnover on the ride near midfield, scooped the ball, roll-dodged out of traffic, took it to the cage and scored. That play has also swelled past 285,000 views on TikTok.
Hall's game is built on what football taught him. Linemen live and die by a quick first step off the ball, and that burst carries over to the crease. He knows when to lean on a defender with his strength, when to take the space a defender gives him and how to create his own room to get a shot off. He reads the field the way a lineman reads a defense.
“If you have no IQ, it doesn't matter if you're the best athlete on the field,” Hall said. “If you can't pass to a guy or know what the play is, you can't really score.”
He studies the big-man game, too. Before every game, Hall pulls up highlights of Asher Nolting, a four-time All-American at High Point and four-time Premier Lacrosse League All-Star. He admires how Nolting can both feed and dodge, and he patterns his own game the same way. Nolting's “too small” celebration is Hall's favorite celly.
“I really like watching him,” Hall said. “I always watch his highlights before every game I play because he inspires me as a bigger guy. You know, he's not the fastest on the field, but he can go and make it and get the goal easily.”
Hall has been having a ton of fun since picking up the sport three years ago. He sees himself as part of a growing group of lacrosse players who don't fit the sport’s usual mold, and he likes what he sees.
“Watching guys that are unique, just like me, that go out and do what they need to do on the field, that can do the same exact thing as a guy that's not the same size, it's impressive to see,” Hall said. “It makes you want to really get into the game and really play it.”
Hall came to lacrosse through a friend, Wyatt Wolf, who talked him into trying it in eighth grade at Dutch Fork Middle School. He started out facing off. By his second year, he had moved to attack.
“That's when I started to really love the game,” he said. “And then when I moved here, I feel like my coach brought it out in me to really start pushing myself to play harder.”
“Here” is Blythewood, about 20 minutes outside Columbia, where Hall transferred after playing JV at Dutch Fork High. Queiroga already knew Hall. Hall's mother had worked with Queiroga at Blythewood, and the coach had watched Hall play sixes in middle school. In a part of the country where lacrosse is still finding its footing, Queiroga is always looking for more kids to play. He was thrilled when Hall joined the Bengals.
Hall keeps putting in the work. During a rare South Carolina snowstorm last winter, he was outside playing wall ball. He has played for several club programs in the offseason, including ones close to his heart: FCA and Inspire Success Early (ISE), a club that raises funds for breast cancer awareness.
At the varsity level, he matches up against older, more experienced players, and it has pushed him further.
“His stick has developed quickly,” Queiroga said. “He's two-handed and he's got good vision. If he sees the open man, he can make a decent feed. He’s progressed. He really likes the game.”
Hall took up lacrosse to complement football. He never expected it to grow on him this much.
“If someone were to ask me what my favorite sport was right now, I really couldn't answer it because both of them are that fun,” Hall said. “Whenever I get in the season, I get really hyped.”
