Posey, Young Using Public School Chip to Prove it as Pros

Jack Posey’s first memories of Dalton Young were straightforward.

“He was good,” Posey said. “He could score.”

Posey wasn’t referring to Young’s time as a rookie with the Denver Outlaws — with five goals and five assists in five games. Nor was he talking about him time at Richmond, where he graduated with back-to-back Atlantic 10 Offensive Player of the Year awards and finished second all-time in career points for the Spiders with 261 (146 goals, 115 assists).

No, the first time Posey met Young was in Southwestern Youth Association Soccer in Centreville, Va. They grew up one mile apart and were teammates in Anklebiter youth football, AAU basketball and club lacrosse.

Their roles may have changed over the years, from playing together in youth sports, matching up against each other at rival high schools, or trying to make their way in the PLL as undrafted rookies, but what always remained constant was the mutual respect they held for each other — and how they challenged each other to achieve more.

“We looked at each other as the standard,” Young said. “I think we realized that both of us had a different mindset and motor than a lot of people that we were surrounded with. It definitely helped having that standard and bar for us to be able to push each other.”

Posey and Young were always close. They were both running backs and linebackers in football — Posey in the middle and Young to his left. Former Johns Hopkins attackman Jacob Angelus was the quarterback. The coaches were their three fathers. They did volunteer work together with their mothers.

An interesting wrinkle came when it was time to register for high school. Angelus opted to go to St. Paul VI Catholic, where he went on to break records for career goals, assists and points. Young and Posey entertained the idea of going there, too, but eventually chose the public school they were zoned for.

“At the time, the football program wasn’t the best, and the basketball program was too good for me,” Young said. “I knew I wanted to play three sports.”

“I wanted to play with my friends,” Posey said. “I wanted to have fun, and I felt a sense of pride to be in my neighborhood and go to my high school and make it on my own path. A lot of people said that if you wanted to play D-I, you had to go private, and I didn’t buy it.”

Posey and Young were both zoned to go to Freedom High School in South Riding. When John Champe High School opened in 2012, the school district rezoned — and Young’s home was placed in the area zoned for the new school.

For the first time, Young and Posey were rivals.

Both players admitted lacrosse wasn’t their top sport going into high school, yet they both made their varsity teams as freshmen.

“JC was a new school at the time, so I had asked any future JC boys’ seventh- to eighth-graders to jump up and play on a JV team for us in an indoor winter league,” said Vik Ohri, the John Champe head coach. “One day, the varsity team was in need of some players, so I was asking all the JV boys if anyone wanted to jump in and play with the varsity team that day. All the boys seemed timid except for one tiny seventh grader who was the only one to say, ‘I want to play, Coach.’ I told him that I was glad to see him want to jump in, but he was small, and this would probably not be the safest move at this time. I loved the heart, desire, attitude, and told him, ‘I can’t wait until you’re in ninth grade.’”

Warren Danzenbaker, the head coach at Freedom, noted what impressed him most about Posey was his intensity and dedication. Posey’s freshman season was also the first time the Eagles earned a trip to the state championship tournament, extending the team’s season into June.

The team went on the road to play Western Albemarle but lost and didn’t get home until midnight.

“The next morning, I'm coming up to school to get ready to start collecting stuff, and Jack’s out there on the track doing sprints,” he said. “I'm like, ‘Jack, what are you doing?’ and he was like, ‘Well, Coach, I missed the first four offseason workouts for football so I’m just trying to catch up to the work that everybody else already did.’ I’m like, who does that? Jack does.”

Freedom and John Champe are about 10 minutes down the road from each other, so the rivalry in all sports is intense. It comes to a fever pitch by the time the athletic calendar comes to lacrosse.

As Posey and Young elevated their games and became Division I recruits, the showdown between the two made for must-see lacrosse.

“When Dalton had the ball and Jack was d-ing him up,” Ohri said, “everyone just stopped — from the coaches, refs, players on the field, parents — and watched the two of them go at it.”

While Posey was injured their sophomore year, the final two seasons of their high school careers were memorable.

“I remember my junior year, we played a packed stadium,” Posey said. “I think that was the most packed high school game I ever played in. Both stands were completely packed. The fence that was going around the track was completely lined up all the way around the concessions. I remember walking out of the locker room, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is what it's like to be big time.’

“I remember I scored in that game, and the ground shook. It was just absurd.”

As seniors, the two had another memorable moment — a tight contest that went into overtime but endured an hour-long rain delay before the extra period.

When the teams returned to the field, Young didn’t make them wait long for a conclusion.

“Fifteen seconds after being in a rain delay for an hour, he does a backhanded shot from 15 yards out and scores the game-winner,” Danzenbaker said. “I'm like, that's just typical Dalton. He's the only one that can do that kind of stuff.”

The game ended 6-5 in favor of John Champe, which Young said was a testament to the impact Posey’s defense had in the game.

“That senior year game I remember especially just because of the 12 years building up to it,” Young said. “We kind of knew it might be one of the last times to play against each other in any kind of sport, so it was pretty memorable moment.”

After that, both made an impact at the Division I level.

At Richmond, Young played 65 games and started 62, including every game from 2022-24. He finished his career on a 57-game point streak and a two-time USA Lacrosse Honorable Mention selection.

Posey was a USA Lacrosse All-American honorable mention in 2023, starting all 15 games he played in, although he suffered a knee injury in the team’s NCAA tournament quarterfinal victory over Army. As he recovered from surgery, he played seven games in 2024.

Just like when they were in elementary school, they spent their summers working out together, doing one-on-one drills against each other or working out with Carolina Chaos all-star Jack Rowlett, who grew up in Burke, Va., and attended Robinson Secondary School, less than 20 miles from where Posey and Young grew up.

While neither was selected in the 2024 PLL Draft — nicknamed “The Greatest Draft” because of its depth of talent — both were claimed through waivers. Young went to the Outlaws, and Posey went to the Carolina Chaos.

Once again, they have proved themselves capable of playing at another level.

Young earned a spot on Denver’s active roster in week two due to an injury to Logan Wisnauskas. Head coach Tim Soudan was so pleased with his effort that by week seven, he was looking for ways to get the ball to Young more. Young delivered, leading the team with five points on three goals and two assists in a victory over the Philadelphia Waterdogs.

“Every time we put him on the field, he does something really well,” Soudan said. “He was getting limited runs just coming out of the midfield with Handley and the rest of the crew that comes out of the box. This week, I was like, any short-clock faceoff wing, we’re going to send Dalton Young out there, and then, we’re going to give him an opportunity, low-clock, just to create.”

Later that night in Connecticut, the Chaos beat the Maryland Whipsnakes 10-9. Posey had earned his second start in the PLL, and head coach Andy Towers spoke glowingly about him after the game.

“Jack Posey is a beast,” Towers said. “That kid is as good as you need him to be. He’s as tough as you need him to be. He’s as bought into this team as anybody I’ve ever been around.”

Towers said Posey paid his way to travel to each of the previous games he wasn’t active in to support his teammates from the sidelines.

“He is humble,” Towers said. “He only cares about winning. He is tough as s***.”

Posey and Young continue to work toward being gameday lineup staples, and they are doing it together.

After both had successful nights with their teams in Fairfield, they were back at the fields at Freedom High shooting and working together. The next morning, they drove to Dulles International Airport together for their flights out west for the PLL weekend in San Diego.

Their path to the pros wasn’t always easy, but it is one they both believe they’re better for, and they hope it sets an example for other players from public schools in areas that aren’t considered hotbeds.

“I really just hope people see Dalton and I and see that they can choose to make their own path, and that they don't have to take the perceived route of what seems to be the only way,” Posey said. “You can make your own path in this sport, and it's accessible for everybody of any background if you're willing to work and you're willing to dedicate and work on your craft.”

The two have come a long way in the sport of lacrosse. Young was a small and inexperienced middle schooler, and Posey was a midfielder on their club team who almost got cut before they gave him a long-pole to try.

Now, they’re the headline trainers at a clinic for players in Northern Virginia that also features local players like Angelus, Will Barnes (Boston U), Carson Boyle (Stony Brook) and Matthew Dineen (Utah).

They were brought up together through lacrosse, with their dads acting as coaches and mentors. They were grateful to have each other then, and that bond continues now.

“It's a beautiful game, and it brings us our friendships and our relationships,” Posey said. “One of the beautiful things is just the people it brings into your lives and how we can relate and bond over it. This really is a beautiful game, and it's really different from a lot of the other sports that I've seen just the relationships you're able to really foster and cultivate. So, yeah, it it's been an honor to walk alongside Dalton on this path.”