Weekly Cover: Bulls on Parade

Trevor Baptiste, by his own admission, is reaching “unc” status as the last inaugural member of the New York Atlas roster.

Assigned to the Atlas in 2019 at the formation of the Premier Lacrosse League, Baptiste has since become one of the faces of both the team and the league. It’s easy to see why. His personality, beaming smile and status as one of the top faceoff men in the sport’s history make him about as marketable as anyone in lacrosse.

It’s all earned the respect of his peers, too. So after Baptiste set a PLL record on Sunday by winning 22 faceoffs in the PLL championship game — a 14-13 win for the Atlas over the Denver Outlaws — his teammates took time to celebrate their captain.

“Trevor’s been here since day one, and I don’t think there’s anyone else we wanted to do this for,” championship game MVP Jeff Teat said.

Baptiste, the 2022 PLL MVP, went through the ebbs and flows of Atlas lacrosse before lifting his team to its first PLL title. He’s played for three head coaches. He’s been part of a No. 1 seed and arguably the worst team in the league.

It all led to Sunday.

“We had some really disappointing times, we had some talented locker rooms, we had some solid teams that underachieved, we had some teams that overachieved,” former Atlas midfielder John Crawley told the PLL’s Lauren Merola before the title game. “But ultimately for Trevor to see all of that and have that accumulate toward a championship is a testament to his ability to rise and help change a program into a championship culture.”

Baptiste’s leadership and attitude were key fixtures in fostering a culture of winning. But so was the hiring of Mike Pressler to be the team’s head coach and general manager prior to the 2023 season.

Pressler and his staff, which came to include another inaugural member of the Atlas in Steven Brooks, took on the role of caretakers rather than authoritarian leaders. The players run the show. They’re just there to provide the tools to succeed.

Pressler has provided more than a few tools to be utilized. Few have drafted better since he took charge of the Bulls. His first selection, ironically, was panned by critics. With the first overall pick in 2023, he selected Cornell defenseman Gavin Adler — a 5-9 college eraser who some thought was undersized for the pro game.

But the Atlas defense was aging, and with Tucker Durkin entering his last year as a pro, it was the perfect time for Adler to learn from one of the game’s best ever. The draft pick was intentional, one that wouldn’t pay immediate dividends. It was savvy.

Adler, of course, has since become the 2025 Dave Pietramala Defensive Player of the Year and a backbone of the Atlas defense alongside Brett Makar, who was selected two picks later, Tyler Carpenter (a 2024 fourth-round pick and 2024 Brodie Merrill Long-Stick Midfielder of the Year), Danny Logan (a 2021 fourth-round pick) and Michael Rexrode, who has been on the team since the Major League Lacrosse Entry Draft in 2021.

In front of goalie Liam Entenmann — another brilliant selection by Pressler at No. 5 in the 2024 PLL Draft despite the presence of Tim Troutner — the defense took on all comers. It was Entenmann, though, who stole the show like he so often does in a championship atmosphere.

No play was greater than when Entenmann made an acrobatic save to stop a wide-open Jared Bernhardt with 2:57 left in the game. While Bernhardt scored on the following possession to bring Denver within a goal, that save ended up being the defining moment of the contest.

It also sealed Entenmann’s fourth title as a starter in just over three years — his first came with the U.S. U21 Men’s National Team in 2022, then his next two came in consecutive seasons with Notre Dame in 2023 and 2024.

“And what do you say about 44 in the goal? What do you say? He made some timely, momentum-stopping saves,” Pressler said. “When you’re on the other side, those kinds of saves zap the life out of you. … He’s built for the spectacular. He’s built for the ordinary. His consistency in the goal is second to none in the sport.”

In addition to 14 saves, Entenmann also made a pivotal outlet pass to Makar late in the second quarter that led to a Connor Shellenberger fast-break goal, tying the score at 7 and starting a three-goal New York run to end the first half.

But that run wasn’t without adversity.

Five minutes before halftime, Atlas attackman Xander Dickson suffered what appeared to be a serious ankle injury after getting tied up with Shellenberger and Outlaws goalie Logan McNaney around midfield.

“That was tough for us to come back from,” Baptiste said. “[Dickson] has been such a heartbeat for our team.”

The game-saving adjustment came from Brooks, who didn’t win a title with the Atlas as a player but could sense that Matt Traynor — the No. 6 pick in the 2025 PLL Draft by Pressler — could help the Atlas pull it off. Brooks moved Traynor from the first midfield down to attack, and it immediately paid dividends.

With the Atlas still rattled by the gruesome injury to Dickson, Traynor scored on the next possession with a minute left in the first half. The Penn State alum then scored the opening goal of the second half, and his goal to open the fourth quarter tied it for New York.

Then it was Bryan Costabile, the second-longest tenured Atlas player who, like Baptiste, has been on the rollercoaster since he was drafted in 2020, who hammered the game home. He gave the Atlas the lead four minutes after Traynor’s equalizer and then buried another goal for what proved to be the winner.

Contributions up and down the roster made the championship possible. Contributions from Pressler’s draft picks — Adler, Makar, Dickson, Shellenberger, Entenmann, Carpenter and Traynor, among others — were much-needed. They helped bring it home for the long-time Bulls, the ones who experienced disappointment after disappointment despite talented rosters.

Even after Pressler’s first season, one in which the Atlas went 2-8, hope remained. They trusted the process, an overused sports trope that doesn’t yield a championship quite nearly as often as it’s recited.

Baptiste has believed in the process for even longer. A process that’s spanned three coaches, his ascension in the record book and his self-described evolution to “unc.”

“We’re champions. We’re champions,” Baptiste said in near disbelief. “We’ve been so close so many years, it obviously feels great to finally punch through and get it.”