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Owen Hiltz was late for practice after leaving his home in Ontario at 2 a.m. and driving nine hours to Culver, Indiana. It was his first visit to Culver Academy, a prep school that was recruiting him. After head coach Jon Posner helped him put his gear on, a Culver defender smashed Hiltz’s hand in the first drill. Posner asked if Hiltz was okay. He said yes and continued playing for the rest of the two-and-a-half-hour practice.

“He takes off his glove and it’s just full of blood, and his finger was, you could tell it was broken,” Posner said. “He didn’t complain once about it, never took his glove off to wipe the blood off, and played incredible that day and didn’t show one sign of pain.”

Hiltz doesn’t like to draw attention to himself and is always very humble when talking about his talent, Posner said. But the No. 2 class of 2020 recruit has made an immediate impact at Syracuse using his natural lacrosse IQ and skills he learned playing box lacrosse in Peterborough, Ontario.

After decommitting from Denver and signing at SU partially due to Pat March’s revamped offense, ESPN lacrosse analyst Paul Carcaterra called him Syracuse’s most talented attack recruit since Michael Powell in 2002. 

Hiltz played on the second midfield line against Army, out of his typical position, but shifted back to the first attack line for the next game against Virginia — his first career start. He’s tied with Tucker Dordevic for the team lead in goals (12) and plays at attack alongside fifth-year senior Stephen Rehfuss and Loyola transfer Chase Scanlan.

He’s one of the most deadly shots in the game, Carcaterra said. With a 30-second shot clock in box lacrosse, compared to the 80-second one in NCAA men’s lacrosse, Hiltz grew up mastering a quick release. Goalies struggle to react quick enough, head coach John Desko said. While many players cradle or wind up before firing a shot, Hiltz can shoot almost the instant he receives a pass. 

“The next-level players, whether it’s Mikey Powell or Owen Hiltz, the stick is almost an extension of their body,” Carcaterra said.

While Hiltz always had natural talent, Posner said, his box lacrosse skills didn’t translate right away. He didn’t play on a regular lacrosse field until he went to Culver, and his talent didn’t really show at the beginning his freshman year. 

Hiltz was a “high risk, high reward” player his freshman year, and it took him a while to adjust to the American defensive tendencies. Still, even from the beginning, Posner called him “one of the best players I have ever seen.” 

But at the end of his first year, he’d gathered enough confidence to direct teammates midgame about where to go on the field. Hiltz could see plays form on the field before they happen, Carcaterra said, and that allowed Hiltz to tell his teammates where they should position themselves to take advantage of defenses and score. It paid off — Culver was named the best team in the country by US Lacrosse Magazine in 2019, Hiltz’s junior year.

He came to Culver as a quiet kid who didn’t know anyone and was unfamiliar with field lacrosse, but he developed into a captain and one of the top high school players in the U.S. by his senior year. 

“He was seeing the game and coming into huddles and telling me what the defenses were doing, and he had adjustments in his mind,” Posner said. “I let him lead the way that a senior should be leading, and at a level I had never seen before.”

At Syracuse, there’s no shyness about him anymore, Posner said. He transitioned smoothly into one of the top attack lines in the country. Playing with upperclassmen in an unfamiliar setting doesn’t scare him anymore.

“If he tells you to go to a spot, more times than not, it’s probably the right one to go to,” junior Brendan Curry said.

And that’s just through four games. After the Stony Brook win, Desko said that Hiltz’s confidence is improving every week. As he gets more comfortable, more confident, more used to the attention, he’ll have the chance to live up to his No. 2 overall recruiting ranking. 

“He’s going to be one of the most elite lacrosse players to ever play the game,” Posner said.

Published on March 17, 2021 at 11:55 pm

aekaylor@syr.edu | @cincinnallie