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There’s a beauty in the creativity that lacrosse affords its players, and it’s something Mason Quick has been drawn to his whole life.
Since he was old enough to start playing youth sports in Draper, lacrosse was a regular part of his sports repertoire along with football, soccer and track. One by one though, he started ditching those other sports until his true love, lacrosse, occupied most of his free time the past couple years.
“I’m out there every day playing wall ball and working on shooting, or even just watching lacrosse. I just think my love of the game is a lot more than the other kids,” said Quick. “It’s just something I love so much and am so passionate about. Besides my family and my faith, honestly, lacrosse is my No. 1 thing.”
With a goal and a bounce back in his back yard, at times he’d get 2,000 shots a day in fine tuning his craft and working on all the different angles to shoot and pass with both hands.
As a middle schooler, his shots started getting more and more powerful, and he even broke a couple windows in his backyard with errant ricochets off the pipe. The mishaps were the result of an unrelenting work ethic to get better and better and better and eventually elevated him to the status of best lacrosse player in Utah as he’s been named the Deseret News’ second Mr. Lacrosse recipient.
“He’s constantly at the field shooting, working on things. And after practice, he’s one of the guys that’s there until the lights are turned off or until he can’t see anymore,” said Corner Canyon coach Aaron Ika.
Quick finished the regular season with 80 goals, 45 assists, 74 ground balls and 31 caused turnovers in leading the Chargers to a repeat state championship.
Ika said Quick is the type of player that can score at will. He’s also been great at getting his teammates involved as well.
“Where Mason made a big improvement from last year to this year was an ability to get others involved. We saw that kind of start in the playoffs last year and then in continued through the rest of this year,” said Ika.
That was particularly evident when Corner Canyon went out of state and played several nationally ranked programs this season. Ika said one in particular, Mater Dei, California, was completely keyed in on stopping Quick and sent multiple players his direction all game.
It was the only game he didn’t score a goal all season, but he still recorded a season-high five assists as Corner Canyon rallied for the 10-9 win over the then No. 1 team in the nation.
“His ability to make things happen even if he wasn’t the one putting the ball in the back of the net was big for us this year,” said Ika. “It’s recognizing where the defense is bringing help from and then getting the ball to them in a position they can make a play.”
Recognizing what needs to be done is only half the battle. The rest requires athleticism and stick skill, and while Quick is naturally gifted athletically he’s also spent thousands of hours in his back yard through the years making sure his stick skills put him in the best position to be successful.
Corner Canyon’s Mason Quick, the Deseret News’ Mr. Lacrosse for 2022, poses for a portrait at Corner Canyon High School in Draper on Monday, June 13, 2022.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Quick’s second-best sport growing up was football. His family attended University of Utah football games, and he naturally dreamed of playing on the Rice-Eccles Stadium turf one day. When Quick learned that Utah was adding men’s lacrosse as an official NCAA sport beginning with the 2018-2019 school year, he immediately knew his path to become a Ute become much clearer and much more realistic.
When then Utah coach Brian Holman contacted Quick in the fall of 2020 and offered him a roster spot, Quick said it was an easy decision and he verbally committed within a week.
“Once they got a DI program there was no doubt in mind that’s where I wanted to play,” he said.
Quick’s high school coach over the past four years has no doubt Quick will do great things at the University of Utah.
“It’s a great fit for him, especially their style and pace of play, it will lend to his strengths really well. The decision for Mason was more about being in position to leave a legacy,” said Ika.
He left a great legacy at Corner Canyon that future Chargers will aspire to achieve and his next step is to make an impact at Utah.
