Price Jeffris is standout midfielder from the ADVNC San Francisco and NDP ‘25 teams, who is going to play for the University of Utah, starting next Fall.
Jeffris in the early days with the Southern Marin Wolfpack.
Price played a variety of sports as a young child, including baseball, swimming, basketball and soccer. He had never seen lacrosse, until his mom, Beth Jeffris signed him up for a camp alongside his cousins when Price was 8 years old.
“I loved being able to hit someone during the game,” Price recalled. “I loved the physicality and I loved the speed of the game. No other sport compares. The transition from offense to defense and then back again that you experience as a midfielder is awesome.”
“I remember picking him up on that first day of that first lacrosse camp,” said Beth Jeffris. “He said: I’m never playing baseball again.”
“Growing up on the West Coast, I had never seen lacrosse before Price started playing,” said Dan Jeffris, Price’s dad. “But Price clearly loved lacrosse right away. He had a really good sense of the game from the very beginning. It was great to see him so clearly enjoying this new sport.”
“Price was always very physical, from a very young age,” Beth Jeffris said. “He liked to hit things a lot. I would have him go outside and hit trees in the yard, just so he wouldn’t hit things in our house. He would say, Mom, hitting things just feels so good. Lacrosse was perfect for him.”
Growing up in Marin, Price started playing lacrosse locally for the Southern Marin Wolfpack. “He also started playing box lacrosse in addition to field lacrosse,” Beth Jeffris said. “He loved shoving his opponents hard up against the plexiglass wall. But it wasn’t just the hitting. He also loved dodging. We’d be in the grocery store, and he’d start dodging me in the aisle. He’d dodge anything in his path, just to get extra practice. He was obsessed with lacrosse.”
Price’s lacrosse obsession led him to ADVNC in 7th grade. “I remember seeing some of my friends start playing for ADVNC and it looked really cool,” Price said. “I wanted to join them and start playing in big tournaments on the East Coast. I wanted to get better, and I thought ADVNC was the best Program for me to do that.”
“Price owes a lot to Jon Porter and the program he ran in Southern Marin,” Beth Jeffris said. “He saw something in Price from a very young age and started grooming him. That was wonderful. But as Price played more lacrosse, we started looking at other clubs. Chris Rotelli (ADVNC Founder & CEO) gave me a call and he was awesome. He was so excited for Price to join ADVNC, and we were excited for Price to play for ADVNC SF, but also to have the opportunity to play with ADVNC at the World Series of Youth Lacrosse as well as for their National Development Program.”
“I was a little nervous at first, joining a new team,” Price said. “It was the highest level of sports I had ever played at that point. But meeting all the guys who had mostly already played together for a few years was good. The players and coaches were very welcoming and supportive.”
“Looking back on that first year with ADVNC, Price didn’t have the same level of lacrosse IQ that some of his new teammates had,” said Dan Jeffris. “The coaches were tough, but caring. They made Price work for everything, which is really what you want. He got frustrated sometimes over that first year, but it helped him get better.”
Price in the early days with ADVNC, with Chris Rotelli watching on.
“Starting with ADVNC was not easy for Price,” said Beth Jeffris. “He didn’t always get a lot of playing time, but his first reaction was always to work harder and get better. He never blamed anyone. He would come off the field after a practice or game, and say, I want to get bigger, faster and stronger, so I don’t stand on the sidelines anymore. He had an inner fire to always get better. The way ADVNC structures their program, from the regional level, to NDP NorCal to NDP National was really good for Price. It always gave him something more to work towards. That’s the reason he kept going with all of this.”
“I want to be the best, and I want to win,” Price said. “I will be frustrated if I can’t beat my defender, and that frustration will make me want to work harder. Playing with ADVNC has really helped me get better. We would often practice against the 2023 and 2024 teams. Going up against kids that were better and older helped show me where I wanted to get to as a player.”
Price soon became a key player on the ADVNC NDP ‘25 team. The highlight of his ADVNC career came in the final tournament of the Summer of 2023, right before his college recruitment opened up. “The Championship game of the Inside Lacrosse Summer Invitational is one of the best games I’ve ever played,” Price said. “I got into the flow state and everything seemed to click for me. All the time I had put in, paid off. I was named MVP of the tournament and it felt great.”
That was just a few weeks before September 1st, when college coaches can start reaching out to high school juniors. “I wasn’t sure if any schools would contact me,” Price said. “But Coach Rotelli called me right before September 1st, and told me about all the different schools who had called him, asking about me. Then, September 1st came, and sure enough, all those schools called me. It was really exciting. I owe a lot to Coach Rotelli. He put my name out there and talked to all those coaches on my behalf. He really helped me. He also helped me learn what to say and not say to those coaches. It was great.”
Though Price received interest from a number of DI Programs, only one school fit all the criteria Price wanted in a college. “I wanted a big DI school with a lot of academic choices, a big time football program, lots of fraternities and a great social life.” The University of Utah was the one school that stood out for Price. “I like Utah because of how close it is to outdoor activities in the mountains, and also close to a big city, in Salt Lake City. It has a big campus with lots of new buildings. I went to a football game there, and it was pretty sweet. The coaches are great and so are the players on the lacrosse team. I’m very excited to go play for the Utes.”
After committing to Utah, Price suffered a foot injury at the start of his junior year at Tamalpais High, in Mill Valley. It forced him to miss the majority of his junior season. “He became very motivated to get back on the field,” Dan Jeffris said. “He didn’t sit around and feel sorry for himself. He picked himself up and learned how to get better and stronger.”
Jeffris is a standout player for Tam High.
The Jeffris family was worried this injury might impact his standing with the Utah lacrosse Program. “Coach Rotelli helped us through that time a lot,” Dan Jeffris said. “He told us not to worry about that, that his standing with the Utah coaches was safe. It helped put Price at ease during a really difficult time. He was really instrumental in helping guide us through that.”
Looking back at this journey, Price has this advice for young players who aspire to play college lacrosse. “You need to have an obsession with the game,” Price said. “You must love this game. You need to want to wake up and go play and work hard on your own. If you do that, you will be successful. But it has to come from a love and passion for lacrosse, and for wanting to get better.”
“The journey to becoming a DI athlete has to be driven by the kid,” Beth Jeffris said. “Price and I had so many conversations over the years about this. I would always check in with him to make sure he still wanted to do this. He had to make so many sacrifices and miss some really key parts of his life over the years to play lacrosse. He never wavered. He always wanted to work harder and more. Coach Rotelli would always tell us: the best players work the hardest when no one else is watching. And that is so true. We really owe so much to ADVNC for supporting us through this journey. All of their coaches have helped Price .. every single one of them. We also owe a lot to the other families on the ADVNC 2025 team. They are the best. They have become a second family for us.”
“Those other ADVNC 2025 families feel like they are a part of our family,” Dan Jeffris said. “We all support each other. ADVNC has always felt like a family, and we are so appreciative of that.”