Eric Bollar was a standout attackman on the ADVNC SF & NDP ‘22 team who, starting this Fall, will be playing for the University of Pennsylvania and will also be following his passion for computer science.

When Eric was 6 years old, he was watching his older sister’s lacrosse team practice and saw some boys practicing lacrosse on the adjacent field. “I asked the coach if I could play with them,” Eric said. “He gave me a stick and equipment, and that was my first time playing lacrosse. I loved it.”

“He liked the fact that the boys were pushing and shoving each other to get the ground balls,”  Eric’s mother, Sondra said. “That attracted him to lacrosse.”

“Yeah, the big thing was, you could jab other kids with the stick,” said Eric. “I liked the physicality and the full contact aspect of the game.”

That love for physical play led Eric immediately to box lacrosse. “Eric traveled to Canada to play box when he was just 6 years old,” said Eric’s father, Mark. “He was the youngest guy to go up there, and the team won a gold medal that first year with Cali*Lax at the Canada Day Tournament in Calgary. This was the first time an American team won the gold medal.”

“That was my first big trip ever, and my first time traveling to another country,” said Eric. “Box felt a little more natural to me than field lacrosse at the time. Learning how to play in tight spaces helped me when I came back and played field lacrosse.”

Eric played field lacrosse with the Firehawks, but it was box lacrosse that led him to ADVNC. “Chris Rotelli (ADVNC Founder & CEO) saw Eric playing box and recruited him to join ADVNC in its inaugural year when he was in 3rd grade,” said Mark Bollar. 

“The ADVNC practices were more structured and the level of play was higher than what I was expecting,” Eric said. “Looking back, the practices were more like a high school or college practice than a typical youth team practice. That helped me improve more quickly because I was starting to stagnate in my lacrosse growth. There were a lot of other players better than me, and they pushed me to improve. It made the game more competitive and a lot more fun.”

Eric continued playing with both ADVNC and Cali*Lax each summer. But when he thought about college, he usually thought about academics first.

“Early on in high school, I was pretty set on wanting to study computer science in college,” Eric said. “I got into programming by learning from and watching my older brother and sister write software, as they are in the engineering field. I found that I liked being creative in that way including making video games and animations. At that time, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to play lacrosse along with pursuing an engineering degree.”

“His older siblings both studied computer science,” said Sondra Bollar. “There were lots of discussions with Eric about whether he would also play lacrosse in college along with studying engineering.”

“Eric has always been very academically focused,” said Mark Bollar. “But he also had the idea of playing college lacrosse in the back of his mind. He wanted to attend a university with a great computer science program and wasn’t sure how it would fit with lacrosse.”

“Eventually, I started talking to people who were playing lacrosse at rigorous academic schools,” Eric said. “That showed me that it was not only possible, but lacrosse could actually help me get into a school.”

Starting the college lacrosse recruiting process later than most players, Eric immersed himself. At first, he was frustrated because, although he was getting looks and offers from D1 and D3 colleges, he wasn’t getting them from the schools that had the computer science programs he coveted.

That changed when he attended the University of Pennsylvania’s prospect camp as a rising senior. Eric said, “Coach Murphy had already seen me play at a few showcases, so he had me on his radar. Then, after playing extremely well at the Penn prospect camp, he called me a few weeks later and said that he would advocate on my behalf with the admissions office, and if accepted, I’d have a spot on the team. Penn was my top choice, and I was really excited.”

Chris Rotelli is not only one of Eric’s coaches with ADVNC, but he’s also Eric’s high school coach at Sacred Heart Prep. “Once I had interest from Penn, I asked Coach Rotelli if he would help me seal the deal and talk to Coach Murphy, and he did.”

This was all on the heels of one of the highlights of Eric’s lacrosse career. Eric had six goals in the first ever CCS Championship game in May of 2021 for SHP. This performance earned Eric game MVP honors and a win over arch-rival St. Ignatius. “The coaches at Penn told me it was after that game that they started following me,” Eric said. 

Looking back on his high school career, Eric and his family have fond memories of their ADVNC experience. “The opportunities that ADVNC gave Eric traveling to and getting exposure on the east coast is something that he can’t replace,” said Sondra Bollar. “You have to go to the east coast and play to get noticed by college coaches. He also created a network of colleagues, formed bonds and relationships, and made lots of friends at a young age. There were a lot of life lessons learned through all the traveling, beyond the winning and losing and highs and lows.”

Eric has the following advice for young players aspiring to follow in his footsteps in their recruiting journey: “Good grades are a must. A lot of schools will write you off if you don’t have the grades. Individualize your communications when you reach out to college coaches and schools. And reach out consistently. College coaches are getting a ton of emails from guys that live all over the country.”