Thatcher Killian is a standout midfielder from the ADVNC NDP ‘25 squad who is signed to play at the University of Richmond, starting next Fall.
Thatcher is a native of Portland, Oregon. His dad, Lance Killian played soccer at Stanford. When Thatcher was growing up, he played a lot of soccer as well. But around 3rd grade, he decided to give lacrosse a try.
“One of my neighborhood friends asked me to come try a new sport called lacrosse” recalled Thatcher. “I liked lacrosse, but I kept primarily playing soccer. But then, my school lacrosse coach, a man named Dennis Sullivan, encouraged me to start practicing more. That’s when I started to get much better at lacrosse, and it soon became my main sport.”
“Coach Sullivan is the coach at Oregon Episcopal School, where Thatcher went to school through 8th grade,” said his mom, Carey Killian. “That particular school was ground-breaking for lacrosse in Oregon. Thatcher stepped into an environment that was ahead of the curve relative to the rest of the state. He got lucky. Coach Sullivan is super passionate about lacrosse and was a great motivator for Thatcher to keep improving.”
“I liked how in lacrosse, I could show up at practice, and there was always something new to learn,” Thatcher said. “There’s so many different styles you can play. I loved the physicality and speed of the sport. It felt like a lot more fun than soccer.”
“It was clear that he was really enjoying lacrosse, and finding success with it,” said Lance Killian. “The fact that Oregon Episcopal School had a really long and strong history of lacrosse was a huge benefit to him. His school friends also mainly played lacrosse with him, which was different from his soccer team. I think that made lacrosse more fun for him as well. It was a sport I had never really been exposed to, but I could clearly see why he loved it.”
Thatcher started playing for 3D, which at the time, was the top travel club lacrosse team in Portland. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, he soon came to play for Team Oregon. This allowed Thatcher to play for ADVNC NDP. “I loved playing with ADVNC NDP,” Thatcher said. “I loved all the guys on the team and all their families. It felt like a really good community. We all hung out together away from the games too. It has been a really good time.”
“Seeing Thatcher make the transition to ADVNC NDP was very rewarding,” recalled Lance Killian. “When you see the players click both as individuals as well as friends, it makes it easier to perform on the field. With NDP, I saw them come together quickly and that resulted in unselfish play on the field. Not all teams have that same culture on and off the field for both the players and the families.”
“It was really noticeable how the ADVNC coaches made it fun,” said Carey Killian. “It felt really joyful. It relaxed everyone. The coaches tried to lift everyone up and tried to enrich their lives. It felt like a true investment in them as a person and not just as someone who could benefit their club.”
“It was an immediate welcome,” said Thatcher. “I felt like part of the team right away. It didn’t feel like I had to prove myself or do anything special. Being coached by Andrew Parilla and Cheech was awesome. They got us fired up before games and were super personable. Coach Rotelli is a great coach too. He felt like a mentor to me.”
Thatcher is a senior at Jesuit High School, just outside Portland. His team has grown into one of the top lacrosse programs on the West Coast. “Coach Michael Marcott is an intense coach and he makes each practice hard,” said Thatcher. “It’s very motivating and it’s worth it. We get better every practice. Playing at Jesuit as a freshman showed me that I wanted to play in college. Each year since has been awesome. Every player on my team is committed to the grind and every player wants to win.”
Thatcher’s desire to play in college took him right up to the official college recruiting period that opened up on September 1st. When that time came, Thatcher leaned on both Bill Gleason, Director of Team Oregon, Chris Rotelli, ADVNC”s Founder & CEO, and Jono Zissi. “I decided to focus on finding the right fit with the academic side of things, and then focus on the lacrosse aspect of each school secondarily,” Thatcher said. “I was in direct contact with Coach Gleason and Rotelli through all of that. I decided to take my college campus visits when I was already on the East Coast with ADVNC, and the University of Richmond was the second school I visited.”
“The recruiting process is really hard,” said Carey Killian. “You just don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know what the coaches will say or see in your son on any given day.”
“When I went to Richmond, I really just fell in love with the school,” said Thatcher. “I liked the coaches, the other players and the academic programs they had. It felt like a place I was really interested in going. But the coaches didn’t offer me a spot on that visit. They said they were going to watch me play at the upcoming tournament that weekend. That was a little nerve wracking.”
Fortunately, the Spiders coaches liked what they saw, and offered Thatcher a spot on their team a week later. “I told them I loved the school and I wanted to be a part of the team. I committed a day later.”
“It was a great feeling as a parent to see how excited he was about a particular place, school and team,” said Carey Killian. “It felt like the stars aligned perfectly after all the hard work he had put in.”
Thatcher said he wants to study business at the University of Richmond, and is also interested in their leadership program. With the process now behind him, he has the following advice for young players who aspire to follow in his footsteps. “The number one thing is to stay consistent,” he said. “If you really want to get better, you have to be consistent with your shooting, your wall ball, and your lifting. Working hard consistently will help your game improve drastically.”
Carey and Lance Killian have this advice for parents of young players who have a passion for lacrosse and want to try to play in college. “You want to support your child without pressuring him,” Carey Killian said. “Let him drive it. Let his motivation be the reason he’s pursuing lacrosse, or whatever his passion is. But try to get out of the way once he has displayed that passion and just make sure he still is finding that joy.”
“It could feel at times that it was a really heavy lift,” Lance Killian said. “Especially when you’re on the West Coast, traveling back East a lot. But we always made an effort to at least try not to over do it. And that is where you try and keep the joy in the game.”