Marysville’s Travis Geyer is pictured during a lacrosse game from the 2019 season. Geyer will continue his career at Muskingum University. (Photo submitted)
Travis Geyer is just like any other high school senior student-athlete across the state of Ohio.
The world-wide COVID-19 pandemic ended his final prep sports season before it even started.
Although Geyer is “bummed” about not being able to play for the Monarchs this spring, he is looking forward to continuing his career at Muskingum University.
“I went to a prospect camp at Ohio Wesleyan University over the summer and that’s how Muskingum found out about me,” said Geyer. “They reached out to me at the start of my senior year and I went to talk to them.”
Geyer, who said he had also looked at Wilmington College, said there is a good chance he could start for the Muskingum men’s team next spring as a freshman.
“They have a lot of freshmen and sophomores in the program and are trying to rebuild,” he said. “I feel I have good skills to get the ball downfield and the speed to attack the goal.”
Geyer knows a thing or two about the offensive side of the sport.
During his three seasons in a Monarch uniform, he tallied 27 goals and 14 assists.
“Travis has been a great asset to the Marysville boys lacrosse program,” said MHS head coach Zac Engle. “I was fortunate enough to coach him both at the middle school and high school levels.
“He was our strongest midfielder and would have once again been an important part of our offense if we would have gotten to play the season.”
Geyer said he began to play lacrosse in the first grade and joined a local club team four years later.
“I played in youth leagues or in middle school until I got to high school,” he said. “My older brother, Jared, had played it before me and I followed him.”
Geyer said what he likes most about the sport is its physical, fast-paced nature.
“Lacrosse is different from other sports,” he said. “It’s like a combination of hockey and soccer.”
Geyer had hoped a 2020 spring season could be played after the Ohio High School Athletic Association had first postponed the campaign due to the coronavirus.
“We had come up with a new schedule in which our first game would have been May 9 at Newark,” he said. “I’m upset we’re not going to play this year, but it’s understandable.”
In the meantime, Geyer said he’s staying in shape with drills he received from the Muskingum coaching staff.
Geyer said he plans to study criminal justice and eventually go into the field of law enforcement.
When he does so, he will be following in the footsteps of a family member.
His grandfather, Jim Inskeep, is a retired Union County sheriff’s deputy.
Inskeep himself went into law enforcement after retiring as an elementary school principal in the North Union district.