If you’re from Long Island lacrosse is not taken for granted. The rest of the country, anything is possible.

When it comes to lacrosse there are a handful of names that stand out, and in the modern era, one of the premier players of the game hales from Suffolk County.

Smithtown native Rob Pannell is one of the greatest players in NCAA history and is forging his way as one of the most marketable players in the pro game today.

Pannell, who played at Smithtown, then briefly at Deerfield Academy before starring at Cornell. Today he plays for the New York Lizards of Major League Lacrosse.

Pannell Notes

• NCAA Second place all time for NCAA points (354 career points)
• 2013 Tewaaraton Trophy
• 2x Lt. Raymond Enners Award (2011, 2013)
• 2x Jack Turnbull Award (2010, 2011)
• NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championship Finalist (2009)
• 3x Ivy League Player of the Year (2010, 2011, 2013)
• 4x First Team All-Ivy League (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013)
• ESPY Nominee for Best Collegiate Athlete (2011)
• MLL: Single Season Points Record (74)
• MLL Offensive Player of the Year (2016)
• MLL Rookie of the Year (2013)
• MLL All-Star (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)
• MLL All-Pro (2014, 2015, 2016)
• Member of Team USA (2014)
• All-World (2014)
• FIL Most Outstanding Attackman (2014)

It was a relatively quick rise to fame for local star Steve Matz. The lifelong Mets fan has had the opportunity to pitch for his hometown team since 2015 and has represented Ward Melville proudly.

Matz, a former Newsday Long Island Player of the Year and Yastrzemski Award winner as the top baseball player in Suffolk County, made his big league debut in June 2015 and was part of the Mets team that won a National League championship and played in the World Series. Not bad for his first glimpse into the majors.

As of April 2017, Matz is 13-8 with a 3.16 ERA for his career. He has one of the highly valued arms in an arsenal of Mets pitchers expected to lead the team over the next few years.

Mike James played nearly 600 games in the NBA from 2001 through 2014. Undrafted out of Duquesne, the Amityville High alum averaged 9.9 points per game throughout his career.

Just prior to signing his first NBA contract with the Miami Heat in 2001, James played professionally in France and Austria.

James had many stops across multiple NBA cities, including Boston, Detroit, Milwaukee, Houston, Toronto, Minnesota, New Orleans, Washington, Chicago and Dallas.

Perhaps his most fruitful stay was with Detroit in 2004 when he was a reserve member of their championship team.

His best individual season, however, was with the Raptors in 2005-2006 when he averaged career highs with 20.3 points, 5.8 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game. He also shot 44.2 percent from three-point range, one of the top marks in the league.

Bria Hartley has had an incredible run as one of the top female basketball players from Long Island in the history of the sport. Her blistering speed and precision shooting at North Babylon are still recently seared in people’s minds since she’s only 24.

A five-year starter for the Bulldogs, she finished her career with 1,978 points and was an All-American and New York State and Long Island Player of the Year.

It was on to the University of Connecticut where she would win back-to-back National Championships in 2013 and 2014 for the legendary program. She was Big East Rookie of the Year in 2011.
Hartley was drafted seventh overall by the Seattle Storm in 2014 and immediately traded to the Washington Mystics, where she played until this January when she was traded to her hometown New York Liberty.

Clarence “Foots” Walker was a major attraction on the east end of Long Island. At a time when high school basketball served as major entertainment for school-aged youth, and an outlet for a community to pour their passion, Walker was a sight to see.

Most who had the pleasure of watching him play knew he would major it at the highest level. By 1974 he was in the league and spent 10 years playing in the NBA, six of which were in Cleveland and the last four in New Jersey.

Walker, a star at Southampton High School, is the first player in Cleveland history to record a triple-double. Nowadays you can see something like that almost every night with the likes of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving or Kevin Love.

He averaged 6.7 points and 4.7 assists per game throughout his career.

Northport native Allie Long is quickly becoming one of the best soccer players in America and has her sights set on being one of the top in the world.

A member of the U.S. Women’s National Team, Long scored her first two international goals in 2016.

She has been a member of the Portland Thorn’s FC of the National Women’s Soccer League since 2013. She has planed on a handful of other professional teams both domestically and internationally as well.

In college she helped the University of North Carolina win a National Championship.

At Northport she was a two-time Suffolk County Player of the Year.

CLICK HERE to read more about Long in a recent Newsday profile!

Tobias Harris has made a living in the NBA since being drafted in 2011. After starring at Half Hollow Hills West as an All-American in high school, he played one season at the University of Tennessee before going pro.

A two-time Newsday player of the year, Harris was selected 19^th overall by the Charlotte Bobcats and then was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.

He has since spent time in Orlando and Detroit and plays both small forward and power forward. In more than 300 career games he is averaging 13.2 points per game.