Author Spotlight
Reese Dunham
It was a typical Monday night after dinner when SM East parent Monica Mallory was sitting at the kitchen table, anxiously waiting for her son, freshman Mark Mallory, to get home. Varsity lacrosse cuts were being made that night.
Around 8:30 p.m., Monica got the ping of an incoming text, then flipped her phone over to see a message from Mark.
“I MADE VARSITY!”
After an hour and a half of waiting, Mark arrived home, pulling out his jersey with the number “29” on the back.
“It felt like all my hard work had paid off,” Mark said. “I was super excited to be playing with some older kids on another level of lacrosse.”
In SM East lacrosse, the number 29 is handed down yearly to a freshman who has shown incredible talent and a strong work ethic in tryouts, according to former number 29 and sophomore Ben Bagby. The jersey number is passed down each year by the former recipient.
Bagby knew going into this season he’d have to decide the next number 29 of four freshmen on the team — Mark, James McLarty, Thomas Vanice and Mac Christian.
Bagby had gotten to know Mark through their shared lacrosse club, Prairie Village Outlaws, the past four years. Bagby had only briefly talked to him at games but had often seen Mark training and staying after practices for over an hour to do extra work for years.
“He’s always in the weight room, always shooting,” Bagby said. “You can tell he’s put a lot of time into lacrosse, and not just time, but a lot of focus and practice. He’s intense about it. He’s focused and he’s a great leader to the younger guys. I expect he’s had a great start to the season this year, [and] I think he has a super bright future.”
Mark has been playing lacrosse since fifth grade — a later start with most other players starting in second or third grade. Because of this, he dedicated large amounts of time to conditioning so he wouldn’t fall behind the more experienced players, according to Monica.
During last year’s club season on the Outlaws, Mark’s practice was canceled due to a large storm. Even though it was pouring rain outside, Mark begged his mom to take him and his brother to Indian Hills Middle School to get in over an hour and a half of shooting and passing practice.
“I remember this because then they got in my car, like wet dogs,” Monica said. “You can’t fault them for getting in the extra reps because they didn’t want to miss out on a day. In their mind, they were committed to playing some lacrosse. He was committed to getting some time in.”
According to Monica, Mark knew that making varsity was just the beginning of a larger commitment and that would only be a checkpoint in his high school lacrosse career.
“Even if I didn’t get that number, I would still go hard at practice and work for being on varsity because I know that’s a privilege,” Mark said.
McLarty has been playing with Mark on the same club team for three years. Initially, McLarty and Mark were more rivals than friends at practice, both finding each other annoying, according to Mark. Then after about two months, they grew out of their opposition and realized it would be better to cooperate, since then they’ve been able to form a bond.
“He’s really gritty,” McLarty said. “He’s willing to do a lot of stuff that other guys aren’t really willing to do. He’ll be more physical than a lot of other guys, and as someone that’s played against him, it gets annoying.”
McLarty remembers that after team scrimmages, when all the other players would leave and go out to eat in past club seasons, Mark always stayed behind, shooting and tossing the ball around, even if he was alone.
When Mark made varsity, he was eager to start the season and get to playing. He wants to treat the legacy of the players who have worn number 29 before him right by making sure he doesn’t disappoint the team or himself with his performance.
“Ever since I started playing Outlaws and went to my first SM East game, I had always looked up to those guys, and I wanted to come to more games and more games,” Mark said. “I knew since I started playing in fifth grade that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up.”
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