Max Van Fleet transferred from Concord High to St. Paul’s School hoping to improve his chances of getting into a top college and men’s lacrosse program. Two years later, he’s leaving the prep school to play football at Cornell University.
“It was also interesting because they recruited me for defensive end, which was my second position in my second sport,” said Van Fleet, who prioritized being a tight end when he first arrived at St. Paul’s. “So it was like a double wow, but I’ll take it.”
Van Fleet posted 10 sacks in nine games in 2019 for the Pelicans, who beat Dexter Southfield, 35-20, at Gillette Stadium to win the NEPSAC championship and finish 9-0. That sack total was the best mark among New England prep schools and third in the nation. It also altered the course of Van Fleet’s athletic, and academic, future.
“After that season, coach (Craig) Vandersea talked to me and was like, ‘Listen, Max, you’re going to be able to play football at the next level.’ And sure enough, all of a sudden all these schools were getting in touch with me for football,” Van Fleet said.
During the summer, he threw himself into lifting, conditioning and his parents’ refrigerators (full disclosure – one of those parents is Monitor editor Jonathan Van Fleet). He went from 6-foot-3, 195 pounds to 6-4, 245, and when he showed up for the fall 2020 season, the path to his future took another turn.
“I think he was a high-level, D-III kid by the end of his junior year, but maybe didn’t quite have the size to go higher than that,” Vandersea said. “But when he came back for preseason the next fall, within the first day I was like, ‘Well, this changes things.’ It was like he had moved to the subdivision level (FCS), Patriot League, Ivy League, UNH.”
Van Fleet captained the St. Paul’s boys’ lacrosse team this spring as a long pole defenseman and was named a Lakes Region prep all-star. Even before this year’s accolades, he was being recruited to play both lacrosse and football at D-III Hamilton in New York and Colby in Maine, as well as by D-I Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. In the end, nothing compared to football at Cornell in his eyes.
“It’s exactly what I was looking for,” he said of the Ithaca, N.Y., school. “Great size, great people, amazing academics and a very competitive football team. And it was also the coaches. As soon as I hopped on calls with them, they made me feel like a priority and made me feel like that was a place I could call home.”
He did visit the campus, but much of the recruiting process was virtual. Van Fleet’s responsiveness to the Cornell coaches’ requests for game film, phone calls, Zoom conferences and anything else they wanted was part of why they offered him a spot on the team. (The Ivy League does not give athletic scholarships.)
“Working through the COVID situation, you really got to know a lot about kids’ makeups, because you’re asking them to do things that are non-traditional in order to get an evaluation, and he did everything that we ever asked,” said Cornell associate head coach and defensive coordinator Jared Backus, who took the lead on Van Fleet’s recruiting. “Could you send film? Yes. Can you send us a transcript? Yes. Coach Backus would like to talk to you. No problem. It was just like everything you asked him to do, the follow-through was superb, so it’s been neat getting to know him that way.”
Van Fleet has the character and work ethic to succeed at the next level, and he’s got another piece of the equation – talent.
“We put him down at defensive end and, basically, put his hand on the ground and just told him to cut loose. And with his agility and his ability, he was just a wrecking crew out there,” Vandersea said. “He did everything: sacks, stopping the run, stripping balls, knocking down passes. With his presence, other teams just had to run away from him.”
Playing lacrosse, as well as basketball, at both Concord High and St. Paul’s helped develop that athleticism and kept Van Fleet’s competitive edge sharp.
“We really want our kids competing at something all year long, and not just going into the weight room and lifting,” Vandersea said. “So we really preach two or three sports in our program, and we don’t get carried away with what’s your first or second sport. We just want competitive kids, and that’s Max.”
His diverse athletic skill set and that will to compete could mean Van Fleet plays multiple positions at the next level.
“He plays on the defensive line, he plays tight end, he long snaps, he short snaps. There’s a lot of positives and a lot of possibilities with him,” Backus said. “He’s got tremendous size, so who knows how big he’s going to be by his junior or senior year? He could end up playing defensive tackle, who knows?”
Van Fleet started playing football when he was in second grade: “I was big and docile, but I was also an angry little kid, so my dad told me I was going to play football, and then we sat down together and he kind of drew up the Xs and Os and taught me how to play.” He liked it right away, but it took time for him to develop a love for the sport. Now, asked what he’s going to study in college, Van Fleet responds by saying he wants to coach football at a high level, so he’ll major in whatever best suits that goal, “communication maybe, or sports management.”
He may also continue being a two-sport athlete.
“I’ve loved lacrosse my whole life, so I’m not going to close that door yet,” he said. “We’ll see what academics are like next year and how my first season of football goes, but I might try to walk on and get some more lacrosse in there.”