Severna Park High Grad Eyes Pro Lacrosse Career

Dan Burns, a reserve senior midfielder on the lacrosse team at the University of Maryland, expects several family members to be on hand when the Terps face the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday at 7 p.m. in Annapolis. And Burns, a graduate of Severna Park High who grew up watching the Midshipmen play, certainly has a lot of relatives who enjoy watching the sport.

He has six uncles on his father's side of the family who played the sport in college, at schools such as Loyola, UMBC and Mount St. Mary's. His father was the oldest of seven brothers and the only one who did not play lacrosse in college.

Burns began playing lacrosse with the Green Hornets program in Severna Park when he was about 8-years-old. Burns said he was about 10 when he saw Navy play for the first time. Now he is preparing for his last regular-season game against the Midshipmen.

"Against Navy, it has always come down to one or two goals. You can throw the records away," Burns told Patch on Wednesday. "It is going to be a hard-fought game."

The Navy roster includes freshman Sam Jones, who also played at Severna Park High. Another Severna Park High grad at the college level is David Campbell, a freshman attack at UMBC.

Maryland is ranked No. 5 in the country and is coming off a 12-7 win on Saturday at ACC foe Virginia. While Burns is heading down the home stretch in his college career, he hopes to keep playing lacrosse after college.

Earlier this year Burns was drafted by Hamilton (Ontario) of Major League Lacrosse. Burns plans to play for the team after the college season, but also expects to use his degree in communications once he graduates later this spring in College Park.

Pro lacrosse leagues are not like those in football or basketball, where an athlete can make a living getting paid to play his sport. Normally pro lacrosse teams play on weekends and players hold down a job during the week.

"I plan to play for them in the summer, beginning in mid-May or the end of May," he said. "I also want to get into sales. I want to get out of the office and talk to clients. At some point I want to get into medical sales."

Burns did not dream of a pro career when he was at Severna Park. In fact, prior to his senior year he pretty much decided he did not want to play lacrosse in college.

"I was a real late bloomer," he said. But his high school coaches convinced him to consider playing in college. "I did not get an offer from Maryland until the end of my senior year," said Burns, who noted that many top players commit to a school by the end of their junior season.

Burns entered Maryland as a freshman under former head coach Dave Cottle, who left the program after the 2010 season. By his sophmore season, he was on the field. "Coming in as a freshman I didn't expect off the bat to get playing time. I ended up getting a lot of playing time," Burns said.

"It seems like every game is a huge event" in the ACC, he added. Burns played in 17 games in 2009 and saw action in 14 games, with nine starts, last year when he had two goals and five assists.

This is the first season at College Park for head coach John Tillman, a former assistant at Navy and the former head coach at Harvard. "We loved coach Cottle. We were all upset to see him leave. But coach Tillman has made the transition easy," Burns said.

And now Burns will get to face Navy before family and friends. "I have grown up watching games at the Naval Academy. It is just a great venue. It will be my last time playing there in college," he said.