Baxter gets an adrenaline rush from playing lacrosse

Published 1:30 pm Thursday, May 7, 2026

Will Baxter enjoys the physicality and intensity of playing lacrosse.

If the hits come his way while he’s competing for the Mercer Island High School (MIHS) varsity squad, Baxter welcomes the contact.

“I feel like I find myself getting hit more than I do hit people. I actually kind of like to get hit because it just gives me an adrenaline rush. It sort of puts me in the game and gets my mindset going,” said the senior captain, who plays midfielder and defender.

Baxter has been engaging in lacrosse matches since he was a third-grader and calls it one of the biggest sports on the Island. He met his two current MIHS senior co-captains Blake Ronaldson (defender) and Bryce Galgon (midfielder) as fourth-graders when they began playing together for the Mercer Island Lacrosse club, and they’ve built crucial chemistry over the years.

“There’s such a big culture around it here. Every time I’m out and about — either on a bike ride, on a walk or driving my car — I’ll see people at fields playing lacrosse, or out hitting the (ball against the) wall, or throwing and catching with their friends. I think it’s just such a great team sport because about everyone can play,” said Baxter, who coaches an age 7-8 Island club team. He can often be found playing lacrosse with friends with a speaker nearby blasting out music.

While Baxter won’t be playing lacrosse next year for the Penn State University squad, he might compete in club lacrosse to keep the sport flowing through his life. On the academics front, he’ll be focusing his studies on mechanical engineering.

For MIHS this season, the class 4A Washington High School Boys Lacrosse Association team is 8-9 overall and will next play in the state quarterfinals at Tahoma High School on May 8.

“We’ve had a great group of guys on the field. I think everyone’s meshed pretty well and it’s just been a fun season so far,” said Baxter, who was part of the MIHS state-champion squad in 2024; the team also won state in 2023.

Highlights for the Islanders this season were a 9-8 overtime victory over Curtis High School in the team’s second game, and a 10-9 triumph in the waning seconds over Ravenwood High School in Tennessee over spring break. Baxter netted a goal against Ravenwood and sophomore midfielder Trey Kile scored the game-winner against Curtis to fire up the players and the Islander student section. Sophomore midfielder Eliot Abramson has also been scoring big for MIHS this spring.

The Reporter asked Baxter a series of questions to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into his life:

If you could go to dinner with one person, who would that be?

I would probably go to dinner with Tom Brady because I’m a Patriots fan. I go to Vermont, like, once, twice a year and a bunch of my family’s Patriots fans as well. I really think he is one of the greatest mindsets of all time. Going from being benched his senior year at Michigan to becoming the greatest quarterback of all time in the NFL. I think I could truly learn a lot from him, and I think it would be just super interesting to see a perspective of everything from a mentor to a role model to many.

What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve ever been given?

My (goalie) coach, Bob Dunbar, says this quite a bit, he says, “If you go 100 percent, you won’t have any regrets.” No matter the outcome, you’ll look on it and be like, “Oh, I did my best.”

What’s a special skill that you’d like to learn?

I personally would like to learn how to surf. I don’t snowboard, but I’ve tried it before and thought it was really fun. So to learn how to surf on waves in the ocean, that would be really cool.

What’s a binge-worthy TV series that you’d recommend?

I binge-watched this summer “How I Met Your Mother” and I really liked that show just because every episode felt refreshing and new (and funny).

So, looking down the line here, what’s a dream job for you?

It would probably be working for myself (in the mechanical engineering field). Being the boss of my own company, because then I could be on my own hours, but I would still be hustling and making sure everything would be running. And I would be proud of what I had built over the course of many years.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

I would say a small one is when people say that mint chocolate chip ice cream tastes like toothpaste. It’s my favorite ice cream and I really don’t think it tastes like toothpaste. It’s a nice minty flavor that I really enjoy. I feel like when people point things out like that, it sort of ruins it a little bit. Then I have to regroup and eat it later, I guess.