Is there something about Wilmington University’s lacrosse program that compels young men to go into law enforcement?

Lacrosse debuted at WilmU in the fall of 2017, with the first season of NCAA competition starting the following spring. Since then, five ex-Wildcat lacrosse players have become police officers, while a former assistant coach is completing a decade of service with the Middletown Police Department. 

The five ex-players represent nearly 15 percent of the 40 or so alumni of the lacrosse program. Coach Christian Zwickert says no other profession except perhaps education has attracted so many of his former players.

Both nature and nurture seem to be at work here. 

Nature: Three of the five ex-Wildcats have fathers or grandfathers who were or are policemen, a heritage that absolutely influenced their career choices. 

Nurture: All five former players acknowledge that the crucible that is Wildcat lacrosse helped forge the tools and character required of police officers. Zwickert conducts tough practices and holds his student-athletes to high standards. “I demand a lot; I’m not the easiest person to play for,” he admits. 

Jake Mollohan, a 2021 graduate in Criminal Justice, is typical of the nature/nurture dichotomy. Mollohan counts three retired policemen in his family: his father, a former New Castle County Policeman; a grandfather who served with the Delaware State Police; and another grandfather who was in the Dover Police Department. 

Naturally, Mollohan became a third-generation police officer, joining the Harrington Police Department last year. But while family may have influenced his career choice, Mollohan says his days on the Wildcat lacrosse team “made it an easier transition into law enforcement.”

“Not only do you have to be physically fit,” he says, “but Coach Z also pushes you mentally; he tries to get under your skin to see how it affects you on the field. The demand he put on us physically and mentally, it lends itself to law enforcement.”

Like Mollohan, Giovanni Marino is a third-generation policeman. His father was chief of police In Paulsboro, New Jersey, and his grandfather was chief in Woolwich Township, New Jersey. Both are retired, but Marino is carrying on their legacy as a Woolwich police officer.

He graduated from WilmU last year with a degree in Criminal Justice after an outstanding career with the Wildcats. A four-year starter, Marino was the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Player of the Year in 2022.

Because of the family tradition, he has wanted to be a cop for as long as he can remember. And now that he’s achieved his dream, he finds that it exceeds his expectations. 

“I’m having the best time of my life,” he says. “I absolutely love the job.”

Marino says connecting with people — not necessarily solving crimes and making arrests — is the essence of community policing. 

“We’re not always dealing with bad situations,” he says. “We take care of a lot of little things, like people getting locked out of their cars, or helping to find a lost dog. We drop in on businesses during the day just to see if they need anything. I love communicating with people on a normal level like that.”

The discipline and routine of police work is similar to his days as a lacrosse player, Marino says. “In lacrosse, you’re following a schedule, and you get into a routine — waking up early, going to practice, eating at a certain time. And Z, he was a very discipline-heavy guy and there was a very specific way that things had to get done. That translates well to police work, because there are very specific ways that you have to complete certain tasks. If it’s not done in a specific way, it’s wrong.” 

One of Marino’s coaches at WilmU was Mike Adams. A patrolman with the New Castle City Police Department for the past three years, Adams has been on the Wildcat staff since he received his degree in Criminal Justice in 2019. As a player, he earned Second Team All-CACC honors. 

Adams loves lacrosse, pointing out that it’s both fast and physical. “It’s known as the fastest sport on two feet,” he says. With a chuckle, he adds, “And it’s the only sport where you’re legally allowed to hit someone else with a metal pole.”

He believes that the type of player Zwickert recruits, combined with the mentoring those players receive, are factors that can lead to a law enforcement career. 

“The people we have here and the ethics we instill in them, it makes them not only good players, but hopefully we help make them good human beings,” Adams says.

Zwickert himself confirms that he focuses on developing his players’ character as well as their lacrosse skills. “We want the guys to learn to adopt priorities in their lives,” he says. “Faith and family is number one, academics second, lacrosse third. Everything else is a distant fourth. When guys come here, they understand that.”

As Adams points out, being a Wildcat lacrosse player means long days during the season. Practices last from 9 to 11 a.m. five days a week in the fall and six days a week in spring. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the team lifts weights from 6 to 7:45 a.m. Lifting is often followed by scouting reports and strategy meetings prior to practice. That discipline and dedication is similar to the demands of being a police officer.

“It takes a certain mentality to wake up early in the morning and work out,” Adams says. “A lot of people don’t want to do that. You’ve got to push through that. The same thing with being a law enforcement officer. Working a 12-hour shift kind of stinks sometimes, but you push through for the greater good. I think lacrosse helps a lot
with that.”

Jared Wagenhoffer is another ex-player whose career in law enforcement can be attributed to both nature and a bit of Zwickert nurture.

“I always wanted to go into law enforcement,” Wagenhoffer says. That was due to the influence of his father, John, who has been with the New Castle County Police for 30 years, and will retire in 2025. 

Wagenhoffer achieved his goal when he joined the Delaware State Police in October of 2021 after graduating in the DSP’s 97th Academy class and winning the DSP Law Enforcement Core Values Award. He’s currently assigned to Troop 4 in Georgetown.

After transferring from Wesley College, Wagenhoffer was a Wildcat midfielder for two years. He too attests to Zwickert’s impact on players.

“Coach Z does a wonderful job of holding everyone accountable, and forces them to step up as leaders,” Wagenhoffer says. “And law enforcement is definitely a career where you have to be a leader and take charge.”

Chris Smith echoes those thoughts. “Police departments want a person who can lead, who can hold their own and not back away from anything,” says Smith, who has been a patrolman with the Stafford Township (New Jersey) Police Department since graduating from WilmU in 2019 with a degree in Criminal Justice. “And you’re taught that in lacrosse. The discipline and drive that you get through practice laid a good foundation for police work.”

Like Marino, Smith derives great satisfaction from the job. “I grew up in Stafford,” he says, “and from the time they asked me what I wanted to be in kindergarten, it was ‘Stafford cop.’ I love the town. The police have always had great support here, and I wanted to give back, to show my appreciation.”

He also enjoyed his time as a Wildcat. WilmU lacrosse was brand new when Smith joined it as a junior, and he was named a captain his senior year. “I loved Coach Z, loved the area, loved the college,” he says.

All five ex-Wildcats were coached by and often sought guidance from Adam Starrett. A 10-year veteran of the Middletown Police Department, Starrett was on Zwickert’s WilmU staff for the first four years of the program. He played for Zwickert at Wesley College and subsequently coached lacrosse at St. Mark’s High School — when Adams played there — and Brandywine High. All of that came after his time in the Marine Corps from 2005 to 2013, which included a year in Iraq.

Not surprisingly, while Starrett was at Wilmington, the aspiring police officers on the team turned to him with their questions. 

“A lot of them would ask me for advice and guidance about the hiring process,” he says. “Or they would ask me about the profession in general. I was doing narcotics work around that time, and that always intrigued them.”

Starrett earned a master’s in Administration of Justice with a Concentration in Criminal Behavior from WilmU in 2017, and he has high praise for the school’s Criminal Justice Department. “They have a phenomenal program, with phenomenal instructors. Some I knew from the field.”

As for the link between lacrosse and law enforcement, he says: “It’s definitely interesting. It’s becoming almost the identity of the program.”

Zwickert himself has some previous connection to the criminal justice system, having served briefly as a probation and parole officer for the State of Delaware. But his goal as a coach is greater than turning out law enforcement professionals. 

“Our mission is the development of the person,” he says. “We want them to leave here a better person than when they came in, so they can be the best coworker, the best friend, son, husband, the best father. We want them to be men of character and integrity, who do the right thing when nobody’s watching.

“We’re using lacrosse to teach life lessons.”