When Bill Belichick was named the head coach at North Carolina, the number of jokes about his desire to assemble a college football team of college lacrosse all-stars were infinite. Well, it’s no longer a joke!
The Tar Heels are stacking commitments from two-sport athletes.
Technically speaking, Belichick already had a lacrosse player on his roster before he arrived to Chapel Hill. Ryan Hornyak is both a placekicker at UNC in the fall and a defensive midfielder in the spring. He was one of the holdovers from the previous regime who chose to be part of the new era.
Not long thereafter, Belichick presented Gary Merrill with an opportunity to join the football team as a walk-on. The Class of 2025 quarterback recruit was already committed to play lacrosse for the Tar Heels as a five-star midfielder. Like Hornyak, he will now pull double duty.
And the list does not end there!
Bill Belichick is recruiting lacrosse stars to play football at North Carolina.
Belichick is a huge fan of lacrosse and has been for awhile. The 72-year-old played at Wesleyan back in the 70s. His kids also gravitated to the oldest team sport in North America from a young age and his daughter, Amanda, is the head coach of the women’s team at Holy Cross.
Chris Hogan famously won two Super Bowls with the Patriots after being named as an all-conference player in lacrosse at Penn State. Belichick believes there is a lot of valuable crossover between the two sports and will bring already brought that belief with him to North Carolina.
Not long after Merrill announced his decision to play both sports, Jermaine Anderson did the same. The 44th-ranked lacrosse recruit in the country committed to play for the Tar Heels in 2023. He is considered one of the top athletes in the state of Maryland and will join the football team as an outside linebacker.
Crew Davis also committed to play both sports at UNC over the weekend in the Class of 2026. The four-star lacrosse recruit will play middie for Joe Breschi and running back for Bill Belichick.
After an amazing weekend at the University of North Carolina I am proud to announce that I am 100% Commited!!
— Crew Davis (@CrewDavis2) February 2, 2025
Thank you to my family and all my coaches who have helped me get to this point. #goheels @Joespags12 @ionafootball @ionapreplax @PrepRedzoneNY @PRZCaleb @LoHudLacrosse… pic.twitter.com/uRtGJI2Tuk
It is unclear as to whether Davis, Anderson, Merrill or even Hornyak factor into North Carolina’s plans beyond depth pieces for the football team. They may never see the field. They may one day start.
Either way, this lacrosse-to-football pipeline in Chapel Hill is a fun storyline to watch. Bill Belichick is assembling all of the two-sport infinity stones.