A lacrosse scholarship wasn’t exactly the path Mark Rini saw his career taking at Monsignor Farrell.
“Before high school, I was just a baseball player,” he said.
Rini, however, was cut from the Lions freshmen team and friends told him he should give lacrosse a shot. He made the team, which ended his career as a baseball player, Rini stuck with his new sport, progressed each season and became one of the city’s top players.
“Junior year college coaches began calling me and sending emails,” he said. “I decided, ‘Why not play college lacrosse?'”
That’s exactly what the exceptional midfielder will do. Rini found the perfect combination of athletics and academics at Division II Pace. He chose the Northeast-10 school, which is giving him a partial athletic and academic scholarship, and head coach Dave Carty over Newman University.
He felt comfortable with Carty, the togetherness of the team and its style of play. Pace also features a five-year accounting program and is an excellent business school, something Rini was looking for in picking a college.
“I started playing and really loved the sport and didn’t want to play anything else,” said The Post’s All-City first team selection.
Rini will make it a family affair for the Pacesetters as he will join his cousin Vince Rini, a midfielder entering his senior season. The only advice the older cousin offered was to give full effort once he arrvies at Pace.
“He said coach Carty says, ‘If you don’t work hard, you are not going to play,’” Rini said.
He and his Farrell teammates saw their efforts pay off last season. Rini came into the year determined to bring home a title after he missed the majority of a championship-game loss to Mount St. Michael his junior year becuase of injury.
He tallied 49 goals, 17 assists and won 62 percent of his faceoffs during the regular season and scored five goals, including the winner against Archbishop Stepinac, in the NYCHSAA Class A final. It was Lions first city title of any kind since 1995.
“That’s what we wanted to do for our senior year,” Rini said. “After that step, it’s just progress in college.”