Caleb Torres is an ADVNC SF & NDP ‘21 midfielder committed to playing lacrosse at St. Lawrence University this fall.
Caleb was raised in Pacific Grove, California. He didn’t try lacrosse till 4th grade when he “was tired of standing around the outfield at my baseball games,” Caleb said. “At first, I wasn’t too psyched on lacrosse, but I was just happy to get away from baseball. But soon, I started loving lacrosse. I loved the speed of the game. It was very flowy.”
“Caleb was always running around as a kid,” said his Mom, Susan Torres. “He needed an activity that made him move, because he was always skateboarding and running into walls. So I knew he needed a sport where he could run a lot and make contact. When he started lacrosse, he began to grow and develop in a very different way.”
Caleb Torres was thrilled to get his first lacrosse helmet.
“When I would say goodnight to him in bed and find him sleeping with his lacrosse stick I knew he had found a lifelong passion for the sport,” said Caleb’s Dad, Roy Torres.
Caleb started playing with The Tribe lacrosse club near his home. “I clearly remember a game where he made a mistake and allowed a kid to score a key goal and his team lost,” said Susan Torres. “I was devastated for him, and after the game I expected him to be really down. But I knew he was gonna be a great player when he said,’I should have slid, next time I will do it right, I’m gonna move on and work to get better.’ That’s just how Caleb rolls.”
Caleb, in his first ever tournament with ADVNC.
That attitude has taken Caleb from the Tribe to ADVNC South Bay, then to both ADVNC SF and NDP to where he is now, the captain at Kent School, a boarding school in Connecticut. It is that attitude that had his Kent teammates vote him the only captain on the team, after having only been there for one, pandemic shortened season.
“He teaches kids that attitude,” said Susan Torres. “He teaches other kids how to move on from bad experiences. A lot of other kids his age can’t do that. They specifically appreciate that about Caleb.”
Caleb played with both ADVNC South Bay and ADVNC San Francisco.
Caleb credits ADVNC for helping him develop that attitude as well as his on-field lacrosse skills. “I came to ADVNC relatively late,” Caleb said. “I was in the 7th grade, and I started playing with the 2020 South Bay team and then also the 2020 SF team, before I reclassified to a 2021. Practices and games were a much faster pace than what I was used to. The stick skills were way better. I relied on both the ADVNC coaches and my teammates to grow as a player. They helped me a lot, in every single aspect of my game.”
“If it wasn't for Chris Rotelli (ADVNC Founder & CEO) and all the coaches Caleb has played for in the ADVNC program, I feel Caleb's lacrosse life would be immensely diminished,” said Roy Torres. “The numerous experiences and opportunities that ADVNC Lacrosse has provided Caleb have shaped him as a young man. He has learned so many life lessons from his coaches, fellow teammates and their families.”
“ADVNC inspired Caleb,” said Susan Torres. “They helped him instill a solid practice regimen and also boosted his confidence by letting him know that he could compete at a much higher level.”
Caleb played in the Naptown Championship with the ADVNC NDP ‘21 team.
Caleb said he also benefited from playing in prestigious tournaments on the East Coast with ADVNC. “Playing with ADVNC in front of a lot of college coaches helped me a lot. Coaches started to reach out to me and that made me more confident.”
For most young players, the college recruiting process is very daunting. But for Caleb, the decision to leave Pacific Grove and attend boarding school in Connecticut was a more daunting decision.
“ADVNC helped a lot with me getting into Kent in the first place,” said Caleb. “Kent has been really, really good for me. Being that far away from home has helped me a lot. I can really focus on things now. It allows me to handle things on my own, and that has helped me grow as a person a lot more.”
“I thought it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for him to realize his dreams of playing high level high school lacrosse.” said Roy Torres. “Caleb loves to be challenged on the lacrosse field and I think all West Coast kids are somewhat intimidated by their East Coast counterparts. I believed it was a perfect chance for him to see how he would measure up against the best.”
Caleb is a captain at Kent School.
“It’s super hard having him 3000 miles away, but he’s grown up so much since he left for Kent,” said Susan. “Playing for ADVNC since he was 12, and commuting to the Bay Area twice a week for practice, and playing with a bunch of different people helped him grow into where he could even make the decision to go away to Kent. He has grown to understand how to get along with people from everywhere. Now, he has friends from all over the world. Most kids his age don’t get that opportunity.”
“I talk about that a lot with my friends at Kent,” said Caleb. “If I had decided to stay in Pacific Grove, I would have been stuck in my shell. But now I’ve experienced a lot more.”
Caleb’s next big move will be to Canton, New York, near the Canadian border to attend and play lacrosse at St. Lawrence University. “I was looking for an academically rigorous school that could provide a competitive lacrosse program,” Caleb said. “A lot of the schools that I was looking at only had one of those...St. Lawrence had both. I also wanted a smaller school because I tend to do better where the teacher/student relationship is more personal.”
“Chris Rotelli and the ADVNC program were instrumental in Caleb's college recruiting process,” said Roy Torres. “ADVNC's support in contacting all the colleges Caleb was considering was vital. If not for Chris and the ADVNC program I don't feel Caleb would have been seriously considered as a top lacrosse prospect at all of the colleges he was interested in.”
With his college recruiting process behind him, Caleb’s advice for younger players: “you have to make time on your own getting out on the field. You have to hit the wall a lot, do your footwork drills, get in the gym and just make time out of your day, every day to devote to the game. It really takes a lot of discipline.”