Bryson Lewis is a standout goalie from the ADVNC San Francisco and NDP 2026 team going to play at Holy Cross next Fall.
Bryson was five years old when he and his dad were at the gym, swimming at the pool. That’s when his life changed. He remembers it vividly. “I was in the pool and my dad started talking to a lady who turned out to be the director of the Firehawks rec league program in Redwood City,” Bryson recalled. “She invited me down to come play lacrosse with the Firehawks that very next day. I was out there in borrowed pads and a janky helmet, a helmet I still have in my closet to this day.”
Bryson in the early days with the Firehawks.
“I remember that vividly as well,” said Bryson’s dad, Gordon Lewis. “The lady, Tammy Mayle asked if I had ever played lacrosse. I said I grew up in Maryland and played in high school. She then asked if Bryson played. I said, this is California, there are no teams out here. And she said that I was wrong, and that she had a team for him, and that he should come out that very next day. That was a Friday, he played Saturday, and on Sunday, we went to the Sling It Lacrosse store, and we were all in. Not only did I get Bryson all the gear, I bought myself a new stick so I could practice with Bryson.”
Bryson has played other sports over the years, but lacrosse is the sport that he immediately loved as soon as he tried it. “I liked that the game was so quick,” he said. “I never wanted to skip a lacrosse practice. I wanted to skip flag football and baseball practices sometimes, but never lacrosse. I liked that it was fast paced. I like that it was physical. I made a lot of friends very quickly in lacrosse. It’s just a really interesting and fun game to play. There are so many little bits and pieces to learn that you need to get good at. It’s so fun and I’ve never found it boring.”
“Once he picked up a stick, he didn't put it down,” said Bryson’s mom, Brenda Lamb Lewis. “That thing came everywhere with him. I think he loved the gear, the pads, throwing & catching the ball and running around...it checked all the boxes.”
The Lewis family on Bryson’s college signing day at St. Ignatius.
Bryson’s love for lacrosse quickly passed down to his three younger sisters, Brooke and Delaney who are 8th graders and Cassidy, a 6th grader. “Anytime our family goes away together on a vacation, we all bring our sticks,” Gordon Lewis said. “We’ve gotten to the point now where the girls won’t listen to my lacrosse advice anymore but they will listen to Bryson’s!”
Bryson started out as an attackman who also played goalie. On his early rec teams, he’d play goalie for one half and attack for the other. “It got to a point where my coach told me that I wasn’t as good at attack as I was in the goal,” Bryson said. “I didn’t like that. But I said if they needed me in goal full time, I will do that. The one thing for me is, I never want to come out of the game. Ever. I want to play. So if playing goalie was my path to doing that, I was good with it.”
“Coach Mike McBride (of the Firehawks) put him in goal and he was good at the position,” Brenda Lamb Lewis said. “He really wanted to still play attack or midfield and the coaches would rotate him onto the field until he was about 13. It was at that point that he bought into the goalie position 100%. He started to own it and his love for the position took off from there.”
Bryson with ADVNC 2026 Coach Tim O’Brien after their final game together at Sandstorm 2026.
Bryson’s physical and mental development as a goalie has changed over the years. “I slowly learned that I didn’t have to be the most athletic guy on the field, but I did have to be the most athletic guy inside that 6x6 cage,” Bryson said. “I learned that I needed to learn everything that was going on around me on the defensive side of the field .. and not just pay attention to what I was actually doing. There are so many intricate things that take place on the field that I had to learn. It’s a very unique position and what I love about it is that I’m kind of my own thing. I have to take care of my own preparation and my own play to be as good as I want to be.”
“As Bryson got to high school (at St. Ignatius in San Francisco) as a freshman, he had to deal with the fact that there was a really good goalie in all three classes ahead of him,” Gordon Lewis said. “So he had to consider how he was ever going to get to play at his school. He had to learn that practice was the place, at least to start, where he had to get better. That was tough on him mentally.”
“The mental part of my game did not used to be very good,” Bryson admitted. “I would watch film of myself and I would sometimes put my stick on the ground after I gave up a goal. It was terrible body language, so I had to fix that. The guys around me don’t want to see negative body language, neither do the coaches. So I got big into stopping that, and developed more of a: next play mentality. I’ve gotten much better at that. I’ve learned that I need to be a leader out there and keep the mood of the defense up and keep them in a good mood because those are the guys impacting the types of shots that are coming my way.”
Bryson (#0) with some of his longtime ADVNC teammates at Sandstorm 2023.
Through all of this, Bryson has played for ADVNC, starting in the 5th grade. “Bryson was very lucky to have Tim O’Brien as his main ADVNC coach for so many years,” Gordon Lewis said.
“Coach O’Brien has been huge for my development,” said Bryson. “I came to ADVNC to take my game to the next level, and it definitely did that. Playing with better players and against great competition forced me to work harder and get better. ADVNC NDP was the next level from there. NDP was constantly bringing in better players from other areas. That was tough at first but playing with guys like Landon Johnson (Cornell commit) and Joe Ligas (Notre Dame commit) elevated my game. And playing against the best teams in the country on the East Coast was huge. Eventually we got better and better, to where eventually our team with the Nike Nationals last summer beat a team from Long Island for the championship and that was the culmination of the entire journey and it was just awesome.”
“The coaching with ADVNC is top notch and definitely developed Bryson as a player,” said Brenda Lamb Lewis. “Playing with such a high caliber of kids pushed him and inspired him to be the best he could be. The club's culture and mentoring of the whole child also helped him develop into such a responsible, resilient, driven, team-oriented person and player.”
Bryson with Dave Pietramala at the Goaliesmith showcase event where Bryson won MVP.
Bryson also gives his experience playing with Goaliesmith as being huge for his development. “Goaliesmith invited me out to a showcase the fall of my freshman year in Delaware. A really big event. I played well, and Dave Pietramala was my coach. He was then coaching at Syracuse, was the former head coach at Johns Hopkins, and is now an assistant coach at North Carolina. He named me MVP of that showcase and that was an eye opening moment for me. That was when I thought for the first time that I could really play at the DI level in college.”
Bryson leaned on ADVNC when it came time for his college recruiting process. “I didn’t love my recruiting process, it was really hard. But having the support system with ADVNC and Coach O’Brien and Coach Rotelli (ADVNC Founder & CEO, Chris Rotelli) was great. They constantly told me that they knew how good I was and that it would all work out.”
“Rotelli is a guy who, if you text him, he returns your text right away,” Gordon Lewis said. “And beyond that, he will always ask to get on the phone with you and talk about whatever issue you have.. So during the recruiting process, Chris Rotelli was just top notch. He did a great job getting Bryson to understand the range of schools he should pursue and what to expect. Then he would make lots of phone calls to college coaches on Bryson’s behalf and gave us great feedback on which schools were serious about their interest in Bryson.”
“Coach Rotelli told me to hone in on the Patriot League schools, so I did,” Bryson said. I eventually got connected with the Holy Cross coaches and had a great zoom meeting with them. I loved Coach Reppert. We went out to Massachusetts to have a visit. It was the only school that felt like they really wanted me. The players and the community really drew me in. All the players who met my mom shook her hand and looked her directly in the eye. That made a great impression on both of us. They offered me a spot on the team, I accepted and I’m very excited about going there.”
Bryson also cites the beautiful campus in Worcester and their strong academics. He’s interested in pursuing a career in science and is excited about the curriculum that Holy Cross offers.
Bryson (far right) with St. Ignatius and ADVNC NDP teammates: (L-R) Tanner Olrich, Max Ripple & Johan Van Oast.
With that part of the journey behind them, Gordon Lewis is very proud of his son in saying, “Brenda and I tell him that we don’t worry about him,. He doesn’t make bad decisions. The commitment to lacrosse that he’s put in and the time he’s put in along with all his teammates is amazing. He and his teammates from ADVNC and S.I., they go practice with each other, all the time. They know they need reps and they know they have to be committed to it. We’ve always told Bryson that as long as he keeps his grades up, he can play as much as he wants. And this whole process has rounded itself out very, very well.”
Brenda Lamb Lewis has this advice for parents of young players who are on the club lacrosse journey: “Enjoy it! Club lacrosse is a train that we hopped on and had no idea where it was taking us. It has been such an amazing ride! The friendships and memories that we have made are so special. We are beyond excited for Bryson to get to play at the next level and to be able to continue doing what he loves, but we are undoubtedly going to miss the time spent with all of the amazing ADVNC families.”
Bryson gives credit to George Vlahos for mentoring him over the years. Vlahos, also a goalie, was two years ahead of Bryson at St. Ignatius, and also played for ADVNC. Vlahos is currently a sophomore goalie at the Naval Academy. “George really took me under his wing,” Bryson said. “He’s a super competitive guy. He was one of the best goalies I’ve ever seen in High School. He still will watch my games online and text me about them. It’s just been great to have his support the last several years.”
With his own high school experience nearly complete, Bryson has this advice for younger players: “You’ve got to know there’s always someone better than you. So, you can’t take days off. You have to be willing to put in the work. I personally have an aversion to regret. I don’t want to go into a game and lose, and look back knowing that I could have done something more to prepare, and change the outcome of the game in my team’s favor. You have to have the mentality of: I want to do a little bit more than everyone else, every single day. I never want to take reps that are lazy or lackadaisical. It’s all about having high intensity, all the time.”