Charlie Giraudo is a dynamic defenseman and LSM on the ADVNC North Bay & NDP 2027 team committed to play at Georgetown University, starting next Fall.
Charlie grew up in San Francisco. He was introduced to lacrosse at a very young age during his family’s summer trips to Long Island to visit his cousins in his mom’s hometown of Manhasset, NY.
“It was and still is a huge lacrosse community,” said Courtney Giraudo, Charlie’s mom. “Even though lacrosse wasn’t my main sport, we all learned to play a little growing up. But Charlie’s four older cousins got him playing on visits when he was just four years old.”
“The exciting part was that having a catch with a lacrosse stick was more fun than just throwing a baseball,” Charlie said. “And I really loved playing hard with the bigger cousins to try and learn lacrosse from them. That was really exciting to me at a young age. That’s where it all started.”
Back in the Bay Area, Charlie started playing lacrosse with the SF Riptide. He loved it and soon joined All West Lacrosse, which became ADVNC North Bay.
“Playing for All West was just awesome,” Charlie said. “It was everything a kid wanted in a lacrosse team. Being around Matt Ogelsby (Duke All-American) and Coach Charles Henry (longtime ADVNC coach) was great. Those guys helped bring lacrosse to the West Coast, and I am who I am today in large part because of them.”
Charlie and his ADVNC North Bay teammates with BJ Grill.
When All West became ADVNC North Bay, Charlie started playing for Head Coach BJ Grill. Grill coached Charlie with ADVNC up until last year, and is still his high school head coach at Marin Catholic. “ADVNC has been an incredible experience,” Charlie said. “My development through ADVNC and through Coach BJ has been transformational. It’s crazy to compare the player I am today to where I started. I see all these young, ten year old kids playing with ADVNC now and look back and reflect that it was me, not that long ago.”
Charlie started out playing midfield. It was during one of his first ADVNC practices with BJ Grill in seventh grade that he switched over to defense. “I asked Coach Grill if I could try playing defense with a long pole. He encouraged it. Defense is the part of the game that a lot of people don’t really recognize. It doesn’t really show up on the stat sheet as much. But defense is the reason why teams win games. That’s really important to me. I love picking up a big ground ball. It’s those silent plays that change games.”
In addition to great coaches, Charlie has been surrounded with great players on his ADVNC team. But his parents credit the players’ off the field excellence as much as their on field prowess.
“ADVNC focused on having good families with good kids, and creating a culture that rewarded not just how you played on the field, but how you carried yourself off the field as well,” said Courtney Giraudo.
“Chris Rotelli (ADVNC Founder & CEO) and BJ Grill deserve a great deal of credit for growing each player individually,” said Charlie’s dad, Bryan Giraudo. “But they also combined the athletic skills they taught with life skills. And you can see all of this come to fruition in how many players are going to play college lacrosse. ADVNC really built an amazing community of players and families that all came together and have supported each other. The players and their parents have become close friends.”
“I don’t really have the words to describe what BJ has meant to Charlie,” Courtney Giraudo said. “BJ and Chris Rotelli just coached all of those kids up, all the way through. There were a lot of really good players on that NDP team. A lot of depth. Charlie’s path was not always linear. But both Chris and BJ always believed in them and worked them hard. And the results speak for themselves.”
“Looking back over the years with ADVNC, some of the challenges and setbacks along the way just made Charlie more determined and more committed to getting better,” Bryan Giraudo said. “I think the character that builds in a young man is something you can only dream of as a parent.”
In addition to BJ Grill, a former standout defenseman at Marquette and the MLL & PLL, Charlie is also coached at Marin Catholic by BJ’s younger brother, former Maryland Terrapins and PLL defenseman Nick Grill. “We have one of the best high school coaching staffs in the country,” Charlie said. “They develop every single player in our program. Thinking back to my freshman year, I certainly wasn’t the player I am today. I knew I had a lot of potential and a lot of work to do, but I was committed to getting better. That improvement is all because of my time at Marin Catholic and ADVNC.”
Charlie said in addition to BJ and Nick Grill, he has idolized former Georgetown All-American defenseman Brodie Merrill for many years and wants to follow in his footsteps. Merrill is recognized as one of the best defensemen and LSM’s in the history of the sport. He had a storied career in the NLL, MLL and PLL as well as the international game, where he starred for Canada for many years.
When it came time for Charlie’s recruiting summer in 2025, Charlie relied on BJ Grill, Chris Rotelli, and Will Casertano (ADVNC Co-Director of College Recruiting) from ADVNC. Charlie has also played for West Coast Starz since 2021 on another standout 2027 team. Starz were also instrumental in Charlie’s recruiting process and his development as a player.
“It was great how all of them worked together to help Charlie,” Bryan Giraudo said. “Chris is the director of the program. Will was focused on college recruiting. And then BJ, as both his ADVNC and high school coach, was there to help us through the process. Then, the success his teams had on the East Coast every summer made it so many college coaches were at those games. All of that helped make things feel less overwhelming last August, heading into September 1st.”
Both Bryan and Courtney Giraudo graduated from Georgetown. Charlie’s older sister, Sydney, is currently a sophomore at Georgetown. Charlie was hoping to hear from Hoyas Head Coach Kevin Warne on September 1st.
“We all sat around the kitchen counter at 9pm in San Francisco when September 1st hit on the East Coast,” Charlie said. “I got a text from Coach Warne and set up a call for the next morning. I flew out to Washington, DC that Friday for an official visit. I hung out with the team, went to a practice and then went to the weight room for their lift. After their lift, Coach Warne offered me a spot and I committed right there on the spot.”
“I was so overcome with emotion because I could just see the absolute joy and happiness in Charlie’s eyes,” Courtney Giraudo said. “Coach Warne, Bryan and I had told Charlie he could take some time to think about his offer. But when the offer was made, Charlie said that playing at Georgetown was his absolute dream and he wanted to accept right then. It was a really special day.”
Bryan, Charlie and Courtney Giraudo on a visit to Georgetown.
“It was obviously great because Georgetown is a place and community that is very meaningful to Courtney and I and our whole family,” Bryan Giraudo said. “But this is something we know that Charlie has worked really hard for. Being from San Francisco, and having Charlie play at the level he did for so many years, required a lot of sacrifice and hard work. A lot of travel. A lot of flights to and from the East Coast.”
“It’s not just the hard work as a player,” Courtney Giraudo said. “It requires a lot of hard work academically as well. Years ago, I told Charlie that you are an incredible player, but don’t let colleges say no to you because of your grades. So he has worked incredibly hard both as a player and as a student, and to see all of that pay off is incredibly rewarding as a parent.”
With this part of the journey behind them, the Giraudo’s have this advice for parents of younger players. “The ADVNC program allows both boys and girls (Charlie’s younger sister, Caroline plays for the ADVNC 2029 team) to evolve at their own pace,” said Bryan Giraudo. “If they really love the game and want to play at a high level in college, there are opportunities for them to do that. If they want to play lacrosse more for fun alongside other activities, there is a platform for them to do that too. The beauty of the ADVNC Program is that Chris Rotelli has infused a culture that is welcoming of players who are both good players and good kids and come from great families. That’s what makes it work. When you juxtapose that with some of the other clubs we have played against, the ADVNC dynamic is the antithesis of what we’ve seen with many other clubs.”
“If you have a child who is determined and committed to getting better, and is having fun doing all the work that is required to get better, then you should really go for it,” Courtney Giraudo said. “It’s been a great experience for us as a family. It has also been so rewarding to watch Charlie grow both as a player, but also as a young man.”
Charlie has this advice for young players who wish to follow in his footsteps. “The biggest thing is just believing in yourself. It’s not always easy. There will be days when you don’t perform well. But it’s just bouncing back the next day and trying your hardest and always believing in yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself, you can’t really do anything else. That’s always been the biggest thing for me. Believing in myself and just putting my head down and working as hard as I can.”