Rising Guelph lacrosse star highly rated for upcoming pro draft

Trent DiCicco’s stock is rising quickly ahead of Sunday’s National Lacrosse League draft.

After serving as team captain at Ohio State University, he transitioned to box lacrosse over the summer with the Western Lacrosse Association’s Victoria Shamrocks, and hasn’t looked out of place competing with and against some of the best players in the world.

“It’s definitely an experience builder,” he said of playing with Victoria, who are competing for the Mann Cup Sr. A national lacrosse championship in Six Nations this week.

“I think this group we have here in Victoria is pretty young and a group that hopes to be around for years to come.”

He was an above point-per-game player with the Shamrocks, who went a perfect 18-0 during the regular season.

But after winning the WLA title, the Six Nations Chiefs took the Mann Cup in five games. Victoria's lone win came in the series opener.

DiCicco's time out west follows a four-year career with Ohio State, where the 23-year-old graduated with a major in mechanical engineering. 

“It’s absolutely a great program, and everything’s a building block,” he said.

“My time at Ohio State was pretty unbelievable and actually how I got connected to the Shamrocks. It was through a former Buckeye alum, so it’s a small world and it’s a stepping stone to the next level.”

The former Guelph Regal keeps adding to his resume at just 23 years of age.

He was part of the under-21 Canadian side that won silver at the World Field Lacrosse Championship in Ireland in 2022.

DiCicco also became the first Buckeye male to win the Wayne Duke Postgraduate Award, given by the Big Ten Conference.

Beyond lacrosse and academics, DiCicco is an entrepreneur, starting a fashion brand called Modern Crown, along with a few of his university roommates.

He considers it a way to stay connected with four of his best friends.

“We kind of all have different backgrounds,” he said. “We all love lacrosse, but on the academic side, we’re all very different. Fashion and clothing is something we all kind of had in common and kind of took a leap starting our own clothing brand, hat brand.”

DiCicco said it’s a fun thing to do on the side, as he continues to pursue his other goals.

It was previously reported DiCicco would be heading to Stanford University in the fall, but he said he isn’t sure what the next move will be and is looking at a few options.

But now with his focus off winning a national title, the attention shifts to Sunday evening, where some have pegged him as high as fourth overall.

“I think everything happens for a reason,” DiCicco said.

“We’ll see how the cards fall in the draft and kind of go from there.”