Pace Men’s lacrosse’s Wyatt Barfoot trekked all the way from the great white north of Ontario, Canada to follow his American dream: lacrosse.

Lacrosse is where he shines out of all the sports he’s played and it’s the sport he considers his passion.

“Lacrosse was always my passion, ” said Barfoot. “I played football because I thought it was awesome and wanted to try it, but even when I was playing football my focus was always on lacrosse. I t was always my goal to go somewhere with lacrosse.”

The 5-foot-11-inch midfielder stands out from most Pace students being from Canada, which is a bit far from the field. While there has been some adjustment to culture and lifestyle, it was always his goal to play lacrosse competitively in America.

“It’s a lot different than I’m used to,” Barfoot, 20, said. “This has always been my goal. The Canadian Universities have lacrosse, but not on the same level as the NCAA. [America] takes it way more seriously.”

Barfoot says he has his parents to thank for his love of athletics as he comes from a home with a mother and grandfather who played softball as well as a dad who played hockey, baseball, and lacrosse.

“I barely remember [when I started] my dad put me into it around the age of three,” Barfoot said. “It’s the first sport I remember. My parents come to a lot of games actually, so when they’re here, I always think that I have an opportunity to show my parents why they drove 10 hours to come watch.”

Barfoot hit the field his rookie year in 2015 and immediately found success scoring 29 goals, had a shooting percentage of .429, aided Men’s Lacrosse’s to 9-7, 6-5 NE-10 record, and won the Northeast-10 (NE-10) Conference Rookie of the Year.

His dream suffered a setback, however, as he suffered a dreadful knee injury, which required surgery. This benched Barfoot his entire sophomore season. But the devastation taught him to be grateful.

Barfoot returned at the beginning of this season and wants this year to be a great comeback story.

“All summer I couldn’t wait to get back into [lacrosse], then I had my surgery so I was kind of just sidelined all season,” the red-shirt sophomore said. “I thought to myself that I better take advantage of every opportunity I get to be out on that field.”

Barfoot explained that last season left him fired up to get back to the sport, back into his groove, and this season is going as excepted.

Men’s Lacrosse is 6-2, as of Apr. 9 and Barfoot has scored five goals, a total of 14 points, and a shot percentage of .333 in seven games played.

“I’m slowly getting there,” said Barfoot, who’s an accounting major. “[The team] has had high expectations. I thin the season will [continue to] show a lot. We’re about to get into our NE-10 play, so it’ll all come together very soon.”

Barfoot’s favorite word is “opportunity,” and after watching from the sideline, he’s taken advantage of the opportunity to be back on the field and continue his American dream of playing lacrosse.