Photography courtesy Smith family
This senior student-athlete has big plans for the collegiate level
Jeremiah Smith thinks and talks about playing college lacrosse nonstop. The Glen Burnie High School senior puts in 20 or more hours each week doing lacrosse drills and lifting weights to get bigger and stronger.
The offseason training is working. The 6-foot-2 Smith bulked up eight pounds to 225. College coaches covet players of his weight and height (6-foot-2). “It’s an obsession,” Smith says of playing at the next level. “Lacrosse is really my life at this point. The only time I miss working out is when I spend time with family.”
Another way to achieve his goal: attending college prospect camps. The attackman just wants to get his name out there more, so he took part in two camps this past summer, including ones at Division III Salisbury and Division II Wilmington. Then came competition camps where the sport is played at the Division I level: at Delaware (in September), and UMBC (October). He will also attend one in Virginia (December).
“He wants to get a scholarship,” Baltimore Lacrosse Elite Coach Lantz Carter says of Smith, who has suited up for the club team for the past five years. “He has been more aggressive with his recruiting process, and I think he can play Division I lacrosse.”
The 17-year-old Smith, who plans to major in business management, also participated in a college showcase at USA Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Maryland, in July. It attracted Division I and Division II coaches from regional schools that appealed to him: Virginia State, Hampton, Morgan State, and the University of District of Columbia.
Smith can’t get enough of lacrosse. He’s been competing in the sport for 14 years. “All Jeremiah does is talk about lacrosse,” Glen Burnie Boys Lacrosse Coach Travis Hood says. “He just lives and breathes the sport.”
Smith says he has elevated his game after attending the showcase and four camps. But more importantly, he wants to understand the college game.
Photography courtesy Smith family
“I am getting a look at what college lacrosse really is and seeing how college practices work,” Smith explains. “And what I need to do to get better. I have learned that it’s more-fast paced.”
Smith’s goal totals are impressive, and he expects to surpass the 100-goal mark early in the 2026 season. He possesses an accurate shot. Smith’s physicality also helps him get shots off close to the cage. He totaled 32 goals as a freshman, then 32 the next season, and 33 in 2025.
Smith, a four-year starter and team co-captain last year, holds two Glen Burnie career offensive records, which he set last season. He surpassed Josh Kahl’s 2016 mark of 107 career points. His total is 111. Smith broke Joe Crenshaw’s two-year old record of 71 goals.
“That’s phenomenal,” Carter says of Smith setting the records. “He is not a kid out there thinking, ‘Me, me, me.’ He really wants his team to have success.”
All of Smith’s scoring has made for some unforgettable games. As a sophomore, he scored four goals in the regional championship—which he considers the best game of his career—to help the Gophers to an 8-7 victory over North County. It gave Glen Burnie its first regional title in school history.
Smith also enjoyed playing against two Howard County schools in 2025, scoring four goals in a one-goal loss to Oakland Mills and five in a rout of Hammond.
“He is in the running to be the best player to ever come through Glen Burnie,” Hood says. “He just dominates. He makes lacrosse exciting for Glen Burnie. He will go up against anybody. On the offensive side of the ball, he demands opponents to come play him in one-on-one situations.”
Before Smith played varsity lacrosse in 2023, he strongly considered football and boys basketball. His physique and tantalizing athletic ability made him appealing. “The football and basketball coaches wanted me to play,” says Smith, who only competed in lacrosse before high school. “I do think about what kind of player I could have been in those sports.”
And Smith knows he made the right choice in picking lacrosse—a sport in which he has a bright future.
