A Selfless Approach: Offit's Impact Reaches Far Beyond Her Rare Goal
Thursday, April 16, 2015 | Lacrosse, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – On an otherwise nondescript Wednesday afternoon at Don Dizney Stadium, the University of Florida lacrosse team hosted Cincinnati in the final regular-season home game of the season.
Beneath a threatening sky that made the humid April day feel a lot like your typical Florida summer afternoon, the possibility loomed that it could be the No. 8-ranked Gators' final home game of the season. That won't be determined until the NCAA Tournament selections are released following the conference tournaments later this month.
If so, Florida's 20-1 rout of the Bearcats will stand as the final home appearance for defender Mikki Offit, one of the team's three seniors. If you follow Florida's lacrosse team closely, you probably know of the other two seniors: Shannon Gilroy, the program's all-time leading goal scorer, and Nora Barry, another prolific scorer who is on the watch list for the Tewaaraton Award (lacrosse's Heisman Trophy).
They are the usual headliners; Offit is not.
“She is one of those types of players that every program needs,'' Gators head coach Amanda O'Leary said. “It's not about her. She doesn't make it about her. She makes it about her teammates and this team.”
O'Leary's description of Offit helps add context to the scene that unfolded early in the second half Wednesday.
Florida led 15-0 against the overmatched Bearcats and perhaps lost on the casual observer, O'Leary altered her lineup in the second half. Emptying her bench, O'Leary used an inverted lineup. The team's defenders moved to offense and the forwards moved to defense.
That meant Offit, normally a reserve defender, found herself with possession of the ball and prepared to strike a little more than five minutes after halftime. While somewhat foreign to her during her UF career, Offit is no stranger to being on the attack.
Growing up in a lacrosse-loving family in Bethesda, Md., Offit spent countless hours practicing her game in contests against her father Howard, a three-time national champion as a player at Johns Hopkins, and older brother Josh, who won two national titles at Duke from 2010-13.
“Dad had the sticks in our hands pretty early,'' Josh said Wednesday from New York, where he now works as an assets manager for the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs. “She has an intensity that kind of runs through our family.”
So as Offit took a pass from teammate Alex Puller in scoring position, she didn't hesitate, thrusting her stick toward the net. The ball zoomed past Cincinnati goalkeeper Meg Gulmi for Offit's second career goal. The first one came more than two years ago.
Her teammates rushed toward Offit for a change. She is usually the one offering encouragement. A mini-celebration erupted.
“We were definitely rooting for Mikki to score,'' said Barry, who is also Offit's roommate along with Gilroy. “It was great to see her score and get genuinely excited about it. Everyone knows how hard she works.”
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A few minutes after the game, as she wiped away bubbles of sweat streaming down her face, Offit was asked what the rare goal meant to her at this late stage of her career.
A talented student and player at the prestigious all-girls Holton-Arms School in Bethesda – the school's motto: I will find a way or make one – Offit deflected the question in the way of someone not interested in talking about themselves.
“It's not about the goal for me,'' she said. “The fact my teammates want me to score is awesome. The way they set me up for a goal to see me on the board is really what means a lot to me.”
A couple of hours later on the phone, Howard Offit was not surprised in the least to hear that his daughter breezed past an opportunity to talk about herself.
That's not her. Never has been. She would much rather hop into a Maryland State Police helicopter to shadow a trooper medic on the way to a crash site than discuss her lacrosse accomplishments.
He knows because she has.
“She is a very special person,” Howard said. “And I know most fathers will say that about their daughters, but from a human perspective, she is the most civil, selfless, caring person I know. That's what she is all about.”
O'Leary and Mikki's UF teammates back up her dad's assessment.
O'Leary can't remember Mikki missing a practice in her four seasons. Barry is continually amazed at Offit's focus and discipline toward lacrosse and her studies.
A nutritional science major, Mikki attacked the MCAT like she does her teammates trying to score against her at practice. If not in class or at practice, she is often performing community service or shadowing a doctor at Shands Hospital.
She has already been accepted at Johns Hopkins, where she will begin work toward a master's degree in biotechnology.
Mikki has a clear plan for her post-lacrosse life.
“She is very, very detailed oriented,'' Josh said. “She is like gung-ho and is doing things that I definitely could not have done in the classroom. I'm really proud of her for that.”
Offit's mother, Fabiana, is a dentist. A grandfather is an oncologist. Medical careers run deep in her family, hence the decision to pursue medical school after she leaves UF.
“I definitely want to be part of the medical field,'' Mikki said. “I really enjoy shadowing surgery. My grandma died of lung cancer so I've always been drawn to oncology.”
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Still, there's a part of Offit that will miss the game that has been such an integral part of her life. To her knowledge, she played on her first club team when she was 6.
She never tired of the sport and the opportunities to make a difference. When Josh and Mikki were younger, Howard served as an alternate on the U.S. National Indoor Team. He also spent time as a club coach and stints at Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
He remains active in the sport as the offensive coach at Georgetown (Md.) Prep, one of the nation's premier high school programs.
Mikki and Josh usually tagged along.
“They came out to all the practices, they came on bus rides, it was just a lot of fun,'' Howard said.
Mikki was generally one of her team's standouts prior to coming to Florida. While she has been a reliable performer for the Gators, her most important contributions have come far from the spotlight.
If that meant arriving before practice to help a young player work on a skill, she did it. If it meant mental coaching, she did that too. One of her favorite books is “Mind Gym – An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence.”
“Don't think that her four years have just been bliss,'' Howard said. “It hasn't. She has always wanted to be a contributor in any way she can on the field, but at least for now, she has got to be able to do it off the field, in practice, in the weight room.
“Sometimes that hard work and dedication isn't always rewarded, and what I've always tried to say to her, 'Mikki, the key is just to try and be a great teammate and if you can make them better, then you've done what you can do.' We've always kind of kept it in that framework.”
Mikki's college career is the polar opposite in many ways to that of her brother.
Josh was an All-American at Duke and scored 66 goals in his career, including three at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field in 2013 when the Blue Devils knocked off Syracuse to win the program's second national title.
In his senior season, Josh needed to earn at least half the votes from the team's 46 players to become team captain. He received 45 votes. The only player to vote for someone else: Josh Offit.
Josh, 24, is two years older than Mikki. They talk often. Sometimes those talks turn to lacrosse and Mikki's role with the Gators.
“Anyone coming out of high school going to a D-1 big-time school has hopes of playing,'' Josh said. “Sometimes it doesn't always work out that way. But time on the field doesn't necessarily equate to contribution to the team. She has found ways off the field and in practice and through her character to be able to contribute to her team instead of just goals and assists.”
In a look-at-me age of Facebook posts and Instagram selfies, Mikki prefers the road less traveled.
She might be reluctant to sing her own praises, but those closest to her are not.
“She is a role model. The stats don't tell the story of what Mikki brings to our program. That is not the most important piece of the puzzle with her,” O'Leary said.
The story of Mikki Offit reaches far beyond that goal in possibly her final home game. In fact, it might be best summed up in eight words.
I will find a way or make one.
