Boys Lax: Damascus High’s Joey Salisbury commits to Ohio State

Damascus senior defenseman and long-stick midfielder, Joey Salisbury, announced his commitment to play lacrosse at The Ohio State University on Tuesday morning, via Twitter.

Salisbury, a 6-foot-1, 195 pound high school senior, chose Ohio State over interest from other schools including No. 1 ranked University of Maryland.

The commitment comes days after suffering a 9-6 loss to Linganore High in the first round of the playoffs.

Salisbury, a four year varsity starter and team captain, racked up an astounding 207 groundballs as a junior and 169 as a senior, per www.montgomerymdboyslacrosse.org.

He also recorded 14 points (two goals and 12 assists) as a senior.

Salisbury piled up quite the resume at Damascus. He was a part of the All-USA Maryland boys lacrosse team and Under Armour All-American underclassmen team. He was also an All-Met honorable mention as a junior and a two-time finalist for the C.Markland Kelly Award.

At the beginning of his senior season, Salisbury was still unsure about where he would be attending college in the fall.

“It was a little scary not knowing where I would end up, but I’m very excited,” Salisbury said. “It’s been a long process and it feels very rewarding now that I finally found a home. Now I’m even more inspired to work harder knowing I am part of the rich tradition of Ohio State lacrosse.”

“Joey is probably one of the most athletic guys on the field at all times,” a teammate of Salisbury’s said.

In addition to lacrosse, Salisbury also started at wide Receiver and outside linebacker on Damascus’s historic 14-0 state championship football team as well as starting forward for the basketball team, while Joey’s father was a star for the Virginia Tech Hokies baseball team.

In an interview earlier in the week, Joey said that out of all the sports he’s played, lacrosse was his favorite.

“It’s the game that comes the most natural to me,” he said.

As soon as he announced the commitment, Salisbury was flooded with congratulatory tweets and texts.

He even had to ask schoolmates if they had any of the unknown numbers that were texting him in their contacts so he could properly thank them, but ultimately had to settle for a generic “thank you!”.

“It’s been a great day for sure and I’m just very excited to be a Buckeye.”