Zach Rosamalia played every sport he could growing up. He played several years of baseball, some basketball, soccer, flag football and wrestling. So when the Northwestern Youth Athletic Association started offering lacrosse when Rosamalia was in sixth grade, he gave it a try. He quickly fell in love with the game. For a couple years he played baseball and lacrosse during spring seasons, but always looked forward to lacrosse practice and games more than baseball.

Rosamalia was instrumental in Northwestern Lehigh starting a varsity program for his junior year. After several years of club lacrosse he had become good enough to be a captain and one of the best players on that first team the Tigers fielded last spring. He made a highlight tape and sent it to college coaches, all of which replied back to him.

After considering a few different schools, his short list was down to Misericordia, Eastern and Widener before he settled on Widener.

“When I first visited the campus it felt right,” he said. “It was like boom. I really liked it. At the other schools I didn’t get that family feeling.”

He started in the midfield on the varsity team last spring and was voted a team captain. He posted 24 goals, 16 assists and 52 ground balls. More importantly he helped the first-year program go 6-10 and come just a few wins from reaching the district playoffs.

“We lost two games by one goal and lost a couple games by two goals,” Rosamalia said. “We easily could have been 11-5.”

He and his teammates expected to take that next step this spring. They were just days away from their first scrimmage and games of the season when the statewide shut down ended high school sports for the spring season.

“It was devastating,” Rosamalia said. “It hasn’t set in yet really for me. The first two weeks of practice we had so much fun. We all get along so well. We had a better chance to make districts this year and I really thought we would.”

After that first year of playing NYAA lacrosse, Rosamalia joined a new club team, HEADstrong. There he was able to play with some of the top players in the Lehigh Valley and receive great coaching.

That didn’t change when he had to stop playing club because of the varsity season in 2019. He credits Tiger coaches Marcus Janda (head coach), Joe LaBella (assistant) and Matt Anderson (goalie coach) for guiding that first-year program to six wins with many players who were new to the sport.

“I’m extremely proud,” Rosamalia said of his team’s performance last spring. “I wasn’t expecting it. I give a lot of credit to our coaches. I think they’re some of the best coaches in the Lehigh Valley.”

One small consolation to the devastating news of not having a senior lacrosse season is that Rosamalia got to win a district championship during the fall season.

The Tiger soccer team needed a goalie and one of the school’s best athletes happened to be free during the fall season. Despite his lack of experience at the position he helped the team earn a district championship.

“I had a great time with that,” he said. “In all my years playing sports I had never won a championship like that.”

Without a varsity season to keep him sharp, Rosamalia has been practicing in his back yard and sneaking in some practice time with a teammate or two when possible.

He plans to help the Pride next season as a transitional middie. His role will be to come on the field after his team secures a defensive rebound and help run a lacrosse version of a fastbreak. He could be a shooter or distributor on the play.

As his career advances at the Chester school he figures to get more and more time on the field.

A biology major with plans to become a teacher, Rosamalia wants to coach the sport he loves when he’s out of college.

No matter what he does in the future on the field, in the classroom or beyond, he’ll look back on his high school days with fondness and pride.

“I really believe Northwestern is one of the best schools you can go to,” Rosamalia said. “I had great relationships with teachers and coaches. I plan on coming back in the future to say hi to everyone.”

He feels the same way about teammates and classmates.

“We’ll be friends forever,” he said.