Traut to play lacrosse for Westcliff

Fallbrook High School senior Cole Traut will be playing college lacrosse at Westcliff University.

"I'm just really excited to play there and further my experience playing," Traut said.

"I'm just really proud of him," Mike Zinniger, coach at Fallbrook High School, said. "We're all very excited for him and very proud of his effort through the years. I think he's going to have a great career."

Traut did not consider any other schools.

"Westcliff reached out to me first," he said.

His interaction with the Irvine school convinced Traut to sign a letter of intent.

"Westcliff really fit me," Traut said.

Fallbrook High School and Westcliff University both have the nickname Warriors as does Fallbrook's youth feeder club program. Westcliff had 3,100 students in 2020. Traut liked that Westcliff is close to home and also liked the school's small student to teacher ratio.

At this point, Traut said he is planning to be a business major.

"I'm not sure that's what I want to stick with," he said.

Westcliff also has one of only two non-club men's lacrosse college programs in California. Notre Dame de Namur is in Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Westcliff is in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

Westcliff is still forming a men's lacrosse program. The 2021 season was supposed to be the first for the Warriors, although the coronavirus shutdown has postponed the beginning of competition.

"He's going to be kind of on the ground floor," Zinniger said.

Traut, a lifelong Fallbrook resident who attended Live Oak Elementary School and Potter Junior High School before enrolling at Fallbrook High School, began his lacrosse activity with the Fallbrook Warrior Lacrosse Club while in fourth grade. He played for the 395 Starz club in sixth grade and with ULAX one year. He is now with the SoCal Devils, who were founded in 2020 and are based at Mount Carmel High School.

Traut started ninth grade on Fallbrook's junior varsity team, although the defender was called up to the Warriors' varsity for some games in 2018. He considers being called up for those games and having some varsity playing time as a freshman to be his favorite Fallbrook High School lacrosse memory, and his favorite overall Fallbrook High School memory is being with friends on the campus.

He spent all of 2019 on Fallbrook's varsity. Not only did Traut play varsity lacrosse as a sophomore in 2019, but he was also on Fallbrook's varsity tennis team. Boys tennis and lacrosse are both spring sports.

"It keeps you busy," Traut said.

The high school tennis matches are played after school and the lacrosse games at night, so the only conflict was during the postseason. Traut did not play high school tennis as a freshman.

Traut played neither lacrosse nor tennis as a junior. He started the season injured and was cleared to play the week the CIF San Diego Section shut down spring sports due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Westcliff thus brought Traut into the college program despite only one year of high school varsity.

"I was a little surprised," Traut said.

That surprise was because Traut, who was not an all-league player in 2019, has not yet had the opportunity to display his skills past his sophomore year.

"I knew I had the skill," he said.

Westcliff asked for the film of Traut. Although there was none from his junior year, Zinniger had film from 2019 and provided that.

"He's been a great kid for the program," Zinniger said. "He's going to be an excellent representative up at Westcliff."

In addition to his youth lacrosse experience before Fallbrook High School, Traut also played football in Fallbrook Pop Warner through seventh grade. He raced motocross from seventh grade through 11th grade.

"He's just been fun to have. The boys look up to him. We're going to miss him for sure," Zinniger said. "I look forward to following his career at Westcliff."

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].