Moon Township, Pa. – The Robert Morris University men's lacrosse program, under the direction of 10th-year head coach Andrew McMinn, has announced that 2018 graduate Jimmy Perkins will be returning to the program for his seventh year of athletic eligibility.
Perkins is set to don the RMU colors again in the 2021 season, joining Adam Charalambides of Rutgers as the only two NCAA Division I seventh-year student-athletes in men's lacrosse. The Quaker Valley High School product spent four seasons (2015-18) at Robert Morris, earning his Bachelor's degree in business management before transferring to the University of Utah to pursue a Master's degree in real estate development. He competed in two seasons (2019-20) with the Utes, and returns to the Colonials with a rare seventh season to play after the 2020 campaign was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's hard to think of an adjective to describe Jimmy Perkins returning to RMU for his seventh season," said McMinn. "Jimmy entered our program in 2014 as a walk-on and no one other than him could have written the story that leads to today. After dealing with multiple injuries his first two seasons, he developed into our leading scorer while helping carry our program through our 2018 championship year. Upon graduating, Jimmy had a passion to pursue a master's in commercial real estate, which led him to the University of Utah where he continued to excel in the classroom and on the field. To have him return as a Colonial once again is almost surreal! We are very happy for him personally and can't wait to see what he does in his final year."
A two-year captain for the new Utah men's lacrosse program, Perkins accumulated 42 goals, 10 assists, and 52 points over 18 contests. In the abbreviated 2020 campaign, he scored a team-high 18 goals, netting a season-best four of them against No. 17 Air Force. The year prior, Perkins ranked 12th nationally in man-up goals (7) and tallied five goals and an assist at No. 2 Duke. He also scored the first goal in program history on Feb. 1, 2019 against Vermont.
Perkins was impactful for the Colonials after missing the 2015 and 2016 seasons due to injury. He returns to the team ranking third all-time in assists per game (1.21) and owns the single-game standard for helpers with six on Feb. 9, 2018. As a redshirt junior, he started all 18 games and earned All-Northeast Conference (NEC) Second Team and NEC All-Tournament Team recognition. Perkins' 30 assists in 2018 are the second most in season annals, while his 61 points are good for fifth in the rankings. He helped guide RMU to its first NCAA Tournament appearance, scoring five goals – including a hat trick at No. 1 Maryland – in its two-game May Madness run.
At Quaker Valley, Perkins was a two-time U.S. Lacrosse All-American and WPIAL Division II Player of the Year, leading the Quakers to an 18-0 record and WPIAL title as a senior in 2014. He owns the school records in goals (224), assists (131), and points (335), scoring an eye-popping 101 tallies in that aforementioned campaign. Perkins also collected 2014 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Player of the Year accolades in ice hockey and helped the team capture a state title as a sophomore.
Between Robert Morris and Utah, Perkins has registered 80 goals, 51 assists, 131 points, and 48 groundballs in 52 career games. He was a four-time NEC Academic Honor Roll recipient, earning the recognition consecutively from 2015-18.
Robert Morris finished the abbreviated 2020 season with a 4-2 record, having won its last three games before the campaign came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Colonials, who captured back-to-back NEC Tournament titles and subsequent NCAA Tournament bids in 2018 and 2019, have rattled off four consecutive winning seasons and featured the highest representation of any college or university in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) in 2020, with 11 former student-athletes suiting up for 10 different teams.
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