DECEMBER 2019 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 15
AND ROB PANNELL DEFINED LI LACROSSE
That overall dedication and commitment
to excellence is what pushed
Pannell to receive an Excellence in
Sports Performance Yearly (ESPY)
Award nomination for best male
athlete during his junior year in
2011, the only lacrosse player to ever
be nominated at the time.
A year later, Pannell was drafted
professionally into the New York
Lizards, where he would fittingly
enough play his home games at
Hofstra University, in a stadium
which is partly named
for Metzger. After all, it was
Pannell’s pursuit of the game
that inspired Metzger to become
heavily re-involved in
the Hofstra Pride.
“Playing there, looking up
and seeing my uncle’s name is
certainly an experience that many
don’t get to have and I love it,”
Pannell says of his pro days
and college tournaments
at the Hempstead
campus.
Rob Pannell broke records with the New York Lizards.
While Pannell played beneath James
C. Metzger Hall, he certainly made
a name for himself on the field with
the Lizards. The standout was named
rookie of the year while also making
“Family means everything in life,”
says Jim Metzger.
an appearance in the Major League
Lacrosse All-Star game during the
2013 season, just the start of an explosive
professional career.
Pannell's third year in the league was a
culmination of all the years of his work
and his uncle’s proverbial suffering.
That’s when he earned a third consecutive
All-Star selection, was named MLL
All-Pro for the second year, and led
the league in scoring with 68 points,
38 goals and 30 assists as one of only
pros in history to have at least 30 goals
and 30 assists in a season.
That wasn’t even his biggest highlight
of the year. Pannell’s offensive capabilities
led the Lizards to a championship
that season, in a final where he
personally put up four goals and an
assist against the Rochester Rattlers.
He was inducted into the Suffolk
Sports Hall of Fame shortly after that.
“I watch in awe,” Metzger says. “That
man can do anything he wants.”
Pannell’s career has found another
discipline recently, this one with his
uncle at The Whitmore Agency.
Pannell chocks up his success both on
the field and more recently in business
to the relationship that he and
his uncle have sustained throughout
their somewhat paralleling careers.
“He’s the definition of a professional
and he’s guided me such a long away
to what I am,” Pannell says.
Metzger also said that the future
for The Whitmore Agency with the
addition of Pannell and other notable
major recent acquisitions will be a big
one for 2020.
For right now, the uncle and nephew
have a holiday tradition of watching
basketball on Christmas Day together
to look forward to as Pannell transitions
from lacrosse to business,
where he will be involved with what
he calls “the Ivy League lacrosse mafia
of Wall Street” under the wing of
his uncle and mentor.
“Family means everything in life,”
Metzger says.
His nephew echoes the sentiment.
Pannell adds, “Everyone should have
an Uncle Jim in their lives.”
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
