It’s not every day a college athlete receives a seventh year of athletic eligibility.

In fact, there are only two men’s lacrosse players in NCAA Division I that have received that seventh year this season. The first is Rutgers’ Adam Charalambides and the second is Jimmy Perkins, a former WPIAL Division II Player of the Year and two-time U.S. Lacrosse All-American from Quaker Valley.

On Monday, Robert Morris announced that Perkins was returning to Moon Township, where he spent the first four years of his college career, before transferring to Utah, where he played the last two seasons.

“I’m really excited to come back home,” Perkins said. “I grew up watching the program and was lucky to be a part of it for the first four years and am just super grateful to coach (Andrew) McMinn for having me back.”

Before putting together an uncommon seven-year college career that has allowed him to earn three degrees at RMU and Utah, Perkins’ career almost started off very differently.

After an illustrious run at Quaker Valley, Perkins was ready to continue his lacrosse career at Lake Erie College, a Division II college. But, about a week before graduating high school, he received a call from McMinn, who offered him a walk-on spot with the Colonials.

“He was playing for a club program that a few of our alumni were coaching, and they kept bringing him up in terms of how hard he was working and him displaying kind of what we push across in our program,” McMinn said. “It was late, but we decided to give him that opportunity when we found out he wasn’t actually signed at that point in time. So, we extended that offer to him and he clearly ran with it.”

During his time at RMU, Perkins ended up playing a key role in the rise of the program. It didn’t happen right away, though.

In his first two years with the Colonials, the 5-foot-8, 175-pound attackman, suffered back-to-back injuries that allowed him to receive two medical redshirts. As a freshman, he tore his MCL and his PCL. As a sophomore, he had sports hernia surgery.

When Perkins returned healthy for the Colonials as a junior, he made quite the impact. He started all 18 games and earned all-NEC second team honors. Then, as a redshirt senior in 2018, Perkins helped RMU make its first NCAA tournament appearance and went on to score five goals, including a hat trick against No. 1 Maryland, in two tournament games.

“He was absolutely instrumental,” McMinn said. “He led our team in scoring, he finished the year with 61 points, and when we were facing Maryland in the first round of the NCAA tournament that year, he went up against an all-American defenseman and was able to expose the matchup even at that level. He played that role for us throughout that entire season.”

After tallying 38 goals and 41 assists in 34 games at Robert Morris, Perkins decided to take advantage of his remaining years of eligibility and transferred to Utah to earn his master’s in real estate development.

“I think a lot of people think when you leave a program, it’s for something bad, but for me, it was just a different situation,” Perkins said. “Having two years of eligibility left, I decided to put school a little bit first and use lacrosse to further my future, and I went that route for my first master’s degree.”

In his two years at Utah, Perkins was a two-time captain and also scored the first goal in program history against Vermont on Feb. 1, 2019. He went on to tally 42 goals, 10 assists and 52 points in 18 games and also scored a team-high 18 goals in 2020 before the season was shortened due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Because the 2020 season got canceled six games in, Perkins received one more year of eligibility, and he chose to use it to come back home and play at RMU while earning his MBA.

“At first I wasn’t really sure if I was going to take it,” Perkins said. “But everything work-wise and future plans that I had out there kind of fell through, and I had the opportunity once I moved back home and spoke with Coach McMinn. I threw my name into the transfer portal, and he was fully on board with the idea of bringing me back on.”

Helping Utah grow its program was something that Perkins took pride in. Although he was playing at a larger school, Perkins felt the need to take the lead as an older player in a new program and help bring the younger players along.

“It was a unique experience being a part of a first-year program and just trying to leave as big of an impact as possible,” Perkins said. “I was just trying to take as many guys as I could under my wing and help them through their struggles and set them up for success in their careers.”

During his two years at Utah, the Utes went 8-13 and played against top competition including Air Force, Duke, Massachusetts and a few other teams that helped them build up a presence in Pac-12 lacrosse.

Now, with plenty of experience under his belt, Perkins is looking to bring that leadership back across the country to a team that helped give him so much, and he’s excited to play in front of his friends and family.

“This is definitely a unique scenario, and it’s pretty surreal to be back where I started and to play with these guys this year,” Perkins said. “We have a great team and a great culture that Coach McMinn has built, and I’m just excited and grateful to be back and be a part of it.”

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