Dresher native and 2022 Premier Lacrosse League championship game MVP Michael Sowers will be playing close to home in the future, as Philadelphia was awarded Premier Lacrosse League’s Waterdogs franchise, writes Matt Ryan for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Waterdogs are the first PLL expansion team. They have been part of the league since 2020 and took the championship two years later. In 2023, the team returned to the title game.

The PLL decided on Philadelphia as Waterdogs’ hometown after looking at multiple factors such as viewership data, venue fit, and fan input online.

“Philadelphia was a pretty easy decision for us,” Paul Rabil, said co-founder of the PLL. “They have PLL fans that are among the largest in population within our database, and even third-party data in lacrosse points to the not only growing but substantive lacrosse participant in the great state of Pennsylvania.”

The 26-year-old Montgomery County star is the team’s biggest connection to the region. He attended Upper Dublin High School before playing lacrosse at Princeton. There, he became the all-time leader in points. Sowers used his final year of eligibility at Duke, where he helped the Blue Devils reach the Final Four in 2021.

Read more about Michael Sowers and the Philadelphia Waterdogs in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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