Colin Heacock has returned home in more ways than one.

After spending the previous three seasons with the Chrome of the Premier Lacrosse League, Heacock has reunited with 10 of his former Maryland teammates as members of the Whipsnakes. And this season is the club’s first with a geographic affiliation as it is officially known as the Maryland Whipsnakes.

“It’s always special wearing Maryland across your chest and knowing that you’re representing a lot more,” said Heacock, who hails from Catonsville, graduated from Boys’ Latin and helped the Terps capture the 2017 NCAA championship. “You’re playing for the state of Maryland. It kind of has that college feel to it with a lot of my former teammates from Maryland. It was kind of a dream of mine to come back and compete with these guys, but now that they’ve rebranded it and made them the Maryland Whipsnakes, it’s something you can’t put into words.”The Whipsnakes are the state’s first professional lacrosse franchise since 2020, when the Major League Lacrosse’s Chesapeake Bayhawks welcomed visitors to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.

In December, the PLL announced it had based all eight of its teams in specific locations, placing the Cannons in Boston, Massachusetts, the Redwoods in San Diego, California, the Chaos in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Outlaws in Denver, Colorado, the Atlas in Albany, New York, the Waterdogs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Archers in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The league has retained most of its tour-based model while adjusting the schedule to allow each club to host and play two games on its home field in front of its home fans. The Whipsnakes will host four games Aug. 3-4 at Johns Hopkins’ Homewood Field, and Heacock is hoping for a homefield advantage when they meet the Philadelphia Waterdogs on Aug. 3 at 1 p.m. and the Boston Cannons on Aug. 4 at 3 p.m.

“In the years past, we’ve always had a sellout crowd, a pretty great outing. So I’m not too concerned,” he said. “I know the fans will probably come out. But it’s always great having fans come out and cheer you on because it gives you a little boost of energy and you want to perform at the highest level and try to do your best and put on a good show for them. So that should be a great weekend.”

PLL co-founder and former Johns Hopkins midfielder Paul Rabil has said one of the reasons behind tying franchises to cities and states was to strengthen the connection between players and fans in those locations. If the season-opening weekend at Albany’s Casey Stadium was an indication, that plan might be fruitful.

ESPN analyst Quint Kessenich praised the league for decorating the venue in the New York Chrome’s aqua blue colors and team signage. He estimated that a slight majority of those in attendance wore Chrome apparel in support of their home team.

“I think it gives fans — especially new fans, the ones just finding out about this league — an opportunity to more quickly and more easily find a team to root for whereas in the past, I think they were rooting for a team with their favorite player,” said Kessenich, a former Blue Jays goalkeeper. “Now with the regional markets, it gives fans a team to root for. Fans can sit together, they can tailgate together, they can all wear their jerseys together. There’s more of a sense of community.”

Besides the 11 former Terps on the Whipsnakes roster, there is also former Loyola Maryland attackman Adam Poitras, a trio of players who grew up in the Baltimore metro in former Yale attackman Jackson Morrill (Baltimore native and McDonogh graduate), former Duke midfielder Garrett Leadmon (Annapolis native) and former Navy long-stick midfielder Matt Rees (Sykesville native and Boys’ Latin graduate who is on injured reserve) and a pair of assistant coaches in former Maryland midfielder Drew Snider and former Loyola long-stick midfielder P.T. Ricci.

Despite the heavy state-wide influence within the 26-member roster, coach Jim Stagnitta said he did not think the club’s affiliation to Maryland would add any undue strain to the players’ objectives.

“I wouldn’t call it pressure,” he said. “There’s always expectations that we’re going to succeed, and that’s regardless of where our home base is. These are professional athletes who are used to succeeding. A majority of my players have played in Final Fours and have been championship-caliber players. So that’s kind of inherent. I don’t think that’s changing because we’re representing a certain city or area. I think all of our guys are driven to be successful and believe we’re going to be successful.”

The Whipsnakes opened the season Sunday with a 17-13 loss to New York, which sprinted to a 10-1 lead in the first half and forced Stagnitta to pull former Terps goalkeeper Kyle Bernlohr for Brendan Krebs, who played at Manhattan. Maryland was also undermanned, playing without 2023 Rookie of the Year and attackman Tucker Dordevic, midfielder Brad Smith (knee injury) and Poitras (trip to Spain with Loyola).

But rookie attackman TJ Malone paced the offense with three goals and three assists, midfielder Mike Chanenchuk added two 2-point goals and one 1-point goal and the team trimmed the deficit to 15-13 in the fourth quarter before the Atlas scored two late goals to cement the win.

“I took away the things I had hoped from this group,” Stagnitta said. “They play hard, they continue to compete, they fought their way back into it. I think it’s a group that because of some of the youth and the fact that there are a lot of new pieces in there, we have some significant pieces hopefully coming back into the lineup over the next few weeks. I think it’s a team that has great potential to just continue to improve throughout the year.”

The Whipsnakes (0-1) can even their record when they face Boston (0-1) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Charlotte.

As encouraging as a positive outcome would be, Heacock said there’s a big-picture outlook that is just as significant.

“You always want to go out there for every game and try to win, but it’s still early in the season, and we’re just trying to take it one game at a time and one day at a time,” he said. “We don’t really look past that. Obviously, the ultimate goal is to win that game, but we also want to focus on ourselves and make sure that we’re competing and doing all of the little things that are necessary.”