Anyone attending a boys lacrosse game at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio in 2004, may have noticed an adorable sight at halftime — a young Michael Boehm at his older brother Joe’s lacrosse game, wearing a helmet so large that it made him look like a bobblehead, running onto the field and taking shots on goal.
“He probably had better stick skills in lacrosse than half the kids on the high school team,” Joe told The Michigan Daily. “And he was three years old.”
Twenty years later, on March 30, 2024, the now-senior midfielder Michael caught everyone’s attention once again. This time, though, it was as one of the players on the field. Against then-No. 8 Johns Hopkins, Michael scored a second-period goal that made him the Wolverines’ all-time leader in points, surpassing his former teammate, attacker Josh Zawada.
The record serves as the peak of his career at Michigan — and the culmination of a life where every decision, every goal scored and every practice endured led to Michael donning the maize and blue.
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Born and raised in Cleveland, Michael had a somewhat unorthodox childhood. As the youngest of three children, the age gaps between Michael and his siblings were substantial — Joe and his older sister, Britt, were 14 and 12 years his senior, respectively. As such, Michael matured early as he spent a lot of time around his older siblings and their friends.
“He was a very easy child,” Patti Boehm, Michael’s mother, told The Daily. “He was always very diligent and dialed in, even as a little kid. He wasn’t really silly. He was kind of mature in school. He grew up with older siblings and kind of was an old soul.”
Michael’s maturity manifested not just in his demeanor, but in his early vigor for lacrosse. Thanks to his siblings who both played the sport, he developed a love for lacrosse early on, fomented by attending his brother’s high school games.
And not only did Michael’s siblings shape his love for lacrosse, they also shaped his passion for the University of Michigan.
Britt planted the seeds for Michael’s future as a Wolverine long before he set foot on campus. She attended and played club lacrosse at Michigan, and through visiting her, six-year-old Michael fell in love with the University.
“He came to visit and spent nights with me in the dorm room on campus,” Britt told The Daily. “He just thought it was the coolest thing that he could go to the Blue Market at Bursley and get ice cream in this big dorm room. He wore Christmas pajamas around the dorm room.”
Ann Arbor ended up being the perfect place for Michael to cultivate his love for sports, as Britt met her future husband, Trevor Yealy, at Michigan. Yealy started out playing club lacrosse for the Wolverines, and ultimately became the captain of the program’s first-ever varsity team in 2012. Michael spent weekends in Ann Arbor attending his future brother-in-law’s games. Taking part in halftime shooting competitions, Michael honed that passion for the sport that he’d begun to establish at his brother’s games.
In his sister’s words, he’d been “brainwashed” by Michigan athletics. Now, he just had to work hard enough in order to don the maize and blue himself.
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Building on the strong foundations of his early childhood, Michael carved out a life that revolved heavily around sports. In addition to his love for lacrosse, he also developed an affinity for hockey, which he excelled at.
But at some point, he needed to make a choice.
And while Michael enjoyed hockey, playing the sport at a high level would involve participating in the junior program and missing school — something Patti, a teacher, wasn’t particularly inclined to endorse. In addition, Michael found himself falling deeper in love with lacrosse, and coupled with his deep family ties to the sport, the choice was clear.
But Michael faced an uphill climb to the top — Cleveland was no lacrosse hotbed, far away from the sport’s epicenter in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East and Ivy League.
However, he still managed to make friends in high places. Dylan Sheridan, an assistant coach at Denver, watched Michael play when he was in middle school and invited him to play for the West Coast Starz club lacrosse team during the summer. Additionally, Joe Spalina, who coached box lacrosse, watched Michael play at a camp in Florida and recruited him to his winter club team, known as Team 91.
“It exposed him to this different level,” Michael’s father, Joseph, told The Daily. “He knew he wanted to raise the bar of his own skill set to be able to play in college.”
While these resources helped Michael adopt a more competitive mindset in lacrosse, the biggest resource Michael received in his high school career came from a more familiar source — his own family.
Having already been a teenager when Michael was born, and attending university shortly thereafter, Joe felt a strong desire to make up for their lack of time spent together as kids. And thus, while Michael was in middle school and his lacrosse talent was beginning to shine through, Joe left his job in New York to return to Cleveland and coach Michael in the sport they shared a love for — the sport that Joe had helped introduce to Michael.
“Almost every Sunday, starting in grade school, and then through high school, he and I would do Sunday sessions at St. Ignatius,” Joe said. “(We’d) do an hour-and-a-half of individual work — footwork, stick skills, shooting, pathing, finding ways to be deceptive with his dodges or shots, or being physical.”
Although these drills could sometimes be grueling, Michael rose to the challenge — it wasn’t long before Joe could no longer keep up with him. And in addition to the work he put in on the field, Michael and Joe would review and break down game film to find ways to improve. Both in his club career and his coaching sessions with his brother, Michael demonstrated the seriousness and dedication that he had carried with him all his life, as his collegiate lacrosse future approached.
Thanks to that experience and effort from everyone involved, Michael enjoyed a fruitful high school lacrosse career. Totaling 300 points over four years, Michael was a two-time United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association All-American, the 2019 All-Midwest Player of the Year and a five-star recruit coming out of high school.
While those accolades invited a flurry of recruitment offers, Michael disregarded them all but one — he knew where he wanted to go. He’d bled maize and blue since his childhood, and after initially speaking with and cultivating a relationship with John Paul, former Michigan head coach, his decision couldn’t have been clearer.
After years of hard work, what had seemingly been written in the stars had come true: Michael was going to play lacrosse for the Michigan Wolverines.
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Michael has been the same hard-working, focused young man on the field for the Wolverines that he’s been since he was wearing a too-big lacrosse helmet taking shots at three years old.
“Someone who’s pretty smart without the ball, hopefully,” Michael told The Daily April 24, when asked to describe himself. “But also, someone who’s willing to do all the little things right. That’s something my parents have always instilled in me … pick up all the ground balls, guide the ball back if you miss a shot.”
As a midfielder, Michael served as one of the team’s key attacking engines — he only failed to register a point in two games in his entire collegiate career. He was a proficient facilitator and a capable finisher, making darting runs into the opposing half to score from close range. And in addition to his eye-popping points totals, Michael often took on further responsibility. He would also drop back and take on defensive duty, picking up ground balls and serving as an extra man in times of trouble.
Michael came off the bench in his first game at Michigan, against Maryland, and registered three points. After that, his name was never scratched from the starting lineup again. By his sophomore year, he’d already cemented his place as the team’s offensive engine, leading the squad with 63 points for an average of 4.20 per game, the fourth-highest total in the Big Ten.
In 2023, Michael’s junior year, was the year Michigan’s young program grew up, capturing its first ever Big Ten championship. And Michael’s involvement in the team grew, too. Michael set the Wolverines’ single-season goals record with 45, became Michigan’s seventh career 100-point scorer and was named Big Ten Tournament MVP. If it wasn’t already clear that Michigan was the place for him, his accolades transformed the program.
And in his senior season, those accolades grew. Against Delaware March 2, he became Michigan’s second-ever 200-point player. Nearly a month later, he shattered the outright points record against Johns Hopkins. Michael had already been immortalized as one of the best to ever wear the maize and blue on the lacrosse field, but by breaking the points record, he climbed into his own echelon. A second straight Big Ten Tournament MVP and All-American honorable mentions by multiple publications were the cherry on top.
Michael’s accomplishments for the Wolverines are the culmination of everything he’s done and everywhere he’s been throughout his life. His experience and “old soul” shone through via his calmness and composure on the field. Michael’s focus and determination were illustrated by the tenacity with which he fought for ground balls and attacked second chance opportunities. Michael’s chemistry with his teammates and leadership in the locker room were illustrative of the close family relationships he’d cultivated and that had been so pivotal in getting him to where he is now.
“This has been his dream,” Yealy told The Daily April 26. “And to see somebody live out their dream and be so successful is incredible.”
And Michael’s story is far from over. This season, he’ll take his talents to the Premier Lacrosse League for the Philadelphia Waterdogs. There, he will reconnect with Sheridan, who helped kick start his journey — another suggestion that this was always Michael’s destiny. But to be destined for greatness is one thing. To fulfill that destiny is another — and Michael has put in immense amounts of effort to fulfill his.
The boy who’d run onto the field at his brother’s lacrosse games as a three-year old, who had been attending Michigan games since he was six years old, who had dreamed of success his entire life, had not just gotten to be a Wolverine, but got to shatter records and make his name known in the process.