Michael Pohle Jr.

• Age: 23
• Major: Biological sciences
• Hometown: Flemington, N.J.
• High school: Hunterdon Central
• Parents: Michael Pohle Sr. and Teresa Pohle

Related

• Sign Michael's guest book
• Virginia Tech shooting victims

The Virginia Tech men's club lacrosse team will wear Michael Pohle Jr.'s initials on their helmets when they play in the SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference tournament this weekend in Duluth, Ga.

Pohle, a senior, played midfield for two seasons before leaving the team this year to concentrate on school and work.

The 23-year-old biological sciences major was among the 33 students and instructors fatally shot Monday on the Virginia Tech campus.

On Wednesday, Virginia Tech lacrosse Coach Joel Nachlas described Pohle as a young man who loved life and always wore a smile.

"He was just a guy that was happy to be around and happy to be doing whatever he was doing," Nachlas said. "He was just upbeat in all situations."

Pohle grew up in Flemington, N.J. He was a 2002 graduate of Hunterdon Central High School, where he played football and lacrosse.

"He was a great kid. He was a class act," Craig Blanton, a vice principal at the school when Pohle was there, told the Hunterdon County Democrat newspaper in Flemington. "He was a good person overall. He had this outgoing personality."

Sean Ewing, 23, a boyhood friend of Pohle's, told the Star-Ledger in Newark that he tried to reach Pohle by text message Monday.

"I didn't hear back, but you believe in the best until you know it's the worst," he said.

"When you don't hear back, you can't help but get a little scared, though out of 25,000 people, you figure, this can't happen to my guy."

Ewing told the Star-Ledger that he had known Pohle since third grade.

"We both liked the same crappy horror movies. That's what I'm trying to hang on to now, the memories," Ewing said.

Nachlas said he planned to hold practice for his lacrosse players Wednesday afternoon for the first time since the shootings took place.

"I'm going to have to feel it out as I see the kids and kind of get the pulse of what's going on," he said.

Nachlas said there's some concern about his players participating in this weekend's tournament so soon after the shootings, but he said Virginia Tech is the second seed and had worked hard to get there.

"One question we've asked ourselves is whether or not we ought to, but I think we have to go ahead and compete," he said.

-- Jay Conley