Austin Melson joined Gents lacrosse as a volunteer assistant coach in March 2018.

Melson graduated from LSU in May 2018 with a B. Sc. in petroleum engineering. There, he played 4 seasons (2013-2017) of club lacrosse under head coach Jeff Echols. During his collegiate career, he served as a team captain during both upper-classmen years as well as Executive Secretary his Junior year. Coming back from an ACL surgery in 2015, Melson was selected as a 2016 First Team All-Conference Midfielder in the MCLA Lone Star Alliance. In the same season, he was also awarded LSU’s Offensive Player of the Year and MCLA’s Scholar Athlete.

Melson was introduced to lacrosse in the sixth grade while his family was stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Newport News, Virginia. After his first season, he joined the Peninsula Predators, a U13 travel team put together by head coach Steve Powers. The Peninsula Predators remained a summer travel team throughout Melson’s middle school and high school career, as they went on to win many competitive tournaments. Two of which - the Brine Southern Sizzle in Charlotte, North Carolina and the Brine Sun & Surf in Virginia Beach, Virginia - qualified the Predators for entrance to the 2011 Dick’s Sporting Goods National Tournament of Champions in Tampa, FL.

Melson is quick to credit Coach Powers for providing the tools, training, and lessons necessary in becoming a competitive player; Melson makes clear that he intends to share these same values with the Gents.

In the eighth Grade, his family received PCS orders to Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier, Louisianna. He attended Southfield School for the remainder of eighth grade before enrolling into Loyola College Preparatory. He led the Flyers to two Final Four appearances while earning All-American awards his junior and senior years.

During his senior year of high school, Melson served as a volunteer coach for an eighth grade CABOLA team. In 2016, he assisted Jimmy Dicken with the high school Red River Mudbugs, reuniting with many of the players he once coached on the CABOLA team.