Artistry in motion

Welcome to Mike Powell's world. Your computer's mouse is your passport.

When you enter his website, mikeypowell.com, you are invited to step through the looking glass and marvel at his athleticism and artistry with a lacrosse stick. You also can sample his music, chuckle at the posts on his slightly off-center musings on life, guffaw at his goofy home videos, ponder his scenic photography, and, in general, contemplate his soulful singer-songwriter's creativity. It's almost as if you hear yourself beckoned to this digital carnival by the edgy preamble of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 2."

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends We're so glad you could attend Come inside! Come inside! When it comes to Powell, arguably one of the most exciting if not free-spirited players in Major League Lacrosse, there's more than meets the eye.

"My whole career, I've always said that I never liked it when people just called me a lacrosse player," said Powell, 24, who took a season's hiatus last year and was acquired by the Boston Cannons along with Ben DeFelice in a March 21 trade with the Washington Bayhawks in exchange for attackman Conor Gill and defenseman Ryan Curtis. "I think a lot of it stems from growing up with two older brothers who were accomplished in the game as well, so since I first started playing lacrosse, I was always Ryan and Casey Powell's little brother, the lacrosse player."

For that reason, Powell, a 2004 Syracuse graduate, refuses to be pinned down by labels.

But if it's labels you want, try these: two-time Tewaaraton Trophy winner, awarded annually to the nation's best college lacrosse player; four-time NCAA first-team All-American; two-time member of the United States men's national team (2002, '06); two-time NCAA champion (2002 and '04); 2004 NCAA Division 1 player of the year; and Syracuse's all-time leading scorer with 307 points (150 goals, 157 assists), which shattered the previous mark (287) held by his brothers Casey, 31, an attackman-midfielder for the MLL's Rochester Rattlers, and Ryan, 29, an attackman with the MLL's San Francisco Dragons.

"Growing up, he was furthest from being the best player in our family," said Casey Powell. "But after our college careers, he did very well. We've been able to share this whole experience of this great game together, we played together on Team USA and we're all playing in the MLL. Now, I certainly think he's the best in the world."

Yet Powell has not let his accomplishments define him. He remains an avant-garde attackman who is as committed to his craft on the field and as a spokesman and product line designer for Brine Inc., a Milford-based manufacturer and marketer of lacrosse, field hockey, soccer, and volleyball equipment, as he is to his musical pursuits.

Come inside, the show's about to start guaranteed to blow your head apart Rest assured you'll get your money's worth The greatest show in Heaven, Hell or Earth. You've got to see the show, it's a dynamo. You've got to see the show, it's rock and roll . . . To Powell, lacrosse is rock and roll. "I'm an entertainer -- I'm an athletic entertainer," he said. An acoustic guitarist since age 13 who has written 20 songs, Powell plans to meld his worlds of sports and entertainment this summer by touring with his newly formed rock band, Villain's Trust, during the season. To that end, Powell's band has signed Stone Temple Pilots former manager, Joe Sofio, to book tour dates around Powell's MLL schedule.

In fact, Powell's band is scheduled to play a gig after the game when the Cannons open their season Saturday night against the Bayhawks in Washington.

"We're not concerned at all," said Cannons general manager Jason Chandler. "We expect Mike to be at every practice and every game. All the players in our league have other jobs and outside interests. But that's what makes all our guys unique, and in Mike's case it makes him even more unique by playing his music and working for Brine. All of our guys have pressures and demands on them. We expect the same from all of them, and we accommodate them as much as we can with practices and travel. It's just the nature of the league."

After he played for Team USA in the world championships last year, Powell sat out the MLL season "to recharge my batteries," he said. Now he is excited to be in a new city, playing in a new venue, with new teammates. Is it a rebirth?

"That's how I'm looking at it -- new city, new team, new players," Powell said after concluding a recent preseason workout at Harvard Stadium, which will serve as the Cannons' new home this season. "I just want to get back to being the player I was in college, where every time I touched the ball, people were on their feet saying, 'What is he going to do next?' "

The Bayhawks' ownership group probably wondered precisely that when Powell was drafted No. 1 in 2004, but shocked the team when he decided to sit out that season. He came back the following year and, paired with Syracuse alums Gary Gait and Tom Marechek, formed a formidable attack that led the Bayhawks to the MLL championship.

When a new ownership group, led by Sudbury native Jeff Harvey, took over last year, it too was jolted when Powell opted to sit out the 2006 MLL season. So when the Cannons called offering to trade two of their stars for Powell, the Bayhawks couldn't resist.

"It's similar to the Sox trading Nomar Garciaparra for three utility players, but we didn't get three utility players -- we got two superstars," Harvey said. "Being a new ownership group, obviously we would have liked to have had him play for us. If we had him for the year, we probably could have developed a relationship with him that would have made us think about other options. For us, it was probably easier to trade him. If we would have known him at all, it would have made it more difficult to trade him. But there wasn't any bitterness on our part."

"I'm sure they weren't too pleased with me," Powell said. "Last year, I said I needed to take a break from lacrosse. It wasn't me being disrespectful at all to the game, and some people took it that way. Sometimes you just need to recharge your battery, and I'd say that was the case.

"Now I'm back and feeling better about the game of lacrosse than I ever have. Now I'm ready to play. I can't say that I was ready to play in 2004, because I was just so burned out, you know? I'd been playing lacrosse competitively since I was 5 years old until I graduated from college, so I thought I could use a little bit of a break there."

Paired with fellow "ankle breakers" Chazz Woodson and John Christmas, as he calls them, Powell is hoping to bring his brand of run-and-gun, rock-and-roll lacrosse to a Boston attack that could prove one of the fastest in the MLL.

"My style is all based on having fun, that's for sure," Powell said. "That's been my goal with lacrosse. I really pride myself on always smiling, always having fun, and always trying new things. I love being creative with the game. I'm always trying different things that have never been done before."

"He can do it all," said Cannons coach Bill Daye, who was instrumental in bringing Powell to Boston. "Both on and off the field, he's one of the more well-known players. He's very exciting. He can score. He can create offense and he can make plays. That's what we were looking for when we made that deal."

Powell brought his creative bent to lacrosse from an early age when he and his brothers grew up in upstate New York next to an Onondaga Indian reservation. "That's where we got our start," Mike said. "The Onondaga Indians always said that lacrosse was a gift from The Creator. Basically, their whole philosophy is that The Creator is watching every time they step on the field and The Creator is always looking for players who treat the game with respect and take it in a right direction, and that was instilled in me from a young age."

Which explains why he regards a lacrosse field as a sacred place. "For sure, it's the one place I feel at home and I feel comfortable just because I've been doing it for so long," he said, scanning the FieldTurf pitch at Harvard Stadium. "This is my canvas. I go out there and paint a picture every time I step on the field. It's an artistic thing to me. Everything I do in my life is artistic, in some way. I try to think outside the box. Just the way I run around, I constantly have a beat in my head."

A soundtrack? "Yeah, exactly," he said.

So what's on the playlist of his mental iPod? "I don't know. I don't know the songs I'm doing it to, it's just a baseline with a drumbeat," he said. "I don't know, but sometimes I am vocal with it. I definitely try to play in a rhythm and find my rhythm, literally."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.