When the Premier Lacrosse League’s Boston Cannons opened training camp back in May with unstrung lacrosse stick heads, players knew who to ask for an assist.
“Sometimes guys like to hide that they’re good stringers, cause it’s a lot of work,” Coulter Mackesy, a Cannons attackman and a self-proclaimed stick junkie, said in a phone interview. “But for me, I want to fully commit to this, so I was like ‘yeah, I’ll do it,’ and it spread through the team quickly.”
Mackesy recently finished his first season with the Cannons after an illustrious career with the Princeton Tigers, where he set the school’s records for season and career goals and was a finalist for the 2025 Tewaaraton Award given to the best college lacrosse player. But during his rookie PLL season, he developed a reputation as one of the pro league’s best stringers, which he turned into revenue for his stringing business Tiga Strings, the name paying homage to his alma mater.
His free services to his teammates this season was slightly motivated by his first-year status. (He scoffed at the idea at serving other players around the league. “I don’t want to help out the opposing teams,” he said). But the tradeoff was enough because it allowed the rising star to showcase his business with pro lacrosse stars on social media.
“It gives me a little more credibility when I’m stringing sticks for some of the best players in the world,” said the 22-year-old, who estimates he has strung more than 150 sticks in the past four months. “It helps me grow.”
The PLL playoffs will get underway on Saturday without the Cannons after they were eliminated from contention earlier this month. The lefty shooter will watch the postseason unfold from afar as he focuses on taking the next step to improve his services, which range from custom stringing to signature pockets.
Mackesy says he currently has roughly a dozen returning customers, mostly youth and college players, with one-off orders also trickling in. Mackesy adds that his mother, Jennifer—a minority owner in NWSL soccer team NJ/NY Gotham and co-founder of World Sevens Football—helped him navigate operating a business by teaching him the basics of inventory, handling expenses and other management necessities. The business is on pace to generate more revenue than his annual PLL base salary, which is about $27,000 as the fourth overall pick in the 2025 college draft.
It’s common for pro lacrosse players, even the most successful, to find other sources of income since salaries are low compared to other major men’s sports leagues in the U.S. Some players may work youth camps while others become brand ambassadors.
“He’s got more of a leg up than others would,” Fantum Lacrosse president Isaac Merfalen on Mackesy during a phone interview. “He’s already got a captive audience of people who would look to him as someone trustworthy, and [they would] feel [comfortable] sending their stick to.”
Mackesy and his older brother Tyler learned to string sticks together about a decade ago by watching YouTube videos. The two later created an informal stringing business (Mack Lax) that catered to their friends and family in their native Bronxville, N.Y., until they finished high school.
Tiga Strings started as a fun venture by two former older Princeton lacrosse teammates, Lukas Stanat and Mike Gianforcaro. Once those two graduated last year, the business and social accounts were passed down to Mackesy. As he put the finishing touches on his collegiate career, Mackesy was also quietly elevating Tiga Strings, especially this past spring with a light class load to manage.
He’s inspired by more mature lax equipment companies such as East Coast Dyes, a manufacturer that has ballooned into a multimillion-dollar business since launching in 2011.
“Maybe that’s the future for Tiga Strings, who knows,” he says. “Right now, I’m just trying to have fun with it and be creative and spread the game to younger generations.”
Mackesy supplements his income coaching lacrosse camps in the offseason, and he simultaneously gains exposure for Tiga Strings by rocking branded merchandise that’s available for purchase. Mackesy, who wants to remain relevant in the sports community long-term, is using this venture as a platform to flex his budding entrepreneur muscles.
The Cannons player hopes that one day the business will blossom enough to be able to partner with current Princeton lacrosse players and help them earn extra cash. He speaks from experience, noting how it’s difficult to make money in college as NIL dollars float toward the money-making men’s sports programs such as basketball and football.
Mackesy, who has other venture ideas at the intersection of sports and media, could also see himself eventually passing down the business in a similar way that he inherited it. He likes the idea of leaving it in the Princeton program for another talented, ambitious stringer.
“I’ve learned so much from starting Tiga Strings, in terms of starting a business and everything that goes into that,” he said. “Things that you don’t learn in school. It has opened my eyes to a ton of other opportunities out there.”
