Asher Nolting Brings a Familiar Mindset to New Role With the Cannons

As a kid, Nolting was inspired by Kyle Harrison. He also paid close attention to the battles his two new teammates at attack – Marcus Holman and Matt Kavanagh – had in their college days.  

“I like to remind [Marcus and Matt] how much older they are than me, and just talk about the times that I got to watch them growing up on ESPNU on Saturdays,” Nolting said with a chuckle. 

“I think that’s another thing that changed from this year to last year. As a rookie, I kind of had some impostor syndrome of you know, ‘Man, am I really supposed to be here? Am I good enough?’ But this year, [Marcus and Matt] do a great job of keeping me confident. It’s been an unbelievable experience to be able to be on an attack line with both of those guys,” Nolting said plainly. 

Now that he is a full season wiser at the pro level, Nolting has been focusing more on letting the game come to him.

“I think the biggest knock on me for my entire career has been my turnovers. And, to an extent, I think that’s fair,” Nolting attested.

“I take a lot of risks, and that’s just how I’ve always played and how I’ve always wanted to play. But, it hurts the team if I make a bad turn over, so I’ve definitely tried to dial in a little bit more into the film… my decision making is probably the thing that I’m still trying to improve on. It’s definitely gotten better.”

In the season opener, Nolting had just one turnover on 35 total touches. While Nolting recognizes his tendency to, at times, push the envelope too much, he’s never let a turnover faze him. That’s the golf training coming back into play. 

“The first sport I ever played in anything competitive was a golf tournament and that’s by yourself. So I had to mentally get pretty tough,” Nolting affirmed.

“I developed some mental stuff that let me throw some mistakes away. I think that also probably contributes to my turnovers because most of the time I just forget I turned the ball over.”

Outside of the enhanced situational awareness, Nolting also brings another new, but familiar identity to the field this season. Nolting is back wearing 32, his college number, after a year spent feeling unlike himself as agent zero. Once the number became available, it was a no-brainer; 32 is a Nolting family number. Asher’s mom, Jody, wore it on the volleyball court in high school, as did Allen Nolting on the basketball court. 

But really, this season so far has been more of the same for Nolting. The same dynamic play-making ability on display, the same readiness to adapt to whatever role his team needs filled, and the same toothy smile that goes along with it all. 

You can catch Nolting and the Cannons LC take on Chaos LC this Saturday live on ESPN+ at 5:30 p.m.