The Wings have several ties to the Baltimore area: defender John Ranagan was an All-American midfielder at Johns Hopkins, where he was a teammate of defender Mike Poppleton, who is a Wings practice squad player. Megastar Paul Rabil (Johns Hopkins) had 17 goals and 21 assists for the Wings in 2013 but opted not to play this season; he had surgery in September on torn hip muscles, and it seemed likely he skipped the NLL season to prepare for the Federation of International Lacrosse World Championships, in which he led the U.S. to an opening-game win Friday.