Xavier Lacrosse Grows 

By Billy Malewich ’12

Lacrosse is one of the newest sports on 16th Street, and the team has improved each year since its inception. Varsity head coach and science teacher Pat Drennan P’16 has been the driving force behind the success of the program, and this season will see the most experienced group of players on the field yet.

The Xavier E-News caught up with Mr. Drennan to talk about the state of the program today as well as his long-term goals.

Xavier E-News: How many students do you have try out for the team every year?
Pat Drennan: Our first year, in the spring of 2013, we were a club and we had approximately 25 students playing Xavier lacrosse. Most of those players were new to the sport. The club was made up of primarily freshmen with just handfuls of students from the each of the sophomore, junior, and senior classes. This year we are expecting over 80 Xavier students collectively to try out for our JV and varsity teams.

Xavier E-News: Since this team is fairly new to Xavier, how do you measure success for a season?
Drennan: The Xavier lacrosse program, with a tremendous amount of help from the Athletic Director, Headmaster, and President, strives to supports the overall mission statement of Xavier—to teach students “to take responsibility for their lives, to lead with integrity, to act justly in service of others, to pursue excellence in every endeavor.” I am not sure I could come up with a better set of goals for any team. We also measure success with four different benchmarks—the individual player improving his skills, the team cohesiveness, fair play and integrity, and finally, are the boys having fun? We stick to these areas, and the wins tend to shine through instead of the losses.

Xavier E-News: Finally, where do you see Xavier lacrosse in 5-10 years?
Drennan: I believe most certainly that Xavier lacrosse should be competitive with all lacrosse programs in the immediate NYC area. If we continue to attract experienced players from the five boroughs and the surrounding areas, continue to get great coaches involved in the program and continue to get support from the administration in clearing the various hurdles of having a lacrosse team in the heart of Manhattan, then there is absolutely nothing preventing Xavier from being a lacrosse powerhouse and competing at the highest levels of lacrosse in the hotbed of lacrosse in the Northeast.