I showed up at Cuse as a freshmen and immediately saw I had jumped into the deep end of the pool. I was a offensive middy at that point and my only competition was Roy Colsey, Dom Fin, Charlie Lockwood to name a few, all three of whom are in the HOF! I found playing time as a short stick defender and got into most games, late and when we had it well in hand, but loved being on the field. We won the Championship that year against UNC in a thriller. My sophomore year the coaching staff said since I had only played for a few years, and picked it up so fast, that if I shifted to a long stick I might get on the field sooner. So I did. This opened the door to play long stick midfield, again, not a special spot particularly in that era, but I played in every game from that point on.
We won the Championship again in my Jr year. My Sr year I was named one of the Tri Captains, I played exclusively close defense and drew the top attack man on every team. While not a huge take away threat, I held most of the great attachment I played that year to there worst point tally of the season and after 3 games, held every team we played to single digits until we fell the Princeton in the final four semis. I was named an honorable mention AA my senior year. Most of my buddies and the coaching staff agreed had I come from one of the fabled areas of HS lacrosse and had a bigger name easier in my career that I would have been at a minimum a 2nd team AA that year and had probably earned 1st team, but that is not how Di work, as you know. Still, I felt beyond blessed to play at SU in truly its peak of dominance.

My senior year I had no idea of what I would do next. I was a Fine Arts major, so I would probably be living under a bridge with no job opportunities. I am a big reader and my Dad sent me a copy of Winston Churchill’s autobiographical work “My Early Life”. Something about that read struck me like a lightning bolt that military service, particularly as an officer would be the right path for me. I did some research, thought special operations units would be my style and heard that 75-80% of the candidates that were selected for SEAL training didn’t make it, and that sounded like the right odds to me. My first application to become a SEAL officer was turned down, but don’t deal with “no’s” all that well and I reapplied and got picked up. My SEAL training class started with 185 guys and we graduated 22. I went on the serve at ST 4, 1 & 3. I deployed to Central and South American, East and West Africa and Iraq and Afghanistan. I lead well over 20+ combat missions and brought all my guys home safely. I earned multiple service award and combat distinctions to include the Bronze Star with “V” for valorous action in combat. My team ran some of the most impactful combat missions of the Iraq war and will be remembered as one of the most decorated SEAL teams in our communities long and fabled history. I will retire this fall as a Commander with 20 years of service.