Matt McBride helps out at Georgetown’s lacrosse practice each day, wearing a backward baseball cap as he works with faceoff specialists, fires shots at goalies, operates the clock — whatever is needed.
The senior stands on the sideline each weekend, offering encouragement and motivation to teammates when they come off the field.
And from time to time, there’s an impulse to grab a stick and race onto the field — and one day in particular stands out.
“Duke,” McBride said without hesitation.
It didn’t happen, however, because a concussion — McBride’s third in three years — suffered in the 2007 opener halted a promising career.
According to a 2007 article in the Journal of Athletic Training, a 15-year study of 15 NCAA sports revealed 0.26 out of every 1,000 men’s lacrosse players suffered a concussion during their career, less than football, men’s and women’s ice hockey and men’s and women’s soccer and also below the average of 0.28 over all sports examined.
McBride was one of the unlucky ones.
He suffered a concussion as a high school senior in 2004 and returned to play after two weeks without any lingering effects. It happened again as a college sophomore, costing McBride a week.
He wasn’t so fortunate last year at Maryland. Early in the game, Dan D’Agnes looped a pass to McBride in front of the crease, and McBride was quickly crunched.
Brendan Cannon and D’Agnes carried McBride to the bench, and McBride remembers stumbling off the field and little else until he successfully badgered coaches into sending him back in for the last 30 seconds.
“He got completely blind-sided from behind up high,” Cannon said. “It’s definitely not the way you like to see it happen. If it happens at all, you’d like to at least look at it and say it was a good hit and just bad luck, but it was a dirty play. That adds to the frustration. But at the time, you didn’t actually think that was going to [end his career].”
Nor did McBride, who assumed he would recover about as quickly as he did from previous concussions. But the constant headaches lingered, and halfway through the season he learned his lacrosse career was essentially over.
“It was definitely difficult and frustrating at first,” said McBride, who had 16 goals and four assists in 29 career games. “At the same time, the realization your head is involved is something that’s a little more important.”
Remaining around his teammates has helped. D’Agnes, who is one of McBride’s roommates, said friends keep in mind McBride’s headaches when planning social activities.
So late-night parties in loud places are generally out. In their place is at least one outing that plays to any attackman’s strengths.
“We’ve gone to a shooting range a couple times and shot off some guns, which he really likes,” D’Agnes said.
McBride still likes lacrosse, too. And though he couldn’t play his final season at Georgetown, he remains an influential part of the team as the No. 4 Hoyas (9-3) seek to solidify their 12th straight postseason berth with a victory today at Penn State (6-7).
“He’s done a lot for the team that goes unnoticed by some kids,” Cannon said. “If you pull each kid aside and ask ’What does McBride do?,’ it might be hard to tell. For the people that are making a conscious effort to notice what he does, they notice that he’s doing a lot.”
Added McBride: “For some people, I think it would be difficult to give it up, but it was never really an option for me. I always wanted to remain a part of this program even if I couldn’t be on the field. Even if I’m not playing, I still consider myself part of this program because of what I’m doing.”
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