By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 6/8/08
Cardinal O’Hara coach Jim DeRose says it’s no surprise that Lions two-year captain
Pat Daly plans to become an athletic trainer.
After all, Daly was always there for his teammates.
“He has always been a leader by example – always the first one there,” said DeRose. “He has a great attitude; he is always in the ‘can do’ mode.
“It was always about the team, it was never about him. He was a lax captain for two years, and was also the football team captain. He is just a great kid. His teammates voted him the ‘Lion,’ which is the award we give to the player that best represents the school and the team.”
Daly, a first-team all-Catholic League midfielder, graduated Wednesday with a 3.9 GPA and is the season’s final winner of the Laxzilla/Phillylacrosse.com Male Student-Athlete of the Week. He is headed to Penn State, which he plans to major in kinesiology and perhaps walk on to the lacrosse team.
Daly, also a standout safety on the O’Hara football team, took pride in his job as a team leader.
“I saw my role as helping keep the team together, especially in tough situations,” he said. “I always liked to be the one pushing everyone.”
Daly helped push the Lions into the first round of the playoffs this year, but he felt the team could have done better.
“We had a lot of injuries and team-wise I wouldn’t say we reached our goals,” he said. “But I loved my lacrosse career at O’Hara. I learned to always keep your head and keep moving on no matter what the circumstances are.”
DeRose said Daly was the ultimate role model for future Lions.
“As a player, no one worked harder,” he said. “He was our best player – regardless of the position. If he had been a defenseman, he would have been the best at that.
“He was about 70 percent on face-offs this year. He never came off the field. He played the same way if we were up or down, always as hard as he could.”
Leave a Reply