By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 10/12/15

Pat Swanick played for the HEADstrong Lacrosse Club and competed in several HEADstrong Foundation events – so playing at home Saturday with his St. Joseph’s Hawks in the inaugural SJU Fall Scrimmage to benefit HEADstrong was a thrill.

Host St. Joseph’s, Lehigh and Villanova at the SJU Fall Scrimmage

“To be a part of this is an amazing thing,” said Hawks’ senior attackman from St. Joseph’s Prep and the team’s Nick Colleluori winner in the three-team Fall Ball event. “We had three great teams and it was a gorgeous day.

“To to see all the hard work in the fall come together is great, especially in light of the Colleluori family and HEADstrong. It’s quite an opportunity.”

Pat Swanick

St. Joseph’s was joined by Villanova and Lehigh in the event, one of three held last weekend to benefit the HEADstrong Foundation. The other tourneys were held at Nick’s college, Hofstra (Nicholas Colleluori Classic, Long Island), at Johns Hopkins (Nick Colleluori Classic) and Plattsburgh State (Lax Stache Smash).

In all, 14 college teams competed in HEADstrong events and next week eight men’s and women’s team will compete in the University City Classic while in Minnesota The Blake School will host the 2015 Face-off Against Blood Cancer Lacrosse Tournament.

“I started playing for HEADstrong in my sophomore year for Michael Colleluori and to see how far it’s grown is amazing,” said Swanick. “I know the Colleluori family has no limits. It’s a pretty amazing organization.”

Click here for Sunday’s story on Villanova’s Nick Tortoriello, a blood cancer donor.

Lehigh’s Nick Colleluori winner was Reid Weber, a junior attackman from Germantown Academy. Weber noted how the three teams created an online donation page that met the goal of raising $3,000.

“This was incredible,” Weber said. “We love everything HEADstrong is about. It’s great to have three teams from Philly get together like this. We hit our goal of $3000, participation was awesome and it was a perfect fall day. You couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Lehigh’s Reid Weber

St. Joe’s coach Taylor Wray agreed:

“It really is everything we hoped we’d have,” he said. “The good weather, this great turnout – this is about as good as it gets. You have three local teams with a large local following and a good number of fans here.

“It is, from a selfish standpoint, also nice to be able to host the event at St. Joe’s. We get a number of poeple on our campus and get to play home games with a great atmosphere. It’s a real good setting with the tailgating and socxializing. I can’t think of a better spot for having an event like this.

“For us, it’s great to play two games and play more people. It’s a great opportunity to get these guys extra minutes and get the feel of heightened intensity of the game and get comfortable in that situation.”

Tags: Lehigh, St. Joseph's University, Villanova