By Joe Santoliquito
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/27/24
Max Busenkell had to start over again. For the first time in his athletic life, he was forced to watch and learn. The 2022 Garnet Valley graduate acclimated well his freshman year at Notre Dame. He hardly saw any playing time, so that is what he did, watched and learned.
From the best.
His growth continues, on a far larger stage than maybe he even anticipated. All Busenkell has known at Notre Dame is winning. Last year, as a freshman watching the Irish win their first NCAA men’s lacrosse national championship at Lincoln Financial Field, and this year, playing a key role in the Irish repeating as national champions at the Linc.
Busenkell scored a go-ahead goal and added two assists in Notre Dame’s thorough domination of Maryland, 15-5, in the national championship game today before 31,479 fans.
“This does not feel real,” Busenkell admitted. “Last year, the standard was set. Originally, Notre Dame never won a ring before last year. Before that, people looked down on the program, thinking we could not win on the big stage. We proved everyone wrong last year, and we did it again this year.”
Busenkell was a two-sport star at Garnet Valley, in both football and lacrosse and was named a Phillylacrosse.com Co-Player of the Year for a Jags squad that reached the PIAA 3A championship. He had to be patient for playing time at Notre Dame, which is loaded with star-caliber players like the Kavanagh brothers, Chris and Pat, Jake Taylor, Eric Dobson, Devon McLane, Reilly Gray and Jordan Faison.
Last year Busenkell played in just 7 games. This year he finished with 10 goals and 8 assists as a regular on the second middie line.
“Those guys made the transition easy,” said Busenkell. “They are a bunch of studs and out offense has no ego. We play as a team. The Kavanaghs are amazing. I never played with anyone like them before. They not only excel, they make everyone around them better.
“You always have to be aware. They are very creative. Anytime one of them had the ball, the defense stares at them, making off-ball movement really easy. We saw that today when Maryland was looking at them, Jake Taylor, our crease attack, came up and finished. It’s because they draw the attention of the whole defense.”
Busenkell said about 30 family and friends from Garnet Valley attended the game. He went to the Final Four in 2015 at the Linc when Denver won the national title over Maryland. He has been in the area when ACC held tournaments at Subaru Park (where the Philadelphia Union play). He remembers playing in the Linc parking lot before the games.
Now, he’s a two-time national champion, knowing he played a legitimate role this year.
“It is sinking in, and my nerves were really high before the game, and when we had that rain delay, the nerves relaxed a lot more,” Busenkell said. “We return nine guys from this year. I’ll remember these guys forever. We are losing 25 upperclassmen. We are losing great leaders, but we will obviously carry the championship culture they created.”
This was legendary Irish coach Kevin Corrigan’s greatest team. The Irish finished the season 16-1 and rolled over everyone in their path to win their second-straight national title.
“Max is great. He just has such a calm demeanor,” Corrigan said. “I kind of got on him about something the other day and got in his face a little bit. He just kind of looks at you with this bemused look like, ‘I got this. It’s okay, I know. I got this.’
“And it kind of tickles me because he just is unflappable. And he plays that way. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. He doesn’t get caught up in things. And when he does make a mistake, he fixes it. He’s also got the highest GPA on our team. He’s an unbelievable student. He’s a great kid.”
Corrigan feels Busenkell is ascending into the leadership role with the Irish, because of his easy demeanor and the way he handles himself.
Maryland bolted out to a 2-0 lead, then Notre Dame answered with a 10-1 run, keeping Maryland off the scoreboard for 19 minutes, 51 seconds. It was Busenkell, nicknamed “Buzzy” who gave the Irish their first lead, 3-2, with 6:16 left in the first quarter.
The Irish never trailed again.
“I have to be honest, last year ‘Buzzy’ did not play a second for us, but what he has is an ability to see the game,” Corrigan said. “Buzzy knows when to push, and when to slow down, and it is the kind of thing that you cannot teach. Then he has two-handed skills to pull off that stuff when he does it.
“Those two things together make him really good. I would think this is my greatest team. Buzzy will be one of our bug pieces the next two years. Hey, he was one of our big pieces this year. Our second midfield was really important to us, and Buzzy was a huge piece of that.
“We played better once he got on the field, and you saw it when we took the lead. This is just the start for Buzzy.”
