Late Bloomer
GRITTY PAT FOLEY HAS PROVED A QUICK LACROSSE STUDY
By Patrick Stevens
Patrick Foley can still remember some of the less flattering feedback he received when he made it clear he would pursue a lacrosse career.
A 175-pound defenseman isn’t going to start at the college level. It definitely wasn’t enough for a good Division I team. Maybe he could make an impact as a long stick midfielder, but surely not on close defense.
“That definitely got to my head,” Foley said. “That’s definitely a huge focal point for this summer, to change that. I don’t want to give up any speed. I think that’s an important part and unique side to me. But with this aggressive attitude I can have, I definitely want some weight to throw around with that, too.” At 6 feet and 175 pounds, Foley doesn’t fit the stereotype as a bruiser. But he’s the first freshman to regularly start on close defense for Johns Hopkins since Tucker Durkin (an eventual two-time Schmeisser Award winner) in 2010, and he’ll play for the United States’ under-19 national team in this summer’s world championships in Canada.
Not bad for a guy who didn’t pick up a stick until the summer before his freshman year of high school and wasn’t even on Johns Hopkins’ radar until assistant coach Bill Dwan was impressed with his footwork at a camp the summer before his senior year. Now, he’s an indispensable part of the Blue Jays’ defense and quickly gaining ground as he learns more about the game.
“He grows every week,” Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said. “He’s not overwhelmed by the moment.” It arrived quickly. Foley made his high school freshman team just months after trying the sport and moved from midfield to close defense in the middle of that first season. As a late bloomer, it appeared he would likely take a postgraduate year and reclassify as a member of the class of 2016.
That changed in the summer of 2014 when he got a call from one of his coaches at 3d Lacrosse. “He tells me Johns Hopkins had just called and was interested in looking at me,” Foley said. “I lost my mind. It was as a 2015, too. That was, in my opinion, the best combination of academics and the way I learn and lacrosse. When that call came, I was ecstatic. My mind was made up for the most part.”
Things got even better once he visited campus for a game last spring and got to know two-time Johns Hopkins captain Michael Pellegrino. The two share some characteristics —
Team USA midfielder Ryan Conrad, here playing against the Canadian U19 team in January, notched 12 points as a freshman with Virginia this season.
30 LACROSSE MAGAZINE » June 2016
A Publication of US Lacrosse
DEFENSE
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