As the Marquette men’s lacrosse team travels to New York this week for their regular season finale against the St. John’s Red Storm April 30, one member of the Golden Eagle squad has continued to build a successful season in the crease.
Redshirt first-year Sean Richard has proven many times this season why he will be a threat to the BIG EAST as a dominant goalie for years to come.
“Right now my consistency in between the pipes statistically has grown,” Richard said. “My ball-stopping ability has also grown as well.”
When he was young, Richard would take part in regional tournaments through national premier club lacrosse programs around the country. Despite being a great player at a young age, Richard owes all his success to his coaches who watched him grow as a player.
“They brought a group of 25 guys from around the state (of Michigan) together and built us into a program,” Richard said.
Later on, Richard achieved lacrosse glory in high school at University of Detroit Jesuit High School, where he was named a three-time team captain, first-team all-state and he was also a two-time all-conference player.
When it came time to choose a university where he would continue his lacrosse aspirations, Richard signed his letter of intent just three days after visiting Marquette.
“You come here and there’s just a certain vibe that’s like ‘I want to be here,'” Richard said.
With the COVID-19 pandemic cutting Marquette’s season short after just seven games in 2020, Richard optimistically spoke about his opportunity to play at Marquette despite the shortened season.
“The one thing I took away from (last year) was how lucky we are to be at a school where lacrosse is a preferred division one sport,” Richard said. “Take away the division one (status) and the historically good teams, it’s more-so about the bonds that you have on the team.”
Over the course of the pandemic, Richard saw the upside that came with more time at home, which provided more time to work, better himself and get closer with his teammates.
“It was a mix of talking to the team and working out. We did Zoom calls and said to ourselves, ‘there’s more for us to do besides better ourselves,'” Richard said. “Whether it was a makeshift bench press in the basement or putting textbooks in our backpacks (and running), we had a good release from school to grind.”
Another big addition that was made to the team was the recent hiring of head coach Andrew Stimmel, raising questions as to how the team would perform under new management. Richard praised the work that his new coach put in on and off the turf.
“I think (what makes him special is) his consistency,” Richard said. “Coach Stimmel has been consistent the last two years about what he wants to do and where he wants to take this program and what it’s going to be about.”
Even amid the tough season the Golden Eagles have had this year, Richard never saw a decline in the morale of the Marquette coaching staff.
“It’s obviously been a tough season, blame COVID, blame injuries … but he has not taken a day off, you never see him in a bad mood,” Richard said. “They (coaches) come in consistently and we always have a good week of practices due to that.”
As for what the rest of the season has to hold, the redshirt first-year goalie has a positive outlook on what is to come for the Golden Eagles as he continues to sharpen his skills every game.
When asked about what it means to finish strong this season, Richard immediately spoke of his older teammates.
“Finish strong to me means leaving it all out there, especially for the seniors,” Richard said. “It’s all about executing what we worked on, this is a young team and we’re executing how we should be. It will drive a culture into the program that the next two or three years will be able to build on.”
This story was written by Jack Lewandowski. He can be reached at jack.lewandowski@marquette,edu or on Twitter @JackLewMU.
