Entering his fourth season as the 

head coach of the Michigan men’s 

lacrosse team, Kevin Conry is gradu-

ally building off the foundation laid by 

his predecessor, John Paul. After reeling 

in the No. 4 and No. 3 recruiting classes 

in 2020 and 2021, respectively, Conry 

is hungry to shake up the Big Ten with 

a Wolverine squad that is quietly yet 

quickly ascending.

Finding a replacement for Paul, 

the human embodiment of Michigan 

lacrosse, was no simple task for ath-

letic director Warde Manuel.

Nevertheless, on June 21, 2017, 

just six weeks after he declared 

Paul wouldn’t be returning, Manuel 

announced that Maryland assistant 

head coach and defensive coordinator 

Kevin Conry would serve as the Wol-

verines’ next head coach. 

Coming from a perennially stout 

Terrapins’ organization that defeat-

ed Ohio State in the NCAA cham-

pionship game that season and had 

won the Big Ten the past three sea-

sons, Conry brought a track record 

of winning at the Division I level that 

appealed to an up-and-coming pro-

gram like Michigan. And as a Long 

Island native who played college 

lacrosse at Johns Hopkins, Conry had 

deep East Coast roots that would help 

the Wolverines recruit, bolster their 

coaching staff and enhance their 

understanding of the game.

In tandem with the completion of 

U-M Lacrosse Stadium — a brand-

new, lavish complex featuring a 2,000-

seat stadium, an indoor turf room and 

direct passage into a 20,000-square-

foot strength and conditioning center 

— Conry’s arrival set Michigan up for a 

new era. He was someone who Manu-

el thought could turn the corner.

“(He was) different enough from 

me in so many ways that I think (was) 

a good thing,” Paul said. “It (could) 

kinda jumpstart the program in a 

different direction, which I think 

any time you have a coaching change, 

that’s what you need. Really a kick in 

the ass from a different direction.”

But Conry also respected the 

immense utility of Paul’s legacy and 

culture that he had spent so many 

years developing. During the transi-

tion period, the pair had an amica-

ble relationship. While Paul taught 

Conry how to navigate the com-

plexities of the University and form 

relationships with a proper support-

ing cast of Wolverine faculty, Conry 

worked to build on many of the core 

elements Paul had already woven into 

the team’s fabric.

“It was certainly encouraging, 

because you know when someone 

invests their heart and soul and so 

much time into something, you know 

it’s gonna be trending positively,” 

Conry said. “It was a really solid foun-

dation that we could springboard 

(from) and really continue to develop 

the championship culture that we 

were putting together. … As we tran-

sitioned in, we continued that growth 

process, but we were confident that 

we had a really strong baseline to 

build off of.”

Under Conry, the synergy of utiliz-

ing new and old team values seeming-

ly paid dividends.

In 2018, having retained many of 

their key roster pieces from the year 

prior, the Wolverines picked up where 

they left off, once again finishing 8-6. 

Despite stumbles against ranked 

opponents early on the season, drop-

ping matchups to the No. 18 Penn and 

No. 11 Yale, Michigan later picked up 

signature wins over the No. 4 Notre 

Dame on the road and the No. 14 Penn 

State in an overtime thriller. In both 

contests, the Wolverines set major 

milestones, earning their first wins 

over a top-five program and a ranked 

Big Ten program, respectively.

As Conry made his transition in his 

first year with Michigan, he benefited 

tremendously from the support, pro-

duction and leadership of its veteran 

players. According to Conry, seniors 

like midfielders PJ Bogle and Parker 

McKee fully embraced the uncer-

tainty that a coaching change brought 

and served as blank pages for Conry 

to work with. 

“The best teams coach themselves,” 

Conry said. “If you wanna have a suc-

cessful championship team, you have 

seniors that buy in, know what they’re 

doing and can keep the rest of the team 

not just in line, but also encourage 

them to do the right things and to have 

that positive leadership.”

On the playing field, Brent Nose-

worthy had a record-setting junior 

season. Notching 48 points on a 

whopping 41 goals, he surpassed 

King’s short-lived record for points in 

a season and led the Big Ten with 2.93 

goals per game. By Noseworthy’s side, 

Curran recorded 31 points and helped 

mentor then-freshman attackmen 

Kevin Mack and Alex Buckanavage.

“Not only (were) they invested 

enough to understand what they 

(needed) to do, but they (could) teach 

somebody else and help them grow 

as well,” Conry said. “(Noseworthy 

was) gonna go out and shoot an extra 

bucket of balls. He (was) gonna take 

somebody with him. And that’s real-

ly where good teams become great 

teams and cusp teams become cham-

pionship teams.”

***

Although 2018 set the stage for a 

positive future, the Wolverines took a 

step back in 2019. 

Plagued by injuries in several piv-

otal areas, including on the defensive 

front and at the faceoff X, Michigan 

struggled to slow down its opponents 

and win important possessions all 

season long, giving up 13.46 goals per 

game and losing 67.6 of its faceoffs. 

On the offensive end, the Wolverines 

missed the goal-scoring capabili-

ties of Noseworthy, who missed five 

games due to injury.

Michigan limped into its season 

finale against No. 10 Ohio State with 

a meager 3-9 record.

Heading into the contest, the Wol-

verines were evidently underdogs. 

But rallying behind a now-healthy 

Noseworthy and other seniors like 

Curran and Second Team All-Big Ten 

defenseman Nick DeCaprio, Michigan 

was motivated to end the otherwise 

disappointing season on a high note by 

defeating its rival for the first time.

“I was really proud of the fight in 

those guys,” Conry said. “When we 

had the injuries, we had to adapt and 

change. … Walk out there and say, 

‘Hey, we still have a game to play. We 

gotta be successful.’ ”

Bolstered by four assists in the first 

half by Buckanavage, a single-game 

team record, the Wolverines sur-

prisingly skirted out to an 8-4 lead at 

halftime. Just over halfway through 

the third quarter, Noseworthy netted 

the 100th goal of his career — the first 

Michigan player to do so — to extend 

the Wolverines’ lead. Although the 

Buckeyes closed the deficit to two 

with 10 minutes remaining, a subse-

quent pair of goals from Noseworthy 

secured the monumental win for 

Michigan, 13-10.

In a difficult season that drastical-

ly differed from the one preceding it, 

2019 taught Conry and his players a 

lot about adversity.

“Handling success is something 

that’s really important,” Conry said. 

“You walk through the door, your 

last game’s a win, and you say, ‘Okay, 

yeah, have we made it?’ I think that 

knowledge of, ‘Why did we become 

successful? What got us there?’ — that 

was the biggest lesson of 2019. No 

matter what happens, we gotta get up 

in the morning and gotta look at our-

selves in the mirror and say, ‘Are we 

prepared to be successful today? Are 

we ready to put the work in to do so?’ 

We learned and grew throughout the 

year in order to do that.” 

Heading into 2020 with healthy 

legs and new faces, the Wolverines 

looked to take this newfound wis-

dom, redeem themselves and move 

forward as a program. They wouldn’t 

have the opportunity to fully do that 

though. On Mar. 11, Michigan nar-

rowly defeated Marquette, 13-12, to 

move to 4-3 in a befuddling season 

that had featured an impressive dis-

play of grit against the No. 5 Bulldogs, 

but also a stunning loss to freshly-pro-

moted Merrimack.

Little did the Wolverines know at 

the time, though, that they had played 

the last Michigan sporting event to 

occur for the next seven months.

Just a day later, the NCAA canceled 

the remainder of all winter and spring 

sports seasons due to the COVID-

19 pandemic, which was worsening 

by the day. Just like that, the world 

of sports turned upside down as the 

country went into lockdown. 

On May 18, Furman University 

announced its intention to cut its varsity 

men’s lacrosse and baseball programs 

due to the financial impact of COVID-

19. Before long, schools across the coun-

try revealed similar plans to cut some of 

their non-revenue sports as well, most 

frequently smaller programs like gym-

nastics, tennis and swimming. 

For a moment in time, as a young 

and developing program, everything 

the Wolverines had ever been work-

ing toward seemed to hang in limbo. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 — 15

DREW COX

Daily Sports Editor

Michigan lacrosse: A New Era

JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily

Before the season was canceled in March, Midfielder Josh Zawada led the Wolverines 32 points last season during his freshman campaign.


 
 

 




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