On the lacrosse field, senior Patrick Nash has become known for his lively post-goal celebrations. However, there is more to this athlete than just his fancy footwork.
Nash hails from a strong lacrosse background with his whole family being involved in the sport. However, his neighbor was the one who had actually gotten him involved in the game he has come to love. Nash’s hometown, Massapequa, New York, is known to be a big lacrosse community.
He took the fundamentals he had learned from his youth and grew immensely as a player throughout his high school career. Now, Nash is ranked second amongst the Cards roster this year in goals scored with 11 goals throughout the course of eight games thus far.
His crafty stick skills are helpful in his scoring endeavors, however, Nash’s teammates believe that his ability to always be open on the field is a big part of his success.
“He’s sneaky,” senior midfielder Joey Kromer said. “He’s a sly little guy, and he always finds a way to slip through the defense.”
To view more videos, visit our Multimedia page.Although Nash may be stealthy against opposing defenses, his peers who know him on a more personal level are more familiar with the Nash who is always the first to be heard on and off the field.Fellow senior Matt Renko came up with Nash through the program and recalls how, from the start, he has always known Nash to be the louder one of the group.
“Anyone who knows Pat knows that he’s a talker sometimes,” Renko said. “He get’s things going. He’s wacky, and he definitely brings the energy to the team.”
Being a two-sport athlete in high school, Nash needed that energy that Renko referred to be as successful as he was. Throughout the course of his high school career, Nash had received four all-conference wrestling honors, as well as two Nassau County wrestling team titles. When the winter season would end, Nash would trade in his wrestling shoes for cleats, wasting no time switching gears.
Fast-forward to present day, and despite not being a two-sport athlete, Nash is still accustomed to keeping himself busy.
When he is not putting in long hours on the field, you can find Nash hitting the books before and after practice in the library. While studying for his education courses, Nash strives to be an elementary teacher one day as his sixth grade teacher, Mr. Lambert, inspired him to be.
“He just brought a lot of energy to the classroom,” Nash said. “It was such a positive atmosphere, and I want to do the same exact thing he did for me for my students.”
Despite downtime being a scarcity for Nash, he still finds time to keep up with his favorite television show, House of Cards. He also still enjoys taking to the ice against his friends in the video game NHL. When it comes to music, Nash finds himself jamming out to “Bounce It,” by Juicy J, especially before games.
Although, Nash may be known as a whacky personality amongst his teammates, when it comes time to work, he doesn’t play around. His work ethic is evident in both his talent on the field as well as his success in the classroom. He believes that some of the qualities he obtained from playing a sport can transcend into other aspects of your life as well.
“I’ve always been an athlete. I don’t know what it’s like not to be an athlete,” Nash said. “When you’re always working to get better at one thing, it makes you want to be great in everything.”
Email Kevin Morley at kevin.morley@cardinalpointsonline.com
