By McNamara’s request, and by due respect to the men themselves, here’s a look at the Binghamton men’s lacrosse team’s seven other seniors:
Tom Wilmot, defender and co-captain:
Best moment: ‘Being named captain and being looked at as the leader on the team; I really cherish that ‘ I’m more of a vocal leader on the team ‘ I try to get guys pumped up before games, during games.’
Wilmot’s hits also got people’s adrenaline going, as he played lacrosse like a linebacker.
Post-graduation: Wilmot wants to be a strong male role model for the future children he plans to have after finding someone to settle down with on Long Island. He wants to work on Wall Street and follow in the footsteps of his role model, coach Stephenson.
Chris ‘Buck’ Bernard, midfielder:
Best moment: The win over Albany.
Funniest: ‘My first weekend here when I was a freshman, we were hanging out with the older guys, and Sean Meluney looked at me one day and just said ‘You know you look like a Buck,’ so that whole first weekend of school freshman year he went and introduced me to everyone, and I couldn’t even get a word out and he was like ‘Hey, everyone, this is Buck.’ Coach, even before the first practice, he called me Buck.’
Post-graduation: Buck is going to grad school and wants to become a lacrosse coach, following in footsteps of legendary coach Larry King.
Nate Kerstein, attack:
Best part of being a Bearcat: ‘Progressing as a team, growing with this group of guys. ‘ It’s something that’s unique about playing for Binghamton lacrosse; whenever we have friends from other schools come up who play ‘ one thing we kind of take pride in is we don’t have any cliques on our team, the fact that everybody’s pretty close with everybody ‘ you don’t really have any awkwardness and everybody has a great time.’
Post-graduation: Kerstein is going to law school (to keep his fellow seniors out of jail).
Rob Williams, attack:
Best moment: ‘Probably beating Albany last week, that’s the highest win and our Senior Day, it doesn’t get any better than that ‘ that’s definitely my favorite moment.’
How he’s grown: ‘I came from a small school ‘ coming in you learn how to share the wealth, you just learn how to adapt; I don’t know how to explain my development, it’s been gradual ‘ my junior and senior [years] have been my best ‘ it’s just one of those things.’
Williams scored three goals against Albany.
Post-graduation: Williams wants to coach or teach and be a sweet stay-at-home dad afterward, and follow in the footsteps of personal hero BU assistant coach Brice Queener.
Jeff Kaylor, midfielder:
Best moment: ‘Definitely beating Albany on senior weekend ‘ we’ve had a lot of good games this year, we haven’t won a whole lot, but it was nice to finally pull together and beat a really good team.’
Post-graduation: Kaylor is going to continue to develop a film production company and pursue a career in magic. ‘He’s an unbelievable magician, like David Blaine kind of good,’ McNamara said.
Jeff Santucci, midfielder:
Best moment: ‘Freshman year when we beat Albany on their homefield to go 6-0 ‘ we all came in, we really had no seniors ‘ sophomore class, then us ‘ we couldn’t be freshmen that year, we just had to tough it out and play hard lacrosse; we just played like a team and got it done.’
Post-graduation plans: Santucci plans to pursue a career in business and become a high school lacrosse coach.
Dave Streeten, midfielder:
Faceoff man Streeten, whose brother Duncan is a sophomore midfielder, went to go cliff-diving around Seneca Lake the summer after his freshman year but slipped and suffered a head injury on the rocks. He now has a Kevlar plate in his head, and though he is still a part of the team as an assistant coach and still lives with his teammates, he hasn’t been able to pick up a stick since.
Best moment: On the field was the win against Albany in 2004; off the field has been the wins like this year’s against Albany (‘It was a barn-burner of a game, one goal we scored in under the last 30 seconds, I think.’) and last year’s against Towson: ‘It’s been pretty tough; all I want to do is be able to go out there and play again.’
He was 8-for-19 against Albany from the faceoff circle in ’04.
Post-graduation plans: Streeten plans to write for magazines after grad school.
(Matt McNamara wants to live in Manhattan and become a businessman.)