Hoya File Photo Stanwick’s dedication and leadership as a captain has led others on her team to follow her example.

She drives across the eight-meter arc, splits a pair of defenders with a quick fake and fires a rocket past the befuddled goalie for a score.

Just as deftly as All-American Sheehan Stanwick regularly picked apart opposing defenses to become Georgetown’s career leader in goals, points and assists, she passes along praise and credit to her teammates. Talking to Sheehan, one gets the impression she was just a role player on a great lacrosse team, but with her coaches and teammates, the very-different truth comes out.

“There have been a lot of players that have helped move this program forward, but Sheehan’s arrival basically changed the face of Georgetown women’s lacrosse,” women’s lacrosse Head Coach Kim Simons said. “Her work ethic, her mentality and her goals were so different than all the rest of the players we had had up to that point. She came here to build a national level program and win a national championship.”

Although she fell short of winning a national title by a single possession, Stanwick nonetheless brought Georgetown lacrosse to another level while simultaneously pushing her teammates to a higher standard.

“Trying to lead by example is more my style than trying to be inspirational,” Stanwick, one of the team’s three co-captains this past season, said about her style of motivation.

“All of our players now do the extra [practice] sessions, which before Sheehan came no one ever did,” Simons said. “Every day they would see her on the wall and doing something extra and see how good she was and it started to get contagious.”

Stanwick’s teammates agree with their coaches assessment of the All-American.

“Even though she is this All-American player, she still finds time to be there for every player on the team,” freshman Michi Ellers said. “Whether it is helping them, or helping them figure out what is wrong, She is great.”

The always-modest Stanwick saw it from a different perspective, saying “I don’t know if I was really helping out my teammates as much as I should or could.”

While Stanwick has anchored Georgetown’s attack as a prolific scorer for four years, it is these skills as a leader and mentor to her teammates with which she has had the biggest impact on Georgetown’s success.

“Before this year she was reluctant to get on her teammates, but this year she has been able to find that balance of when to give people a boost and when to be tough on people,” Simons said. “She really fit into that leadership role the second half of the season. She’s always been able to put the ball in the net, but this year she took over the attack.”

“She’ll do it quietly, but she inspires her teammates to work harder. This weekend we knew going in that we’d have a great chance just because we had Sheehan on the field,” Simons said. “In the NCAA tournament, there were moments where she just willed our team back into the game.”

Stanwick’s sheer will is evident against Loyola in the Final Four when she came up limping after colliding with one of the Greyhound defenders yet refused to leave the game. She went on to score a goal and anchor the Hoya comeback that put Georgetown in the national championship.

“That’s an indication of how tough she is. There is no way she was going to come off that field,” Simons said. “She has been an iron horse. Whenever she steps on the field the opponent beats the living daylights out of her.”

As hard as it was to get punished by regular double-teams during games, Stanwick’s intense approach to every aspect of the game netted her plenty of bumps and bruises on off-days too.

“She was one of the most intense players on our team, and so naturally every day in practice she would get physically mutilated in the drills, but she never took it to heart,” said junior Kate Ahearn, one of her fellow attackers. “She knew that it was all part of the game, and that she was making us better players. No matter who yelled at her or who she had a disagreement with in practice, the second she would step off the field we were all sisters.”

Not just intense on the practice field, Stanwick’s preparation went above and beyond that of the average player, as even the conclusion of her collegiate career hasn’t prevented her from analyzing her game.

“One of Sheehan’s quotes was that she had to watch the tape on her eight-meter shot, and I’m thinking Jeez Louise, this poor kid, just let it go,” Simons said. “You don’t have to watch that tape.”

Seemingly the quintessential perfectionist, Stanwick’s play on the field always reflected a better refinement and understanding of the game than everyone else on the field. From the crispness of her moves to her ability to find a seam in the defense or an open teammate, Stanwick is one of those rare athletes that seems to be playing the game at a higher level than anyone else, often surprising even her coaches.

“I know I’m a better coach because of Sheehan,” Simons said. “She’s really challenged me.

“Sheehan would tell me `I took that shot because I thought the goalie dropped her stick about an inch and I thought I had the space.’ I was thinking in vague terms that it maybe that wasn’t a great opportunity, and I would look at the film and, sure enough, the goalie would drop her stick about an inch or two and she really thought she saw a space because she has such a great eye for the game.”

Sheehan hopes to now take her eye for the game to the world stage as a member of the U.S. World Cup team, however she isn’t very hopeful about her chances to make the cut.

“I have my final tryout for the World Cup team this weekend,” Stanwick said, “and it doesn’t look too good.”

Knowing Sheehan, this is likely a vast underestimation of her own skills and chances. The World Cup team would be making a big mistake to leave off such a talented, dedicated and intense competitor.

Georgetown is losing the best lacrosse player it has ever had – there’s no need for the World Cup to miss out on the same star.

Related Links

 Male Athlete of the Year

 Coach of the Year