As Georgetown Head Coach Ricky Fried began to strategize for the 2006 season, picking someone to take the draw was one of his first orders of business. To choose from, he had junior attacker Chloe Asselin, the Big East’s preseason defensive player of the year and a player unafraid of getting physical with her opponent. Fried also had four seniors – midfielders Lucy Poole and Paige Andrews and defenders Kristin Smith and Stephanie Zodtner – who, over the past three years, had proven themselves perfectly capable of doing whatever it was they were asked to do. But Fried didn’t choose any of those five. Instead, he turned to junior attacker Coco Stanwick. If No. 13 had proven anything in her first two years, it was that she could rise to the occasion, starting all 18 games as a freshman, scoring 17 goals and dishing out 28 assists, continuing on to net 59 goals and notch 20 assists en route to being named a Tewaaraton Trophy (national player of the year) nominee her sophomore year. Hoping she would build upon her success, Fried decided Stanwick would be the right person to step in and take the draw. What the Hoyas likely did not expect, though, was that Stanwick would not only step up and take the draw, but that she would control more draws (111) than anyone else in the Big East – in fact, twice as many (Notre Dame senior attacker Crysti Foote had 42.). And more draws than anyone else in the NCAA (Towson freshman midfielder Hillary Fratzke had 107). And more draws than any Hoya had ever won in a single season – Gloria Lozano (SFS ’04) had 81 in 2003. Through 17 games, Stanwick has set the all-time single-season draw controls record. Not too bad for her first year taking the draw. Why was she so successful? Her teammates point to her unrivaled stick skills. She humbly points to her teammates. But Fried sees something else. “She likes being in the center of the action,” he says. “She thrives on being in that position.” Indeed, it has been that ability to capitalize on pressure-packed situations that has made Stanwick one of the five finalists this year for lacrosse’s prestigious Tewaaraton Trophy. The highlights of the 2006 season extend beyond the draw, however. Among them is her eight-goal outburst against Mount St. Mary’s to start the season on Feb. 26. “I had the easy job. They got me the ball, and I just put it in the back of the net,” Stanwick said at the time. There was also the Notre Dame game on April 15, in which Coco notched four scores, eight draw controls and the game-winning goal in the third overtime. “There was never a doubt that she’d win it,” junior attacker Sara Zorzi says. Then with Georgetown’s Big East title on the line, Stanwick scored four times against Loyola on April 29, but her defining moment in the game turned out to be a last-minute draw control. After the Greyhounds had taken the lead with eight seconds remaining, Stanwick won the draw and drew a foul in the process, stopping the clock and giving her team one last chance to tie the game. Stanwick hit senior defender Stephanie Zodtner with a perfect pass, and Zodtner raced up field before registering the tying score. The Hoyas won in overtime. As a freshman, Stanwick took to the attack alongside three juniors and a senior. Not only was she surrounded by talent, but she was surrounded by experience. Last year, Sara Oliphant (COL ’05), Catherine Elbe (MSB ’05), and Allison Chambers (MSB ’05) were back, and though Stanwick’s role changed from that of a feeder to a finisher, she was still surrounded by attackers who had been there and done that. But this season, the leaders Stanwick had looked to in the past were gone. “With the entire starting attack and midfield except for Coco graduating, it was clear that Georgetown would be a great defensive team and opponents would not score a lot. The challenge would be to score enough,” Bob Lessick, the women’s editor of Inside Lacrosse, says. Unlike the past two seasons, Stanwick was forced to be the leader. Two inexperience juniors, Sara Zorzi and Schuyler Sutton, joined Stanwick on the attack. While they may not have developed into an offensive juggernaut, the Hoyas have accumulated the 12th-best scoring margin in the country, as the offense has put up 185 goals, 57 by Stanwick, while the defense has allowed just 112. For those 57 goals, Stanwick can thank nifty stick skills and an unrivaled ability to shoot the ball. “Her shooting is a skill she has perfected,” Zorzi says. “Her instinct as to where to place the ball is amazing. If you put it anywhere near her stick, she’ll catch it. She just has an uncanny ability to place the ball in a split second. She has an unbelievably quick release.” Take it from an opposing head coach, Tracy Coyne, the Big East Coach of the year and the leader of Georgetown’s second-round opponent, Notre Dame: It’s true. “Her shooting is phenomenal. Her placement and awareness of placement is phenomenal,” Coyne says. “She is one of the premier players in the country.” By winning draws at such an unheard of pace and serving as the vocal leader of the attack, Stanwick has also been the driving force behind the goals that she doesn’t necessarily score or assist on. “The biggest thing she does,” Fried says, “is that she controls the offense for us. She understands that she needs to get the rest of the team involved; she knows who needs the ball, and she gets it to them. She always knows what we need.”I have actually been more vocal this year,” Stanwick says. “I’ve called a lot of the plays on the field, so that’s been a different role for me – just more of a leadership stance that I’ve had to take on.” Combine Stanwick’s exceptional skills, selfless style of play and a unique ability to lead, and as cliché as it sounds, you get the consummate team player. “She is one of the leaders – an amazing player, an amazing person, and she has a lot of talent,” Zodtner says. “Coco finds ways to make our offense work,” Zorzi adds. “She doesn’t get flustered. She knows it’s a team game and she wants the team to win.” Never one to brag, Stanwick merely says, “It’s such a great group of girls and a great team and its honor to be out there, trying to lead. I do the best that I can on and off the field to be there for them if they need help or anything.” Not only does she look to her teammates – “I wouldn’t be successful without them” – and coaches – she also gives the credit to the coaches, “I have to attribute almost all of my success to them, because they have been able to provide me an atmosphere where I’m able to do what I want to do.” – for support, Stanwick keeps in touch with two of the most accomplished players in Georgetown lacrosse history: her sisters. Sheehan (MSB ’01), the 2001 HOYA SPORTS Female Athlete of the Year, ranks first in Georgetown history and sixth in NCAA history in career points, while Wick (MSB ’03) was a national all-American as a senior. “My sisters are my biggest supporters but also my biggest critics,” she says. “They always give me helpful advice and confidence boosters when I need it.” Three more wins. That’s all Georgetown needs to realize a dream that they have yet to achieve: an NCAA championship. “My goal was to win an NCAA tournament when I came here,” Stanwick says, “That is my biggest goal, and I think that I need that.” If there is anything that the Hoyas can count on as the pressure mounts and the intensity rises, it’s that if they get Stanwick the ball, she’ll make good things happen. No matter the challenge, she always has.