By Sergio Arvizu-Rivera ’23
THE ROUNDUP
Patrick Harbeson, a current professional lacrosse player, hopes to lead Brophy Lacrosse to the state championship as he takes the role of head coach.
Harbeson has had a successful career as a lacrosse player, playing in the Major Lacrosse League at the beginning of his professional career and is now playing in the Premier Lacrosse League, a newly formed league meant for the best players in the world. He plays for the Redwood Lacrosse Club and is ranked as one of the top 160 midfielders in the world.
Harbeson attended DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. He had to drive 40 minutes each way to attend DeMatha, but he wanted to challenge himself as the school has a rigorous curriculum.
Another reason why he attended DeMatha was for its prestige athletics program. “My first love was football,” Harbeson said. At DeMatha he had a very successful football career, but he arguably found more success playing lacrosse, as he was an All-American in lacrosse and was ranked the 69th best recruit going into college overall, and ranking 20th out of all midfielders.
Harbeson committed to play Division 1 lacrosse at Virginia University. In his freshman year of college, the Cavaliers won the national championship. Harbeson was not chosen to be drafted in his four years of college. The year after his senior Harbeson was committed to be drafted into the pro leagues, so he started to make lacrosse his life.
“I wanted to go out there and be stronger than everyone else,” Harbeson said. “Lacrosse was my life, and I only got to make a first impression once.”
He was taken in the third round of the Major League Lacrosse supplemental draft by the Ohio Machines. In his fourth year with the Machines, they were able to win the Major League Lacrosse championship.
Harbeson moved to the west coast following a job a few years ago and was considering moving back home, but he realized there was “a lot of room to grow” in Arizona. He was hired four weeks ago by Brophy as the head lacrosse coach.
“I wanted to be at a school that is respected within all of the schools,” Harbeson said when asked why he chose to work at Brophy. “What really attracted me to Brophy was the core values it sets for the students.”
He describes himself as a “hands-on coach” and feels that if he is out on the field and working with the team it helps them get more motivated.
Midfielder Maxwell Dickens ’21 expresses how he thinks Harbeson will benefit the team for the 2021 season.
“With a pro-lacrosse player, especially of [Harbeson’s] caliber, he is sure to know how to win, what it takes to win and what makes the difference in a good vs. excellent team. With all this knowledge, he’ll help run good practices to make us fulfill all these things,” Dickens said.
Dickens believes that although the offseason will be slightly bumpy, he expects an undefeated- State Championship season.
“Our goal is to win the championship and grow as men on and off the field, as long as the boys grow as men I’ll be happy,” Harbeson when asked what his expectations are for the season.
The Brophy Lacrosse Team is set to have their first match late March of 2021.
