Lacrosse Seniors Project: Stephen Chase

We continue our celebration of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish lacrosse graduates with a chat with attackman Stephen Chase!

World events kept us from the chance to follow this team on its journey to a national championship, so ND-Atl 2.0 will instead use the time he would have spent writing previews and recaps to catch up with as many of the Irish seniors and graduate students as he can to introduce them in new ways to their fans. We hope you enjoy our talk with Stephen!

Stephen Chase

#2 Stephen Chase is an attackman for the Fighting Irish. He is from Tallahassee, Florida, and is a graduate of Maclay School. He was an All-American and 2-time captain of his team in Florida.

Stephen studied at the Mendoza College of Business, and like many of his teammates, furthered his studies with internships over the summer.

Chase first saw the field his Sophomore year, including playing in the 2018 ACC Championship Game, and scored his first goal as a junior against Detroit Mercy. The buzz about his play increased over the off-season. In the shortened 2020 season, his time on the field increased dramatically and included goals against Cleveland State and Maryland.

Our Chat

Stephen took some time to answer our questions:

1. I read you are originally for New York, and moved to Florida. What was it like playing in Tallahassee?

I absolutely loved growing up and playing lacrosse in Tallahassee. Lacrosse in Tallahassee has been growing quite a bit over the years. A lot of kids are starting to play lacrosse over other sports. The talent level is a lot better than people think and it’s continuing to get better. There’s been a solid amount of guys from the area that have gone on to play D1 lacrosse. Growing up we got to travel a lot due to lacrosse which was always fun.

2. Notre Dame is a long way from Florida, why did you choose to come to campus?

Notre Dame was actually the last school I visited during my recruitment process. I didn’t know much about it at the time but as soon as I visited campus, I instantly fell in love with it. The coaching staff did a great job selling me on the ND experience and all that the school had to offer. I knew that attending Notre Dame would give me the opportunity to play lacrosse at the highest level, while also getting a great education. I couldn’t be happier with my decision to attend Notre Dame.

3.During the team trip to Spain, it seemed you and Peter Gayhardt had a connection and could score at will. We were bummed the season ended before we could see that happen in a game. How did you two develop that relationship?

Playing with Pete was a blast. He is one of the most talented guys I’ve ever played with. I guess our connection started Freshman year on scout team. Pete was always getting open on the inside and I quickly found out that he could pretty much catch anything and finish it. Really fun to play with a guy like that.

4. What did you study at Notre Dame and what do you intend on doing after graduation?

I majored in Management Consulting. After graduation I’ll be moving back to Tallahassee to work for a company that specializes in disaster recovery.

5.How did you stay in touch with your teammates during quarantine?

After all the guys left campus, we kept up mostly through a team GroupMe. We also had a few Zoom calls with the coaching and training staff. The staff did an awesome job keeping in constant contact with everyone.

6.What was your favorite practice experience?

I would say my favorite practice experience was scrimmaging during a game week. Whether I was playing scout team and running the opposing team’s offense or running our offensive stuff against the opposing team’s defense, it was always fun to get up and down and compete

via ytCropper

7. What is you favorite game experience(other than your first goal against Detroit Mercy, of course)?

My favorite game experience was winning the ACC championship my sophomore year at UVA. That game was a blast.

8. What is you favorite part about Notre Dame?

My favorite part about ND is definitely the people, specifically my teammates. Every year the team is just an awesome group of guys that make playing at ND so enjoyable. It was a blast getting to be around those guys everyday.

Thank you, Stephen, and good luck!

#GoIrish

Seniors Project