01907 Spring 2020 V3--email

26 | 01907
From Nahant
to
the
major league
BY MIKE ALONGI
It's hard to be much more involved in
a sport than Sean Quirk is involved with
men's lacrosse. From playing to coaching
to drafting and evaluating talent, Quirk
has done it all in the past 30-plus years.
Currently living in Nahant, Quirk
bounces between his home, the Endicott
College campus, and Veterans Memorial
Stadium in Quincy — the home facility
of Major League Lacrosse's Boston
Cannons. Each day, he balances his time
between being the associate athletic
director at Endicott and the head coach/
director of player personnel with the
Cannons.
"I've always got a busy schedule, that's
for sure, but I love it," said Quirk. "To
Sean Quirk, Associate Athletic Director at Endicott College, stands on his back porch at his Nahant home.
PHOTOS: OLIVIA FALCIGNO
be able to be so involved in a game I've
played since I was a kid is a dream."
To understand Quirk's love for the
game, it helps to go back to the early
days of his involvement with lacrosse.
After excelling at the high school level at
Cheshire High School in Connecticut,
Quirk earned a scholarship to Division
II Springfield College in Massachusetts.
His college days proved to be fruitful,
as Quirk was named a two-time All-
American and NCAA Division II Goalie
of the Year in 1995. Oh, and he helped
the Pride — then known as the Chiefs
(the college changed the nickname in
1995) — to earn the NCAA Division II
National Championship in 1994.
"We had some great teams in those
years, but the biggest thing was that we
were just one big family," Quirk said
of his college days. "That culture and
that environment is, in my opinion, one
of the things that helped make us so
successful."
After spending two seasons as an
assistant coach at Springfield, Quirk set
out on his own when he was hired as
head lacrosse coach at Endicott in 1998
at just 24 years old. It was there that he
started to really forge a path for himself,
living by the principles he learned at
Springfield and building a program
from the ground up the way he wanted
it to be.
"I was so fortunate to be surrounded
by great players and coaches at every
level, and I tried to be a sponge and
soak up as much knowledge as I could
every day," Quirk said. "I wanted to
build a culture of family, commitment
and relationships at Endicott and let the
good lacrosse come from that. I really
wanted to set that foundation."
In his time as the head coach at
Endicott, which lasted from 1998
to 2015, Quirk went 243-95 and led
the Gulls to the NCAA Tournament
nine times (2001, 2004-2007, 2010-
2011, 2014-2015). He won eight
Commonwealth Coast Conference
championships, was a four-time CCC
Coach of the Year and coached 21 All-