Boys Lacrosse All-Delco: Pierce pens memorable response to high school challenge at Radnor
RADNOR — Grant Pierce did a lot of thinking about what would go in the letter.
It was the end of eighth grade and, as is the tradition in the Radnor School District, students were assigned to write a letter to their future selves upon entering high school. The letter would be sealed, kept and given back as they neared graduation.
Such a custom was among the many things that Pierce had to learn on the fly in Radnor, having moved there from Los Angeles the summer before. Naturally he talked it over with the group of friends he’d collected in his short time, many of the bonds centered on the lacrosse field. Basking in the afterglow of Radnor’s first PIAA title the year before, they wondered if, maybe, it wouldn’t be hubris to add a congratulations about that state title they’d hoped to one day win.
“We knew we were going to have a shot at this because people were saying, ‘oh this is the year, these are the kids, the golden generation,’ if you will,” Pierce said. “People have been looking at us and saying, ‘maybe in your junior year,’ and they’re getting brighter and brighter.”
That junior year never happened, courtesy of COVID-19. But it merely delayed a date with history.
It would take until the senior year for Pierce and his cohorts to make good on the promise. But they did so in a way that few teams in the program’s storied history could, lifting a state title in dominant fashion.
Pierce was Radnor’s leader, in every possible way. As a defender, he helped Radnor allow 99 goals in 25 games, a microscopic average. He made big plays time and again, ranging from the sensational to the repeated, unerring execution of the simple. He was the vocal, spiritual and exemplary leader, earning the accolades to match.
Add one more to the list: Pierce is the 2021 Daily Times Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year.
He’s joined on the first team by teammate Ryan Goldstein; District 1 champion Springfield’s Jack Clark and Ryan O’Connor; Garnet Valley duo Max Busenkell and Sam Morin; Haverford School’s Geordy Holmes and Chuck Cacciutti; the Episcopal Academy trio of Reilly Dugan, Andrew McMeekin and Will Delaney and Strath Haven’s Christian Mazur.
All 12 players are first-timers, owing to last year’s season cancellation. Juniors own five spots via Busenkell, Goldstein, McMeekin, O’Connor and Cacciutti. All 12 are already committed or signed to Division I programs. The All-Delco team is selected in consultation with area coaches.
Pierce ends a pair of notable droughts. He’s the first defenseman to win Player of the Year since Episcopal Academy’s Kevin Gayhardt in 2013. He’s the first Radnor POY since 2003 (Jordan Ellis).
Pierce is young enough to have grown up between worlds, partially developed in his birthplace of Los Angeles and partially in Radnor. His family moved to the area the summer before eighth grade. Pierce’s older brother, Connor, had the more difficult adjustment, assimilating after his sophomore year, even if the on the field the transition was smooth for the All-Delco midfielder and University of Delaware player. Both brothers learned the sport in L.A. with their father, Clark, who started a program at St. Paul the Apostle School in Brentwood, as the coach. Connor played for two years at Crespi Carmelite High School.
“He laid the blueprint, and I just followed it,” Grant said of Connor. “That’s pretty much been the same for all lacrosse things, especially recruiting and just playing in general and how to play the right way and carry yourself on the field.”
When Pierce came to Radnor, he said he clicked immediately with a group of talented players who had their separate upbringing in the game. The L.A. lacrosse scene, which is growing, was tight-knit and small then. Pierce had heard of Eastern lacrosse’s reputation for the depth of talent and intensity of play. But he made the adjustment quickly.
“When you’re in California, it’s all talked about how East Coast lacrosse is just way better than West Coast,” he said. “And it did live up to the hype, but there was a definitely a big difference.”
Pierce still evinces a certain relaxed, West Coast mentality. But that doesn’t dim his on-field intensity. He plays a heady game, both defending on-ball and working off-ball within the team concept. When surrounded by Radnor’s deep corps of defenders, an excellent goalie in Robert Hobbs, hardworking midfielders and the coaching that the program seems to have from the youth feeder system on up (including, as an emotional rallying point this season, the late Peter Samson), they created magic.
Pierce was outstanding in 2021. Radnor lost its opener by one goal to La Salle, then rattled off 18 straight wins, including an unbeaten run through the Central League. Only three of those victories were by fewer than four goals.
The run stopped in the District 1 semifinal, with Springfield exacting revenge and becoming the only team to score more than 10 goals on Radnor this season. But Radnor regrouped by routing Kennett by eight goals. It outscored the opposition 51-15 in four states games, including an eight-goal waxing of Conestoga and another eight-goal win over Kennett, 10-2, in the finale.
Pierce was at the center of all of it. He scored three goals and dished five assists on the season, huge numbers for a close defender. He was named the Central League player of the year, then earned all-state and All-America honors. It’s a boatload of awards for someone who has signed to go to Fairfield, his recruitment disrupted by the pandemic.
Long before the season, he had bought in to ideas that seemed silly when he first arrived. He may have once rolled his eyes at the idea of Radnor pride when he was new in town. Now, he not only gets it, he’s helped add to its lore.
“It’s definitely something to make me super, super proud, especially winning it the same year the girls won it,” Pierce said of the state title. “It’s crazy to think that that’s going to be there forever. In the history of the program, we’ve only done it two times. It’s just cool that I get to put my name on that list and say, ‘yeah I was there, I did it, I worked with that group of guys every day.’ I’m just really, really proud so say that I’m part of that group.”
