Council Rock North’s Connor McGuigan headed to University of Tampa
NEWTOWN – When choosing the place where he would extend his education and career on the lacrosse field, Council Rock North senior Connor McGuigan looked at colleges in the Mid-Atlantic region including Lehigh, Saint Joseph’s and Robert Morris.
But Connor also looked at several schools in Florida including the University of Tampa, Lynne University and Florida Southern.
Ultimately, McGuigan wanted to play in the warm weather, which is why he is taking his game to the Sunshine State where he will play for the Tampa Spartans. Connor made his college choice known in a ceremony held Feb. 18 at CR North.
Blame the lousy weather the Indians had to endure the past four years for McGuigan’s wanting to escape to the Deep South.
“The beginning of the season is pretty much freezing,” said McGuigan. “We get like one-third of our games cancelled because of the snow.
“Playing in that is just miserable so I wanted to go somewhere warm where I don’t have to deal with that.
“Toward my junior year, I decided I wanted to go to school somewhere warm so I was looking down in Florida a lot.”
A defenseman at Rock-North who can also play long-stick midfielder, McGuigan chose Tampa because he liked the ambiance surrounding the campus.
“I just like the location; It’s right on the canal separating it from the city,” explained Connor. “I like the fact that it has a college feel to it and an urban college feel to it, too.”
While Tampa is ranked among the top 10 Division II teams in the country, McGuigan is hoping to see some action as a college freshman.
“They have a pretty good team; they’re ranked eighth in the country right now,” said McGuigan. “But the coach says I have a pretty solid chance at it if I work hard.
“I’ll play wherever I can get starting time whether its defense or long-stick mid.”
Connor says he has former coach John Levine to thank for helping him get to the next level.
“He helped me out a lot preparing for college,” explained McGuigan. “He said, ‘there’s stuff that you can get away with playing here in high school but in college, it won’t work.
“He helped me learn those fundamentals and get them in my head to play at the next level.”
Before he departs for warmer pastures, Connor has one more season of lacrosse ahead of him this spring, if it ever gets here.
McGuigan says Rock North has a good chance of winning the Suburban One League (SOL) National Conference this spring. “We’re real excited about it,” he says.
The reason, says Connor, is that perennial power Abington returns to the field missing a bunch of starters from its 2015 campaign.
Last year, the Indians finished tied for second place with sister school CR South after finishing with a league record of 7-3.
Tampa, meanwhile, finished 15-4, 6-0 last year in the Sunshine State Conference (SSC) and according to a 2016 coaches’ poll, finished as the preseason favorite to three-peat in the conference. Last season, the Spartans captured both the SSC regular season and the tournament championship after defeating runner-up Florida Tech (12-4, 3-2) by an 11-8 score in the conference title tilt.
Tampa is led by head coach Rory Whipple, who is the all-time winningest coach in Division II.
Contact the author at ssherman@21st-Centurymedia.com or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 2016 COLLEGE COMMITS
Brandon McIlwain, Football, University of South Carolina
Devon Bibbens, Football, Lehigh University
Thomas Hewitt, Football, College of the Holy Cross
Matt Hand, Baseball, Lehigh University
Jared Schram, Baseball, Bloomsburg University
C.J. Kilgarriff, Baseball, Philadelphia University
Tori Hill, Soccer, Syracuse University
Jennica Jonovich, Field Hockey, The Ohio State University
Madison Schlucterer, Swimming, Butler University
Connor McGuigan, Lacrosse, University of Tampa
Nicole Rounsavil, Softball, Colgate University
Madelein Herr, Golf, Penn State University
