Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1366480
E ven the greatest college sports careers often begin quietly. A lot of future All-Americans, national champions and NCAA record-holders redshirt as true freshmen, spending their first year on campus working behind the scenes to adjust to college life. A lot of others play sparingly as they acclimate to the next- level competition they've just taken on. And then there's Mac O'Keefe. As a freshman midfielder with the Penn State men's lacrosse team, O'Keefe could hardly have announced his presence any more au- thoritatively than he did in February 2017 when the Nittany Lions opened their season at home against Robert Morris. O'Keefe scored the second goal of the game against the Colonials, capitalizing on an assist from Grant Ament. He went on to score six more times, helping lift the Lions to a 15-11 victory. O'Keefe's seven goals that day were the most in a game by a Penn State lacrosse player since 1983 and were tied for the fourth-highest single- game total in the program's history. It was a dazzling offensive display, and it comported with everything that coach Jeff Tambroni had seen of O'Keefe in his brief time on campus. "The one thing Mac can really do," Tam- broni said, "is shoot the ball." A little over four years have VARSITY VIEWS | GOAL TO GO O'Keefe has been a dynamic scorer for PSU since his first game as a fresh- man. Photo by John Patishnock PSU'S POINT MAN Mac O'Keefe becomes top scorer in NCAA men's lax history well as some important size. Lundy stands 6-foot-6. Shrewsberry said during his introduc- tory news conference that he wanted all of the players who had entered the portal back. But of the seven players opted to explore their options, four had already found new schools as of late April. Jamari Wheeler is headed to Ohio State, Myreon Jones to Florida, Trent Buttrick to Mas- sachusetts and Patrick Kelly to Fordham. STAFF ADDITIONS In addition to hiring Adam Fisher as associate head coach, Shrewsberry is bringing in assistants David "Aki" Collins and Mike Farrelly, and he has retained two members of the previous staff: Nick Colella and Talor Battle. Collins is a veteran coach, scout and, most recently, the director of operations at New Mexico. He worked with Shrews- berry earlier in his career when both were at Marshall. Farrelly comes to Penn State after spending the past eight years at Hofstra, including the most recent season as the team's interim head coach. He helped de- liver back-to-back Colonial Athletic As- sociation titles to the Pride in 2018-19 and 2019-20. Colella will remain with Penn State in a new role as chief of staff following stints as director of operations and recruiting coordinator. Battle, who finished his playing career as Penn State's all-time leading scorer, will continue with the staff, taking an ad- ministrative role as assistant to the head coach. Two other staff additions are Mike Green and Brian Snow. Green will serve as director of player development, while Snow will be director of recruiting. Green is a Philadelphia native who played professionally for teams in France, Greece, Italy, Russia and Belgium. As a collegiate player, he spent two seasons at Towson and two at Butler, winning Hori- zon League Player of the Year honors in 2008. Snow, a 2007 Ohio State graduate, is a former national recruiting analyst with experience evaluating high school prospects on film and in person. ■