By GABRIEL SERRANO
Contributing Writer
Matt Graham is the newest offensive assistant coach and former midfielder one year after a stellar season for the Golden Knights.
The 2019 season is a pivotal turning point in his career as he shifts from coaching rather than playing lacrosse.
Playing four years for the Knights, he’s now able to see what hasn’t worked in prior years, and Matt Graham is ready to look at the game from a coaching perspective and mentor some of the players he played alongside last season. “Guys like Johnny Loughlin and Jack Pemrick are workhorses and they have the winning mentality,” said Graham.
Graham, a former midfielder here at the college, looks to take what he learned from last season with an NE10 playoff berth and give back to the College of Saint Rose, where he played 4 years. “The team is similar from last season, we still have the blue collar approach and they are hard workers,” said Graham, offensive assistant. The goal as a team is to take this year’s team one step forward from last season and prove the doubters wrong that ranked them ninth this season and 11th last season.
As a coach, Graham talks to the other coaches about what the team as a whole needs to do, whether that is getting the goalies warmed up or preparing the team. It’s a different feel for Graham during pregame: as a player he was in his own head and when he got on the field he would bring his energy up. He would visualize what he had to rather than what the team needs to do as a whole.
Graham is taking one step forward in what he hopes to do in the future when he coaches the Golden Knights this season. One day Graham hopes to open his own club lacrosse team. He wants to have lacrosse a part of his identity and take what he’s learned to pass it to the next generation of players.
Last season, Graham surpassed Kevin Fleming for all time points scored in program history with 145 points after his senior campaign ended. Graham also broke the all time goal record with his 104 goals. He went into the season knowing that he would either come close to breaking the record or was going to break it.
Graham followed the motto of the Knights, which was do your job. “It was not about the points but rather the team as a whole,” said Graham, offensive assistant.
On Senior Day, he went into the game with the mindset that this game would solidify their spot in the NE10 tournament and did not think about how it could potentially be his last game. “The team’s motto all season was take each game, each practice, each drill, each week and take it one step at a time and good things will happen,” said Graham. That day, he was able to take that with him into the game, where he scored the game winning and game tying goal to help the Knights defeat Saint Anselm.
Graham called that game his best sports moment because it is something he will always remember. “That was probably one of the most the most exciting games I ever played in,” said Graham. Graham also talked about how the NE10 tournament felt surreal because the three years prior the team never really competed or played to their full potential.
As Graham’s college career came to a close in the NE10 Tournament game he was wrapped up trying to soak it all in. The loss against Saint Anselm did not hit him until the final five minutes of the game where he knew that he gave it his all that season.
“Graham was fun to play with, he’s the type of player that can shoot from everywhere and be accurate. He was a good leader but a quiet leader, he just did his job,” said Jordyn Marchiano, current Saint Rose Attack.
After the rankings came out and they were picked to finish 11th in the NE10 all the seniors were focused on making the NE 10 Tournament. Before the NE10 tournament the team made t-shirts to represent them proving the doubters wrong with Senior midfielder Matt Graham leading the way. Graham said that the game against Florida Southern was the turning point in the season because after that game the team as a whole was solid closing out games. All the guys around him knew that this could have the potential to be a special season.
Last season Graham broke the record for goals scored against the fifth ranked Adelphi on April 7 2018 and two weeks later on April 21 he broke the all time record for points against Franklin Pierce. He said he had no idea that he broke the record until Coach Morrissey came up to him after the game and announced it to the team.
During his Junior campaign Graham was just an attack men turned into a midfielder and had to adjust quickly to this change of position. His sophomore campaign he earned the starting job from the season before and gained more responsibility. Graham knew that there was more at stake each season and had more of a sense of urgency each season. “Don’t look to enjoy it when it’s over, look to enjoy it while you still have it,” said Graham.
When he committed to Saint Rose academically he noticed that everything is up to you and that no one would nag him and you have to hold yourself accountable for what you do in the classroom. Graham noticed an immediate difference on the lacrosse field where the game speed was much faster and more high paced. Graham was independently driven both on and off the field and knew that he had to make a quick adjustment.
“He had a lot of determination coming in as a freshman and adapted well to the change of the position from attack to midfielder,” said Ian Macmaster, Former Assistant Coach. Macmaster was a coach here at the college for six years.
Out of Arlington High School he came to visit Saint Rose and fell in love with the school and it just felt right for him. Graham wanted to be a part of an up and coming program and wanted to be a part of that rebuild. His older sister Ashley attended the college and made his decision crystal clear. She graduated the college with a masters degree in speech language pathology.
Besides playing lacrosse Graham played hockey when he was four years old. Graham started skating at the age of two and picked up a stick at the age of four. He played for a travel team and won the Bell Capital Cup in Ottawa, Canada where he collected All Star MVP in the biggest tournament of North America. Graham played forward for most of his life in hockey and was moved around at the age of 16 to Wing and Center.
His favorite athlete is Mark Messier a former hockey center for the New York Rangers. “As a leader in sports he was a positive role model in life, a smart player and everything he did he had a purpose, he was calm and composed and seemed to make every team he was on better,” said Graham.
Graham strives to be that type of player in hockey and lacrosse.
Coach Dwight Healey of the Hudson Valley Polar Bears was a big inspiration for Graham as this was his first exposure to a real coach. Healey cared about everyone on the team and didn’t care about winning but wanting to make the team better. That carried with Graham to lacrosse and now that he is a coach, he tries to model his coaching style and tries to get the same mantra across.
Graham first started playing lacrosse when he was in fourth grade and fell in love immediately because of his love for hockey. “The sports just transferred over well it was like picking a hockey stick for the second time,” said Graham. The two similar aspects of each sport helped him continue his passion for both sports. He played travel lacrosse in middle school but was first exposed to competitive lacrosse at Arlington High School.
Graham born on August 1, 1996 hopes the 2018 season success can be repeated but this time on the coaching side of things. Graham out of Poughquag, New York hopes to take this coaching experience and run with it in hopes of eventually becoming a head coach for his own lacrosse team. Now that the script is flipped he is cognacient of what he says to the players and help them understanding the small teachings he had as a player.
“I think Graham has fallen into his role as a coach quite effortlessly because of his ability to communicate with players on and off the field. Graham is a leader on and off the field by always setting the example and by helping those who may be behind the curve in anyway at all,” said Jack Zilgme, current Defensive Midfielder at the college.
