Kearnan Brothers Lead Queens Men’s Lacrosse Team to Baggataway Final

By Mark Stehlin

The Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA) season is held in September and October and culminates in November with the Baggataway Cup tournament to crown the champion.

The Queen’s University Men’s Lacrosse team is led by coaches Connor Kearnan and his younger brother, Brady. This year the club finished with a record of 5-5 in the six-team Eastern Conference that also included McGill, Trent, Carleton, University of Ottawa, and Bishop’s University.  Queen’s had a successful run in the playoffs by defeating two teams from the Western Conference: Brock by a final of 10-3 and Guelph 11-8. They met the undefeated Western Mustangs in the Baggataway Cup final and lost 11-3 to end their run this season.

Connor reported that he has been the team’s Head Coach for three seasons. He recalled, “when I first moved to the Kingston area, I posted some training videos on social media that got noticed by someone I knew. I then had a call from the Women’s lacrosse coach at Queen’s asking me if I was interested in taking on the Men’s program.” He added, “I met with the Athletic Director at the school, they liked my vision and offered me the coaching job.”

He said that Brady had shown an interest in coaching and in “my second year with the team, we were left without a defensive coach, so I brought him along.” He added, “Brady wasn’t very familiar with the defensive side of the game, but he took steps to understand the role and has done a very good job.”

As he reflected on this past season, he said “we were by no means a 5-5 team and Brady and I used that message to motivate the guys.”  He explained, “a couple of overtime losses and a tight 4-3 loss to the 10-0 McGill team showed me we could have just as easily been 8-2.”

Kearnan was happy to note, “we received more help from the school through the Athletic Director and she has elevated the program with more practice time and other supports.”

He described having “a great bunch of athletes who just want to play lacrosse and they are buying into the systems put in place by Brady and myself, it was satisfying to see all that we thought would happen did happen” with this team.” He summarized by saying, “we will be back next year and plan to be a top contender.”