Four top ISL lacrosse players to join Division I programs

While many of their classmates were just beginning to figure out the college landscape, Swanson and Hayes, midfielders for the Panthers, already had a good idea of where they wanted to go. A summer spent going to club lacrosse tournaments, followed by, in the case of Swanson, weekends during her junior year, meant that they were firmly on the radar of several college lacrosse programs.

‘‘People don’t realize the stress that you go through if you want to play sports in college,” Swanson said. ‘‘I went to camps, I went to tournaments all the time. I didn’t get to start talking to coaches until junior year, and that is when it really picked up speed.”

It picked up so much speed, that all of a sudden Stanford University, a school she had not originally considered because of its distance from her home in Potomac, came calling, her head did not spin. The Cardinal had been alerted to her play by recruiting coordinator Randall Goldsborough, who had been the head coach at ISL: rival Bullis in 2005 and 2006.

‘‘She saw me play when I was a sophomore,” Swanson said. ‘‘By the time I went out there for a visit, I was pretty comfortable with the school. I loved the atmosphere and the coaches and the girls on the team. They are an up-and-coming program, and I knew that I wanted to be a part of it.”

Stanford expressed that they wanted Swanson as well, and by July, when most of her classmates were still sweating through the application processed, she had given the Cardinal a verbal commitment.

‘‘I knew not to talk too much about it around school because other girls were stressed out, but it was the best feeling in the world,” Swanson said. ‘‘I am extremely fortunate.”

In Hayes’ case, she had already narrowed her choices down to two known quantities by February of her junior year. On the one hand, there was the University of North Carolina, where her brother Webb (lacrosse) and sister Susan (field hockey) as well as her father had all played sports. On the other was Georgetown, where her sister Maggie had broken from family tradition and decided to play lacrosse for the Hoyas. After a visit to campus, Hayes was all but ready to follow her sister in her mini-rebellion.

‘‘I loved it at Georgetown,” Hayes said. ‘‘I was ready to go there.”

Yet, there was something about the pull of North Carolina, a place she spent several weekends as a youngster rooting on her older sister, that Hayes could not resist. When it came time to make a decision, Hayes stuck with what she knew best and committed to the Tar Heels.

‘‘My sister Susan is ecstatic,” Hayes said. ‘‘Maggie keeps bringing up basketball [Georgetown defeated North Carolina in the NCAA tournament in 2007] but everyone else is happy. I’m looking forward to playing wherever they need me next year.”

Right Place, Right Time

While Hayes and Swanson were out there, visiting campuses, and making connections through playing at tournaments, their teammate, Bailey Fogarty, was not. In the fall of her sophomore year, as she prepared for the soccer season, she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee. After undergoing surgery to repair the damage, she tore the ligament again in the spring, as she finished her rehab and prepared for lacrosse. Fogarty was forced to miss out on her sophomore year, when college coaches could take an extended look at her.

‘‘I was worried,” Fogarty said. ‘‘My name was out there, but not as much as some of the other girls because I missed that summer after my sophomore year, which is an important time in the recruiting period. I just focused on getting healthy and getting back out on the field.”

Enduring months of physical therapy again, Fogarty, who also plays ice hockey at Holton-Arms, made it back onto the lacrosse field in time for her junior season. After flying under the radar for so long, though, all it took was one game to get noticed. Playing against St. Stephen’s⁄St. Agnes, the second- ranked high-school lacrosse team in the nation according to the Web site laxpower.com, Fogarty, who is from Chevy Chase, scored three times in a close 7-5 loss, even though the Saints best defender, Liz Downs, was covering her. Downs had already committed to the University of Virginia, and the Cavaliers coaching staff happened to be at the game. The next thing Fogarty knew, she was getting calls from those same coaches. By July, she had committed to be a Cavalier.

‘‘I didn’t have any idea that they were going to be there, but when they said they wanted me, it felt really good,” Fogarty said. ‘‘I realized that the best things do come when you least expect it. I knew that all the hard work would pay off.”

The hard work paid off for Schneider as well, but not in the way she imagined. A three-sport varsity athlete at Holy Child — Schneider has been on the varsity field hockey, basketball and lacrosse teams all four years of high school — she decided by her junior year that she was going to pursue lacrosse in college. When sending out letters to programs that interested her, though, she did not send one out to the University of Oregon. Eugene is a long way from her home in Rockville.

But, at a tournament at the McDonogh School, members of the Ducks coaching staff happened to be there to see another player. Schneider and her Holy Child teammates managed to play in just one game of the tournament — a downpour cancelled the rest of their games — but those coaches had seen enough.

‘‘They came right up to me and got my information, and they started corresponding with me,” she said. ‘‘I went out there for a visit, and the school was perfect for me. I want to be a veterinarian, and their science program is strong. Athletically, the team felt like a family from the moment I got there. It was a question of being in the right place at the right time.”

Even all the way on the West Coast, Schneider will have a taste of home, as 11 players on the Ducks’ 2008 roster hail from Maryland. That list includes sophomore goalie Sam Debow, who starred at Sherwood.

‘‘It was nice to know that so many girls were from around here,” Schneider said. ‘‘It made it easier.”

With that, like Hayes, Fogarty and Swanson, Schneider made a verbal commitment July 1. And, like the rest of them, she can’t wait for her college career to begin.

‘‘There’s no real stress anymore,” Schneider said. ‘‘I’m all set.”