From the podcast: Team USA and UMass great Kevin Leveille

Former Team USA and UMass great Kevin Leveille joined Kyle and Jack on the "Chasing the Goal" podcast this week. (Courtesy)

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Jack Piatelli welcome former UMass and Team USA great Kevin Leveille onto the show.

Leveille was an avid hockey player growing up in Albany, N.Y., but he made the choice to pursue lacrosse in high school while he was at Albany Academy. He went on to become an All-American attackman for UMass before being drafted into the MLL in 2003.

He established himself as one of the top finishers and goal-scorers in the league with the Boston Cannons, and then went on to play for the Chicago Machine and settling in as a mainstay with the Rochester Rattlers prior to the 2006 season.

He was a member of the Team USA squad in 2014 and was also elected captain. He retired following the conclusion of the 2014 season and is now working for Summit Ventures, a company that organizes lacrosse events like the Lake Placid Lacrosse Tournament.

Below are some excerpts from the pod.

Jack Piatelli: I had the opportunity to see Kevin play high school hockey when he was at Albany Academy because my brother, Larry, was the headmaster there. Kevin is a great multi-sport athlete and one of the best gentlemen in the game, and it was a lot of fun working with you back in the day at Brine. 

Kevin Leveille: The way the sport has grown, it’s enabled people to do different things in different ways for longer periods of time in the sport. It was great to work with you on and learn a lot about that side of the business and have a lot of laughs. To have good camaraderie with great people there (at Brine) and stay in touch with the game was great. 

Now we are overlapping in the tournament space. I’ve kind of known your family forever, with Larry as our headmaster at school and his great hockey pedigree and just great attitude. His management of our school was super-helpful for all of us growing up.

Playing multiple sports is a key thing for anybody. Hockey, I probably played longer than I had played lacrosse, from being a young kid through high school just because lacrosse wasn’t as accessible at the time. I still play hockey today, more so than I play lacrosse. So I’m good at interweaving sports. I think we’ll see a lot of that overlap coming up in San Diego in the coming weeks with the hockey/lacrosse overlap. 

Jack Piatelli: Not only were you on the team in 2014, but you were captain of Team USA, which is quite an honor. 

Kevin Leveille: I would say that’s probably one of my highest honors, the most appreciated honors that I’ve been able to attain over my years. I was the older guy, for sure. I think I was 33 or so and definitely the old man on the team. But again, when you look at the people that are on the team … it certainly made us special. And I did everything I could to do the best for the squad there.

Came up short (in the gold medal game) but was happy to see the revenge tour in 2018 and Team USA get that gold back.

@TheKyleDevitte
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