Podcast: Choate coach Ethan McDonnell on work ethic and PGs

Choate head coach Ethan McDonnell, left, was this week's guest on the "Chasing The Goal" podcast.

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Jack Piatelli talk with Choate head coach Ethan McDonnell.

A native of Montreal, McDonnell played the indoor game before attending prep school at Choate, where he served as captain of the football and lacrosse teams as a senior.

After graduating from Choate in 2009, McDonnell returned to Canada, where he played at Concordia University while continuing his indoor career at the senior level playing in both the Quebec Senior Lacrosse League (QSLL) and the Tri-Nations Lacrosse League (TNLL).

He returned to Choate as a coach and faculty member in 2013, serving as assistant coach and offensive coordinator, until he was named the head coach in 2020. Last season the Boars went 14-3 in a true breakout season for the program. This year Choate is 9-4, and heading into the Founders League tournament and a rematch with Loomis Chaffee.

Watch the full podcast below on YouTube. It’s also available on all major podcast platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review. Watch more episodes on the Chasing the Goal podcast channel.

Here are some excerpts from the podcast.

Kyle Devitte: Coach, let’s talk about this season so far. You have a ton of promising players on your team going to play college next year and the year after. Just give me a little bit of a rundown. We’ve only got a couple of games left, right? How do you feel the season has gone as opposed to your preconceived notions going into it? 

Ethan McDonnell: Well, we are obviously coming into the season on the heels of a breakout season last year after which we graduated 14 seniors. And given our roster size and school, that’s a little bit harder to replace. We’ve been building our culture and program for the last couple of years by bringing in really young kids and growing them throughout the program. So we had enough juniors last year, current 2024s, who were in impact positions that felt like while balanced age-wise, where we would skew a little young, we would have enough senior leadership, but I knew we’d be thin.

We had an incredible offseason A really great trip to Philadelphia in the preseason with a fully intact and healthy roster, where we had great scrimmages and showed really well against the likes of Radnor, Seton Hall Prep and Fairfield Prep. I may have jinxed this in my first coaching meeting in late February when I was like, “I think we can make a run if we stay healthy,” Sure enough, in our first game, one of the better midfielders who ever played here, Gordie Leary, went down.

We haven’t had him since that game, and it’s been a comedy of errors since then. In the Westminster game, for example, our entire first-line midfield was out due to a typical boarding school situation — there were 175 kids on campus that had the flu. So, in spite of all of that, I think we’re somewhat overachieving.

Jack Piatelli: I played hockey, football and lacrosse at Kent, and the PGs … some of them would come in and expect that they’re just going to play. You’ve got the freshman, and there’s progressions and you work to get to certain levels, and it can be very disappointing when someone comes in and takes your position. But that’s going to happen. That’s life, right?

Ethan McDonnell: Yeah, and that’s that’s honestly my first question to post-grad candidates: “What are you looking to get out of this experience?” If you want to play lacrosse year-round, and you see this as somewhat of a means to an end, and your college has asked you to take an (extra) year because you need it … we’re probably not the home for you. But if you’re choosing this on purpose and want everything that comes with the Choate experience, on and off the field, the outcomes have been really great here.

I think of last year our postgrad, Grant Masterson, who is a freshman right now at Army West Point, was voted captain. We don’t vote for captains here until the preseason is over. So leadership is earned in the offseason, and that’s part of the talking points to post-grads. (Guys) are going to be part of our senior leadership council. We meet once a week in the offseason. We read a series of books together; we want you to hear a voice. And sometimes we also need you to score 50 points.

@TheKyleDevitte
[email protected]

More Episodes