While recuperating from a broken leg suffered in a skiing accident when he was in the eighth grade, Mac O’Neill hit a growth spurt, climbing half a foot in a year on his way to his current 6-foot-6.
The Holderness School junior and 3D New England defender hit another milestone recently when he made his commitment to the admissions process at Dartmouth College, one of the region’s first members of the Class of 2023 to make his college plans, and certainly the tallest.
He was contacted practically at the stroke of midnight on Sept. 1 while at the Elite Eight showcase in Delaware, and matters moved swiftly from there.
“I got back to the hotel, the clock struck 12:01 and Coach (Matt) Dugan from Dartmouth was texting me,” said O’Neill (Marblehead, Mass.). “I called him. The next thing I knew I was on campus and I loved it.”
While O’Neill’s size is the first thing that stands out to the casual observer, there’s much more to his game. He’s fundamentally sound, physical and good off the ground, and his 3D coaches rave about his ability to back up shots by hustling to the end line and laying out.
“You think tall, you think slow foot speed, but he has both,” said Justin Simon, his coach at Holderness. “He’s now getting into his body, which is crazy to think about. His goal is to put on weight and get some more foot speed.”
At Holderness this past spring, O’Neill fought for playing time on a strong defensive unit led by standouts like Griffin O’Neil -- a future Dartmouth teammate -- UMass commit Russ Hutchinson and Alex Baber, who’ll play at VMI.
“What he was able to see and emulate and match on the field was huge,” said Simon. “We were really, really deep. We had like 14 poles and they could all play.”
A tight end -- and outstanding target -- on the Holderness football team, he’ll graduate into an even larger role these next two seasons on the lacrosse field, for a Holderness team that was the class of the Lakes Region last spring and should be every bit as formidable in 2022.
“I want to make a name for us, show every team what we are capable of doing,” said O’Neill.
He’ll eventually join a Dartmouth team coming off a largely lost year with the Ivy League cancelling play last spring. To the school’s credit (and to the credit of head coach Brendan Callahan), two scrimmages were lined up and are listed on the team’s website under 2021 results -- a loss to Division 3 power Tufts and a win over Division 2 St. Anselm as the team sought opportunities to compete.
But first, O’Neill will keep growing into his role and growing into his frame.
“We’re excited,” said Simon. “He’s going to come into a huge role for us this year. His ceiling is not even close to being scratched right now.”
Six-foot-6 defenders with foot speed are a rarity in the sport, but O’Neill noted that one of the first lessons he learned came in the meeting room, not on the field..
“One thing I had to learn was that I had to sit a lot lower than anybody else,” he said.
@MikeZhe603
mzhe@laxjournal.com
