Colleen McCaffrey, at 5 feet 11 inches, is a key member of the Johns Hopkins Women’s Lacrosse team, and has played a crucial role in its success thus far.
A junior, she leads the team in goals, having scored 31 in 14 games, averaging about 2.2 goals a game; tying her with her total amount of goals from last season.
She is leading the team with 39 points and a shooting percentage of .431. With two games still to go, it seems McCaffrey is intent on outperforming her past self, and increasing her already impressive stats.
What are these stats? For two straight seasons, McCaffrey has started every single game. She has been named Second Team All-ALC since her freshman year, as well as second on the team in goals since her freshman year.
But, McCaffrey explained, “This season has been my favorite.” She credits her team for much of her success, explaining how “we motivate and push each other a lot because we know that it is a special enough group to go into the post season.”
This means a lot coming from someone with McCaffrey’s history. A lacrosse player since seventh grade, McCaffrey “began playing travel lacrosse for the Long Island Yellow Jackets in 9th grade . . . played with the Under 19 United States team the summer of [her] junior year of high school . . . [and] also played in N.Y.’s Empire State games.” Furthermore, in high school, McCaffrey also played “volleyball and basketball. This past year I played with the club women’s volleyball team here at Hopkins.”
The season, although the team’s record is not its best, could still be considered successful. As McCaffrey pointed out, “We have had some really big upsets . . . We have lost a couple of close games by one or two goals that we would like to get back but other than that it has been a successful season thus far.” The team has lost to Princeton, Georgetown and Vanderbilt all by only one goal.
But McCaffrey has always excelled in lacrosse. In high school, she was the only high school player named to the U.S. National team pool. She was a member of the 2008-2009 U.S. Developmental team and scored more than 300 goals and had 175 assists.
She was All-League and All-County four times, and a three-time All-American. Also, she was a two-time U.S. Lacrosse Scholar Athlete, and won gold with the 2007 U.S. Women’s Under-19 Team at World Championships. Overall, a difficult résumé to contend with.
In addition to experimenting with other sports, McCaffrey has an interest in the arts.
“I also enjoy Broadway musicals and dance. I don’t really participate much but enjoy all the music and attending the shows. My sister is involved with musicals and plays and that is what sparked my interest.”
With her commitment to lacrosse, though, it is difficult to manage all of her interests. On top of this, McCaffrey is “involved in the Incetive Mentoring Program (IMP), which is a program that fosters the transformation of underperforming high school students in Baltimore and university-based volunteers into self-motivated, resourceful and socially aware leaders committed to a higher purpose of their own.”
Essentially, IMP is a mentoring program where volunteers are matched with a struggling student. These mentors stay with that student throughout their education, from high school to college. In addition, McCaffrey is also the co-director of the events committee.
“We set up events for the students to attend such as trips to D.C., movie nights, football games, etc,” McCaffrey explained. With all of these responsibilities, free time for a musical is a hard thing to find.
A psychology major with a minor in entrepreneurship and management, McCaffrey as of now has no career plans, although she did mention business or further schooling as possibilities.
For the moment, she is just enjoying playing lacrosse. If previous seasons can serve as any indicator, McCaffrey is headed towards a great end of the season this year and an even better season to come.
She has been an integral part of the team thus far and will continue to be as the team progresses towards the end of the season, and hopefully into post-season play.
