Mount St. Mary’s men’s lacrosse senior Kevin Whitty recently chatted with PressBox about the influence his brothers had on his game, his family’s connections to the Mount and more. The 6-foot, 189-pound attackman scored 14 goals and dished out 20 assists for the Mountaineers in 2025. Whitty is a native of Kensington, Md., and graduate of St. John’s College High School.
PressBox: How did you first become interested in lacrosse?
Kevin Whitty: I come from a pretty large family. I have a lot of uncles that all played sports. My dad was into sports. I have three older brothers, all of [whom] played lacrosse. Two of them, [RP and Brendan], ended up playing in college at a Division III program called John Carroll right outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Growing up, I always watched them play lacrosse — growing up going to their high school games, playing outside in the yard with them, I kind of always wanted to be in their shoes and play college lacrosse someday. It was one of my goals and one of the dreams that I had. Luckily, I was able to go to a good high school in St. John’s and was luckily able to get recruited to the Mount through club lacrosse and through high school. [My brothers] helped me pick up a stick and they taught me how to play and they taught me how to compete.
PB: Who was the biggest influence on your game growing up?
KW: I think honestly it’s a tie between my two [older] brothers. I remember [RP] the most probably from middle school and watching him play. When I was a younger kid, I always looked up to him and all of his teammates, honestly, because [of] the way they played and the way they carried themselves as players. My other brother, Brendan, I looked up to a lot. His team was very successful in winning a championship in high school. I always dreamed of one day getting to that point and luckily I was able to get to that point in high school. I always looked up to them when it came to lacrosse.
PB: What are your favorite memories from playing lacrosse growing up in Kensington?
KW: I would say the 2v2 matches that I would have in my front lawn playing [with] soccer nets [and] tennis balls and going back and forth and ending in a fight every time, for the most part. Other lacrosse memories growing up would be playing rec lacrosse for Bethesda. My first-ever rec practice was probably one of the big memories for me because I had never played competitively until like sixth grade. I had a stick in my hands before that but never actually played on a team or played in any clinic or anything. It was just outside of my house playing with my brothers, so that first practice was definitely a memorable one for me. The coach didn’t believe that I had never played lacrosse before on a team. So much fun finally gearing up for the first time — putting on chest pads, putting on elbow pads was probably one of earliest memories of it.
PB: Why did you choose to go to the Mount?
KW: I had grown up coming to Mount games because my parents, [Richard and Deirdre], are both Mount alumni. My uncle, [Patrick], played lacrosse at the Mount. My uncle, [Brian], is in the Hall of Fame here at the Mount for soccer. A couple of my other uncles and aunt have also gone here, so growing up, I’d always come to basketball games. I had never come to a lacrosse game before, but I was very familiar with the school. My parents have only said great things about the Mount. When I came and visited, they gave me an opportunity. It’s a dream of mine to play Division I lacrosse. I didn’t really play too much in high school until my senior year and had a pretty good summer going into my senior year. The Mount was able to somehow find me and give me an opportunity, and I took it.
PB: What was it like to transition from Tom Gravante to Chris Ryan as head coach ahead of your sophomore season?
KW: I came in with the old coaching staff, and I was very grateful that they had given me the opportunity to play. My sophomore year I got the new coaches that we have now, and they’ve been amazing. I can’t say enough good things about them. They push us so hard each and every day to become the best players that we can. My sophomore year was a tough year under a new coaching staff, just getting to know everybody. The first year is always pretty challenging, so that was very hard. I’ve had a lot of teammates come and go. All the new people that our coaches have brought in have just been amazing. They’ve done a great job bringing in the right people. I’ve learned so much more about lacrosse itself with our coaches. Our coaches watch so much film. They teach us so much about lacrosse that I’ve never thought about before. They do a great job preparing us, watching film, giving us exactly what we need to do and the tools that we need in order to become successful on the field. I think they’ve just taught me to push past my limits. They always push us and make us work harder than even we think we can. I would say those were the big things that I’ve learned from our new coaches.
PB: Why has your production ticked up each year at the Mount?
KW: I think my freshman year, I was still kind of getting my toes wet in college lacrosse and learning. The people I’m playing against, my freshman year they were a lot older than me — bigger, stronger, faster than me. My freshman year I was kind of just doing what I could to help the team. I was the second-line midfielder. I looked up to all the older guys on the team and kind of looked at what they were doing and tried to fix what I was doing at that time. My freshman year, I was able to get some playing time, which is pretty good as a freshman. And then sophomore year, a lot of those guys from my freshman year had left and I felt like I needed to step up a bit more to try to help the team a little bit more and take on a bigger role than I had my freshman year and still again learning and developing my body to become bigger, faster and stronger. This past year, I think a lot of it had to do with the summer. I did not work or anything. I took my workouts and conditioning very seriously and was able to have a very good summer and was able to stay healthy for the fall and had a good fall. In the spring, I guess some more stuff kind of just clicked. I don’t really know what happened. A lot of it, obviously, has to do with my teammates. A lot of my points are from assists, so my teammates were finishing the passes that I was giving them. I felt like I was finishing more on the opportunities and shots I was able to get my junior year.
PB: What’s your favorite thing about Emmitsburg?
KW: I think it has to be the people. I think the people of Emmitsburg make this place what it is and make the place so special. My teammates make it so special. It’s just a very peaceful place. You just get away from some stuff. There’s not too much around. … You kind of can just focus on school and focus on lacrosse. I think that’s all I need in my college experience — having the great people and being able to focus on my academics and sports.
PB: Who is your best friend on the team and what’s a story that underscores your friendship?
KW: I’d have to say another senior, [Sean Connelly]. We’ve been together all four years at the Mount. We came in with the same recruiting class. There were 18 of us. Now there are only three of us left from that original class. Living with him for the past three years, I have countless stories that I could talk about, but I think one special one would be from [the end of the fall semester in 2025]. Our coach brought all the captains in. At the time, Sean was not a captain. He said, “What do you guys think of Sean becoming a captain for the team halfway through the year?” I was luckily able to tell him that he was a captain. I just felt like he’s worked so hard.
PB: Who was a player you looked up to when you first got to the Mount?
KW: It would be our captain at the time, Jared McMahon — the way he carried himself as a man, as a player, everything about him I really looked up to. He was the hardest worker. He was very strong. He was athletic. He brought a good attitude every day to practice. A lot of guys at his time were leaving. He stuck with the program, he believed in what the Mount was all about and that was something that I learned from him. I looked up to him every day, just the way he carries himself and his work ethic.
PB: What advice do you have for younger players going through the recruiting process?
KW: I would say just continue to work hard and the right schools will find you. I was not a heavily recruited player. I didn’t really play much in high school until my senior year. If you just continue to work hard and continue to believe that you can make your dreams possible, then they’ll become true. But it takes a lot of hard work and dedication.
PB: What are your goals for after lacrosse?
KW: I would like to continue to play lacrosse, hopefully, with Team Ireland. It’s something that I just was able to start with, so I continue to hopefully play international lacrosse — I would hope for Team Ireland in some events. Other than lacrosse, I am looking to get into the business field. Finance is what my major is, so working around the D.C. area when I’m older would be a goal of mine and just continuing to learn and develop my career. (His grandmother on his mother’s side was born in Ireland.)
Photo Credit: Tyler Kraft