Born | Springfield, Pennsylvania | April 5, 1981
---|---|
Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
Weight | 195 pounds (88 kg) |
Shoots | Right |
Position | Defense |
NCAA team | Georgetown (2003) |
NLL draft | 83rd Overall, 2003 Philadelphia Wings |
NLL team Former teams | New England Black Wolves Philadelphia Wings Edmonton Rush Buffalo Bandits |
MLL draft | 3rd Round, 2003 Bridgeport Barrage |
MLL team Former teams | New York Lizards Chesapeake Bayhawks Boston Cannons Washington Bayhawks Philadelphia Barrage Bridgeport Barrage |
Pro career | 2003–2016 |
Career highlights | |
| |
Medal record | |
U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame, 2023 Professional Lacrosse Hall of Fame, 2024 |
Kyle Sweeney (born April 5, 1981, in Springfield, Pennsylvania) is an American professional lacrosse player who plays for the New York Lizards in Major League Lacrosse. He is the vice president of sports nutrition at Medifast, and co-founder of the Gotham Lacrosse League.
Sweeney played for the U.S. Men's National Team in the 2006 and 2010 World Lacrosse Championship, [1] and played for Team USA in the 2007 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship. [2]
Sweeney is a native of Springfield, Pennsylvania. He is from an athletic family: both his father, Jack, and mother, Denise, are gym teachers, and his brother was an All American athlete in high school. [3] He began playing lacrosse in middle school for the Springfield Athletic Association, and moved on to the Springfield Cougars Lacrosse Club in high school, where he received All-American honors and was the All-Central League MVP. He also played football and basketball. [4]
Sweeney married Angela Lanzafama in 2011. [5]
Sweeney attended Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, where he was a three-time All-American long-stick midfielder. As a freshman, he was awarded the 2000 ECAC Rookie of the Year. He was also named Two-time ECAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2002 and 2001, and was named to the All-ECAC First Team three times. [3] He served as co-captain of the 2003 Georgetown Hoyas men's lacrosse team. Sweeney set the Georgetown all-time record of 229 ground balls while in college. [6] Academically, he was a double major in international business and marketing as well as minor concentration in sociology.
Sweeney was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2023. [7]
Sweeney was selected by the Bridgeport Barrage in the 2003 Collegiate Draft, Round 3. He followed the team when it moved from Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2003. Sweeney anchored the defensive unit that helped the Barrage win the MLL championship in 2004, 2006 and 2007. When the team folded in 2008, Sweeney moved to Washington Bayhawks for one game, then over to the Boston Cannons, which he led to win the 2011 MLL Championships. In 2014 he moved back to the Bayhawks, which relocated in Chesapeake. In 2017, he began playing for the New York Lizards. [4]
Sweeney has been selected to the MLL All-Star Game nine times, been named All-MLL three times, and has won the Steinfeld Cup four times. [6] He is currently ranked third for all-time games played in the league, as well as eighth for all-time ground balls fielded. [8]
After a fifteen-year career, Sweeney announced his retirement from Major League Lacrosse on August 31, 2017.
The Philadelphia Wings drafted Sweeney in the eighth round (83rd overall) of the 2003 NLL Entry Draft. [9] He followed the team when it moved to Connecticut, changing its name to the New England Black Wolves. He retired from indoor play in 2015.
Sweeney played for the U.S. Men's National Team in the 2006 and 2010. In 2010, his team won the World Lacrosse Championship in Manchester. [1] He also played for Team USA in the 2007 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship. [2]
Sweeney has been described as one of the "best defenders in the game, period", by Inside Lacrosse, which placed him no. 24 on their Top 50 list in 2009. [10]
Sweeney was the chief operating officer for Maverick Lacrosse, a New York-based lacrosse equipment manufacturer, from 2005 to 2010. He then moved to Performance Sports Group, where he worked as Vice president of operations and product development until 2013, when he became vice president of marketing and business planning. He left in 2016 to become vice president of sports nutrition at Medifast.
Sweeney co-founded the Gotham Lacrosse League, an elite men's summer league in New York City, with Billy Pymm in 2007. The league expanded to include an elite women's league in 2013. [11]
Regular Season | Playoffs | ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season | Team | GP | G | 2ptG | A | Pts | GB | PIM | GP | G | 2ptG | A | Pts | GB | PIM | ||
2003 | Bridgeport | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2004 | Philadelphia | 12 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 47 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2005 | Philadelphia | 12 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 44 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2006 | Philadelphia | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 32 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
2007 | Philadelphia | 12 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 29 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | ||
2008 | Philadelphia | 11 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 47 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
2009 | Washington | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2009 | Boston | 11 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 57 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
2010 | Boston | 10 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 36 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | ||
2011 | Boston | 9 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 21 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | ||
2012 | Boston | 14 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 32 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
2013 | Boston | 14 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 35 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2014 | Boston | 13 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 25 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2015 | Chesapeake | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2016 | Chesapeake | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 22 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2016 | New York | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | .5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
MLL Totals | 161 | 41 | 0 | 26 | 65 | 485 | 36.5 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 18 | 0 |
Regular Season | Playoffs | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season | Team | GP | G | A | Pts | LB | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | LB | PIM | ||
2005 | Philadelphia | 12 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 53 | 11 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2006 | Philadelphia | 15 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 91 | 8 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2007 | Philadelphia | 16 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 85 | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2008 | Philadelphia | 16 | 5 | 20 | 25 | 127 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | ||
2009 | Philadelphia | 16 | 7 | 18 | 25 | 130 | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2010 | Philadelphia | 15 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 90 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2011 | Edmonton | 6 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 24 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2011 | Philadelphia | 9 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 43 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2012 | Buffalo | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 20 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2013 | Philadelphia | 9 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 37 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
2014 | Philadelphia | 18 | 2 | 12 | 14 | 53 | 18 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
NLL Totals | 180 | 32 | 92 | 124 | 753 | 67 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
Season | Team | GP | G | A | Pts | GB | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | Georgetown | 14 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 61 | ||
2001 | Georgetown | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 60 | ||
2002 | Georgetown | 15 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 75 | ||
2003 | Georgetown | 11 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 33 | ||
NCAA Totals | 55 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 229 |
Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001. Teams played anywhere from ten to 16 games in a summertime regular season. This was followed by a four-team playoff for the championship trophy, the Steinfeld Trophy, named after founder Jake Steinfeld. League attendance peaked at 6,417 in 2011 and the 2019 average was 4,587.
The Chesapeake Bayhawks were a Major League Lacrosse (MLL) professional men's field lacrosse team based in Annapolis, Maryland. They played in the greater Baltimore metro area beginning with the MLL's inaugural 2001 season, as the Baltimore Bayhawks from 2001–2006 and as the Washington Bayhawks from 2007–2009.
The New York Lizards, originally the Long Island Lizards, were a Major League Lacrosse (MLL) team based in Hempstead, New York, located on Long Island. They are original members of the MLL. They lost the league's inaugural game on June 7, 2001 to the Baltimore Bayhawks, 16–13.
The Boston Cannons, formerly known as Cannons Lacrosse Club, is a professional men's field lacrosse team in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL). Formerly based in Boston, Massachusetts, they played in Major League Lacrosse (MLL) from their inaugural 2001 season to 2020. The team's home field was Veterans Memorial Stadium in nearby Quincy. In the MLL, the team won two Steinfeld Cup championship games in 2011 and 2020, the latter being the MLL's final championship. The Cannons joined the PLL in 2020 following the MLL–PLL merger and were rebranded as the Cannons Lacrosse Club before later being rebranded as Boston Cannons once again when the PLL assigned home cities after the 2023 season.
Jesse Hubbard is a former professional lacrosse player who played professional box lacrosse in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) and professional field lacrosse in the Major League Lacrosse (MLL).
John Christopher Grant Jr. is an American professional lacrosse coach and retired professional lacrosse player who has played in Major League Lacrosse, the National Lacrosse League, and the Ontario Lacrosse Association. He currently serves as an assistant coach for Redwoods Lacrosse Club of the Premier Lacrosse League.
The Denver Outlaws were a Major League Lacrosse professional men's field lacrosse team based in Denver, Colorado, United States. They began playing in the MLL in 2006 as an expansion team.
Brodie Merrill is a Canadian professional lacrosse player. Merrill is recognized by the Premier Lacrosse League as having revolutionized the LSM position, and is the namesake for the Brodie Merrill LSM of the Year Award, being the only active PLL player to have an award named after them. Merrill is widely regarded as one of the greatest defensemen in lacrosse history, in both the indoor and outdoor game.
Chris Garrity was a professional lacrosse goaltender with the Chesapeake Bayhawks of Major League Lacrosse (MLL). He retired from MLL on 19 January 2012. Coming out of high school, Chris' best sport was soccer where he excelled as a marking back. Despite being a better soccer player Chris decided to pursue lacrosse in college.
Casey Powell is an American retired professional lacrosse player from West Carthage, New York. In 1998, he graduated from Syracuse University, where he was a four-time USILA All-American. Powell was the NCAA Division I Most Outstanding Player in 1997 and 1998. Powell was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2017, and the Professional Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2022. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest lacrosse players of all time, and the greatest attackman of his generation.
Bill McGlone is a professional lacrosse player from Ridley, Pennsylvania. McGlone plays for the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse and the Philadelphia Wings of the National Lacrosse League.
Maxwell Oren Seibald is a former professional lacrosse player for the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse. He played midfield position. He graduated in 2009 from Cornell University. He is a former Tewaaraton Award winner, and two-time Team USA player. He played for Team Israel in 2018.
Jarett Park is a professional lacrosse player from Otisco, New York. He currently plays for the Colorado Mammoth in the National Lacrosse League, and the Washington Bayhawks of Major League Lacrosse.
Kyle Hartzell is an American former professional lacrosse player, who most recently played for Cannons Lacrosse Club of the Premier Lacrosse League. He is currently the Head Lacrosse Coach for the University of Texas at Austin. He graduated from Salisbury University (D3) in 2007. Hartzell previously played for the Atlas Lacrosse Club of the Premier Lacrosse League. Kyle is playing for the NLL Expansion Team the San Diego Seals Kyle Hartzell has also played professional lacrosse for Washington, Chesapeake, Ohio, and New York in the Major League Lacrosse. Hartzell had a career high 11 goals in 2012 as a part of the Ohio Machine, as well as 22 total caused turnovers. Known for his flashy over-the-head and rusty gate checks and his outspoken personality, Hartzell has become one of the most well-known defensive players in lacrosse.
The 2016 Major League Lacrosse season was the 16th season of Major League Lacrosse. The season featured 9 teams after the addition of the Atlanta Blaze via expansion. It was the first season since 2008 that the league fielded more than eight teams. The defending champion New York Lizards were coming off their third Steinfeld Cup victory in franchise history and first since 2003 after defeating the Rochester Rattlers 15–12 August 8, 2015 at Fifth Third Bank Stadium in Kennesaw, Georgia. On August 20, the Denver Outlaws won their second Steinfeld Cup trophy in three years, coming back to defeat the Ohio Machine, 19–18.
The 2017 Major League Lacrosse season was the 17th season of Major League Lacrosse. Featuring the same nine teams as 2016, the season began on April 22. All four games played on opening weekend were won by the road team and decided by one goal, two in overtime. The season culminated in the championship game on August 19 in Frisco, Texas at The Ford Center at The Star. In a rematch of the 2016 championship game, the Ohio Machine defeated the Denver Outlaws 17–12, capturing their first Steinfeld Cup in franchise history.
The 2018 Major League Lacrosse season is the 18th season of Major League Lacrosse. The season began on Saturday, April 21 with three games. For the third straight year, the league consists of nine teams playing 14 games each. However, the league announced on November 16, 2017 that the Rochester Rattlers, one of the league's four remaining charter franchises, would relocate to Frisco, Texas and become the Dallas Rattlers. The reigning champions for the first time are the Ohio Machine, who would take a hard fall and finish 3-11 in 2018. The season culminated on Saturday, August 18 with the Denver Outlaws hoisting their third Steinfeld Trophy in Charleston, South Carolina at MUSC Health Stadium after defeating the Rattlers, 16-12.
The 2019 Major League Lacrosse season was the 19th season of Major League Lacrosse. The regular season began on Friday, May 31 and ended on Sunday, September 22. It was the first time the league would ever begin its season after Memorial Day, allowing all players selected in the collegiate draft to play a full season. 2019 also marks the first time each team would play 16 games. The league has played a 14-game schedule since 2012. Additionally, the league returned to a Championship Weekend format instead of a two-week postseason for the first time since 2013. Championship Weekend was hosted in Denver with two semifinal games on Friday, October 4 and the 19th Steinfeld Cup was hosted at Dick's Sporting Goods Park October 6 on ESPN2.
The 2020 Major League Lacrosse season was the 20th season of Major League Lacrosse. Each of the six teams were slated to play a ten-game regular season starting on May 30, until the COVID-19 pandemic suspended the season. On July 2, the league announced teams would play a five-game regular season over the course of a quarantined week in Annapolis, Maryland at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, the home of the Chesapeake Bayhawks. The regular season was scheduled to begin play on Saturday, July 18 with a four-team postseason the next weekend on July 25–26.
The MLL–PLL merger represented a unification of the two major professional field lacrosse leagues in the United States at the time: Major League Lacrosse (MLL) and the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL). Initial terms of the merger were released on the morning of December 16, 2020. The two leagues agreed to unite under the "Premier Lacrosse League" name and logo, operating as a tour-based model and removing the last of the hometown-based professional field lacrosse teams in the United States. The Boston Cannons would be the sole MLL team identity to play in the PLL for the 2021 season, rebranding as the Cannons Lacrosse Club.