These Pirates found a treasure in Hull boys lacrosse goalie Sean Walsh

HULL – Sean Walsh needed a moment. Bent over at the waist he slowly made his way off to the side of the practice field, flopped down on the turf on his back and composed himself.

Such is the life of a lacrosse goalie. Every once in a while a shot gets through and you gotta call a timeout.

"I took one right to my midsection," Walsh said a few minutes later, managing a wry smile. "Didn't feel too good."

Oh, well. Whatever it takes to make the save, right?

"Pretty much, yeah," Walsh said.

The Hull High junior has gotten very good at making saves across his three seasons as a starter. So good, in fact, that he's already committed to play Division 1 at Providence College.

Hull coach Ed Cameron, who played goalie for Hull's first-ever varsity team in 2008 and eventually walked on at Holy Cross for two seasons, says Walsh is the first Pirate ever to score a D1 offer.

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"To have someone be such an early commit to a Division 1 program is very, very rare (for us). It usually doesn't happen," said Cameron, a 2011 graduate who's been the head coach since 2019. "That's big (for Hull)."

Providence recently wrapped up a 6-9 season under first-year coach Bobby Benson. The former three-time All-American at Johns Hopkins spent 14 seasons as the offensive coordinator at his alma mater, winning a national championship in 2007. He also was the OC at Maryland during the Terrapins' back-to-back appearances in the title game in 2021 (lost to Virginia) and 2022 (beat Cornell to cap an 18-0 season).

So, expectations for the Friars are high going forward.

"Providence is just a really good fit for me," said Walsh, whose dad, Tom, played club lacrosse at UMass-Dartmouth. "I love the coaching staff; they're all great guys. They've had a good first season as a coaching staff. I was talking to a few other schools, but at the end of the day, Providence was just the best fit."

Unlike many of his Hull teammates who dabble in lacrosse but primarily play other sports, Walsh has been laser-focused on lax since first grade. Asked what attracted him to the sport, he said, "The pace is like nothing else. It's one of the fastest games to play. It's thrilling every time I'm out there."

Walsh's dedication is such that Cameron recalls him outside the school during the winter using one of the side walls to play catch by himself. "Pretty much every weekend," Walsh said of that routine. "Sometimes when I go to the weight room I'll bring my lacrosse stick and I'll be out here after." Considering the extreme weather at the Gut at that time of year, that is the definition of commitment. "Sometimes it's not the most fun to get out there," Walsh acknowledged, "but I'll make it."

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As for playing at the D1 college level, Walsh said he's "always been working toward that, ever since I was a young age."

He started playing club lacrosse with Laxachusetts in third grade. "Maybe not at that point (was he thinking about college), but once I got further along and I saw what (caliber of youth) team I was on, it was definitely like, 'This is what I want to do,'" he said. "I'd watch it on TV and knew that was what I wanted to do."

Walsh said his favorite current college goalie is Virginia sophomore Matt Nunes, of Virginia. The Cavaliers (12-3) are seeded No. 2 in the NCAA tournament and were scheduled to play Georgetown in a nationally televised quarterfinal game Saturday in Albany, New York. Walsh's next appearance on TV will be his first, but anyone who's seen him in person comes away impressed. That includes a bunch of opposing coaches who have watched him anchor Hull's surprising 10-5 season this spring.

Walsh is averaging 15.4 saves per game and boasts a 7.93 goals-against average. Hull has suffered a few heavy losses because its overall talent level isn't up to the level of some of the neighboring powerhouses. But Walsh has been the Pirates' cheat code for winning close games – 8-6 over St. Mary's (Lynn), 7-6 over South Shore Tech, 11-10 over Quincy/North Quincy and 9-8 over East Bridgewater.

He also made 30 saves in a 17-5 loss to Rockland.

"Sometimes, it's just like, man, could we just keep (the ball) up there (in the attacking end)?" Walsh said with a laugh. "But other times it's thrilling to get a lot of shots."

"Without him, I don't think we'd have the record we do right now," said senior defender Tyler Sordillo. "He saves so many shots for us. He bails us out sometimes, and when it's a close game he always comes through in the clutch."

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"He absolutely was the difference" in those close games, Cameron said. "You could just hear the gasps from the other sideline. 'How did he make that save?' Other teams started hearing about him. When we faced Falmouth Academy (a 12-4 win on April 6), the first thing their coach said was, 'That goaltender, is he still here?' I said, 'Yep, he's just a junior.' All the South Shore League coaches unanimously have so much respect for him."

Cohasset coach Steve Rotondi is certainly a fan. The Skippers, currently 14-2 and seeded No. 1 in Division 4 in the MIAA power rankings, beat Hull, 13-0, on April 17. It could have been much worse if Walsh wasn't in the net.

"Since he's been a starter at Hull, Sean has stood out," Rotondi said. "Every year we've played them, we go in talking about how you're going to have to earn (your goals) against their goalie, even when he was a freshman. Even now he sees a lot of rubber and he makes a lot of big saves for them. I think his teammates would say the same thing – he's the reason they stay in a lot of games."

Asked what he thinks he does well technically, Walsh said, "My hands are always getting to the ball, and the rest of my body follows." Of course, the most important weapon a goalie possesses is his mindset. "You can't let anyone get inside your head," he said. "It's all a mental game. At the end of the day, you need to be confident that you're going to save the ball and it's not going to go in and you're going to be fine."

Walsh, who plays soccer in the fall, always has been confident in his lacrosse ability. More and more, his teammates are gaining confidence in themselves, now that they have become more accustomed to the sport.

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Take Sordillo, for example. The 6-foot-3 senior was one of the stars of Hull's state-championship football team in the fall, and he'll play that sport at Springfield College as a defensive end. He only took up lacrosse last spring, but he's seen improvement.

"The first year, it wasn't that easy," Sordillo said. "But (I trained) throughout the summer and when I picked up the stick​ first day of practice (this year) I was like, 'Wow, I'm so much better.' I used my athleticism (at first). I used my strength to push (attackers), but since my stick skills are a little better now, I've started to implement that into my game."

Sordillo said Walsh's knowledge of the game has helped him "100%. Every time I made a mistake, he let me know (how to correct it) and next time I wouldn't make the mistake again."

"He's always talking to us, always communicating, always telling us what to do," agreed fellow defender Tommy Burke, a basketball player who, like Sordillo, is relatively new to lacrosse. "It's such a benefit having him on the team and him just being a leader."

Said Cameron: "He's not just playing goalie out there; he's really coaching these guys up. It's pretty amazing the way he can command his defense and orchestrate guys to be where he specifically wants them on the field."

Walsh, whose sister Erin is a freshman on the Hull girls team, said he's enjoyed seeing his teammates warm to lacrosse. "When they first came out they couldn't catch and throw, and now they're making all these crazy plays," he said. "It's been really good having them."

Hull won four games each of the two previous seasons. Now the Pirates are starting to think they can advance in the playoffs for the first time since a Division 3 South quarterfinal appearance in 2019.

"All the chemistry is starting to come together now," Sordillo said. "We dropped a couple of games we probably should have won, but other than that we've been a good team.

"It feels awesome," Burke agreed. "This year we just came in with a different attitude, more focused. One hundred percent I think we can (make some noise in the playoffs)."

Having a standout goalie should help the Pirates navigate the waters of the Division 4 tournament.

"We still have a lot more to work on and move toward," Walsh cautioned, "but I think if the team stays disciplined, we can go somewhere."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Friar in waiting: Hull boys lacrosse star has Providence gig lined up