SOUTH BEND — For Shawn Lyght, star defender for Notre Dame lacrosse, pregame silence is golden.
Roughly 20 minutes before taking the field, the towering junior will remove his headphones after extracting sufficient adrenaline from the sounds of Lil Wayne. At that point, Lyght will close his eyes and give himself over to introspection and visualization.
“I’ll take a minute just to appreciate where I’m at right now,” Lyght said. “Every game, yes, it’s a high level and we’re in the NCAA Tournament now, but it’s just another game that I grew up playing.”
The 6-foot-3, 200-pound product of Scotch Plains, N.J., smiled at the thought after the Irish blasted Jacksonville, 18-5, in the first round.
“I’m trying to recenter myself, get myself focused, take all the pressure off and then just go out and be prepared to play,” he said. “There’s only so much silence in a locker room right before a game. They’ll have music in the locker room, but I just sit there and visualize what I have to do on the field.”
It’s a routine that has served him well through three standout seasons with the Irish. So much so that he recently was announced as one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Award, the sport’s version of the Heisman Trophy.
The last defensive player to reach that stage of the process was Notre Dame predecessor Matt Landis a full decade ago.
And yet, it’s not like the Irish locker room becomes monastic in those precious pregame moments. Quite the contrary.
“(Lyght) might not like me because I blare music on the speaker pretty loud, so I might be interrupting his silent time a little bit,” senior midfielder Will Donovan said with a laugh. “There’s one Limp Bizkit song I’ve been playing recently that gets the boys fired up.”
Everyone but Lyght.
“To each their own, you know?” Donovan said. “Everyone has their own little pregame superstitions.”
While Donovan makes sure the pregame playlist is cranking, it’s impossible not to notice Lyght effectively meditating right there amid the madness. He doesn’t sulk off in search of a darkened equipment room or glare at his teammates to keep the sound down.
He turns inward as he readies his mind and his body for battle.
“He locks in,” Donovan said. “You can tell he’s ready to go. He’s walking around laser focused.”
Teammate calls Shawn Lyght the ‘nicest guy ever’
A cousin of former Notre Dame All-America cornerback and assistant coach Todd Lyght, the inner Zen that Lyght is able to summon in the tensest of times seems to funnel down to his teammates.
Even as the stakes grow higher, starting with a quarterfinal matchup against Johns Hopkins on Saturday, May 16 in Hempstead, N.Y., the second-seeded Irish know they can always look to big No. 90 for help.
“He’s the nicest guy ever and is able to play with such a calmness and just keep us sane when it gets crazy,” senior goaltender Thomas Ricciardelli said. “He’s just so confident in his footwork and his play, and it just instills so much confidence in everyone else on the field, especially me.”
With Lyght patrolling the back end of the Irish defense, much the way a sweeper works in soccer, Ricciardelli’s requests typically flow through the nation’s best stopper.
“He’s just like a blanket out there,” Ricciardelli said. “He’s just covering their best guy, and you basically don’t see anything from him the whole game. He’s the best.”
Donovan, a second-round pick of the Boston Cannons in this year’s Premier Lacrosse League draft, agrees with the “blanket” assessment — within reason.
“That’s a good term,” he said. “Teams get pretty creative with how to get matchups. The battle then is whatever actions they’re going to take to get the matchup they want, he has to navigate those: a pick, a slip, a seal.
“Without getting too into the weeds, they have some strategies, so he has to navigate all that while playing team defense. That’s the challenge week in, week out.”
It’s no accident that the Irish (11-2) have held eight opponents to single figures in scoring this year. That collective vise has now worked for 55 straight wins under those circumstances.
Jacksonville’s senior attackman Jack Taylor came in leading the nation in points, but Lyght’s long shadow helped limit Taylor, a fourth-round pick in the PLL draft, to just one goal on nine shots with no assists and three turnovers.
The keys to that suffocation?
“Just playing fundamental,” Lyght said. “He’s a great player. Always has his eyes up. He’s a physical dodger. So just trying to crowd his dodging space, play my game, be patient and get him to the spots I want to get him to.”
Once Lyght made it through an early-week slate of final exams, he was able to dig in on film study and decode, then defuse, his dangerous opponent.
The same held true a month earlier, when Lyght held top-ranked North Carolina’s Owen Duffy, a fellow Tewaaraton Award finalist, to one goal on just five shots. Duffy’s only assist came in a man-down situation with Lyght off the field.
The Irish claimed a convincing 10-5 win for their second conquest of a No. 1 team in as many weekends. Richmond fell the week before in Evanston, Ill.
“He’s a cover guy like you dream about,” 38th-year Irish coach Kevin Corrigan said of Lyght. “He’s 6-3, he’s strong, but he moves so well and so gracefully that he can guard speed guys, he can guard skill guys. He can guard big, strong athletes. There’s not a matchup that you can’t put him on and feel real confident in.”
Freak athletic ability plus high-end lacrosse IQ
Asked to pinpoint an area of Lyght’s game where he’s had to grind extra to smooth out a possible impediment, Donovan stares back blankly.
Then he laughs.
“That’s a tough question,” said Donovan, Notre Dame’s only other first-team All-American along with Lyght so far. “He’s just a freak athlete. On ball, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Lyght’s mental game is at least as strong as his physical gifts.
“I’m lucky to pick his brain on a lot of stuff,” Donovan said. “I definitely use that to my advantage, having him around, asking a bunch of questions. What we don’t see a lot is he’s so buttoned up off ball and his lax IQ is so high, he’s able to make everyone around him better off ball.”
A product of the Brunswick School in Greenwich, Conn., Donovan was part of both national championships for the Irish in 2023 and 2024. He marveled at how seamlessly Lyght made the adjustment upon joining a title outfit and making the repeat process reached fruition.
“He did an outstanding job,” Donovan said. “High school to college, a lot of times people can struggle with that transition, but he put in the time. You saw it. Every little thing you need to focus in on to make that transition, he was just all over and dialed.”
Nothing has changed in that regard, even as the plaudits roll in for the man in the bright green cleats.
“He’s such a well-rounded player,” Donovan said. “He loves his teammates, loves the game and getting better and is just a joy and a privilege to play with.”
Take Lyght’s answer on the topic of his Tewaaraton Award chances. Pat Kavanagh, a three-time finalist, remains Notre Dame’s only winner, having claimed it in 2024.
“It’s a great honor,” Lyght said. “Unfortunately, it’s an individual honor, so it kind of goes to the back of my mind. I’m trying to win a national championship and do all that.”
Typical of his understated personality, Lyght found a way to bend the question in such a way that he could share the spotlight with his fellow defenders and the Irish scout team.
“It’s a great honor to know that it’s not common that it’s happened and I’m able to represent other defenders,” he said. “The guys who don’t get all the awards and all the spotlight, your job is just as valuable. I always try to give praise to everyone that might not get the spotlight because I can’t do my job without (them).”
Only then does Notre Dame’s stoic silencer prefer to make some noise.
“I might get the light,” he said, “but I can’t do it without them.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: How Shawn Lyght quietly keeps the peace for Notre Dame lacrosse
Reporting by Mike Berardino, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
