Eddie McElroy stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 195 pounds.
The Bishop’s School lacrosse goalie is more stout than weight-room ripped. While he’s a senior, with his cherubic face and light freckles, he could for an oversized freshman.
“He’s baby-faced,” said Torrey Pines High School coach Jono Zissi, who has coached McElroy in club lacrosse for six years.
Upon first glance, McElroy doesn’t cast an imposing image. But put a stick with webbing in his hands, stand him in front of the pipes and McElroy morphs into the Darth Vader of goalies.
“He’s the best goalie in Southern California,” said Zissi. “The second-best goalie in the state.”
McElroy has some depth to him, too. His GPA is just a smidgeon below 4.0. He’s bound to play lacrosse at NCAA Division III Bowdoin University in Brunswick, Maine. He’s beloved in the lax community. And he has overcome heartache. When McElroy was in the eighth grade, his father, Edward, 61, died of a heart attack.
Of his father’s death, McElroy said: “The impact was pretty profound. I was close to him.”
Edward McElroy, a lawyer, played lacrosse in high school in Rhode Island.
“His dad was super gung-ho about Eddie playing lacrosse,” said Bishop’s coach Steve Sepeta. “As a dad, he loved being around the sport, in all the right ways.”
Father and son would go to parks, ing the ball. Or dad fired shots at his son.
As Eddie advanced to the club level, they traveled to tournaments across the United States, in Delaware, Maryland, Utah and New York.
When he thinks of his father, Eddie said he re “his laugh.”
“He was always telling jokes,” the young McElroy said.
On Eddie’s desk in his Carmel Valley bedroom sits a framed picture of father and son. Eddie was in the fifth or sixth grade. The picture was taken at a lacrosse tournament.
McElroy, 18, played rugby and soccer for one year, basketball for four or five. But lacrosse is his first athletic love. He’s played every year since he was in kindergarten, always as a goalie.
His rec team was swapping goalies every week when he was in kindergarten … until McElroy stepped in.
“I kind of liked it,” he said. “I asked the coach not to switch me.”
With thousands of hours at the position, and hundreds of games, McElroy has started at Bishop’s since his freshman season. The Knights’ four-year record with McElroy in goal: 55-14.
Bishop’s finished 20-2 during McElroy’s freshman season, losing to Torrey Pines 10-5 in the Open Division championship game. Bishop’s, a small private school, has advanced to the Open Division playoffs every season of McElroy’s career and at 5-4 this season is ranked fifth in the section by laxnumbers.com.
As for his skills, McElroy is deft at clearing the ball after making stops.
“Quickly turning defense into offense,” said Zissi.
But McElroy’s main asset is the goalie’s most important job.
“The best part of his game, by far,” said Zissi, “is stopping the ball. He’s an elite ball-stopper.”
Said Sepeta: “He has good hands. He sees the ball really well. He’s very coordinated.”
Torrey Pines is the reigning six-time Open Division champion. The Falcons allowed an average of 6.66 goals a game the past three years. In his first three years at Bishop’s, McElroy allowed an average of 5.4.
McElroy is allowing 3.9 goals per game this season.
“That’s wild, a crazy stat,” said Zissi, who said most high school Open Division goalies give up eight to 10 goals per game.
Torrey Pines senior John Prior has played with McElroy on club teams since the fifth grade.
In the Open Division championship game their freshman year, Prior leaped in the air six yards in front of the net and aimed a shot at the top left corner of the goal.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, I’m caning that shot,” Prior said. “Against an elite goalie like Eddie, it’s not always that easy.”
McElroy stuffed it, fed an outlet and 10 seconds later, Bishop’s scored.
“He’s one of those calm, cool, collected goalies,” said Prior. “He just kind of rides the wave and does what he does.”
A lacrosse ball is made of rubber and almost rock hard. At the high school level, attackers rifle shots up to 90 mph. Lalies, lacrosse goalie wear little padding, other than a helmet.
Asked what it’s like facing 90 mph bullets that carom off various parts of the body, McElroy said, “You can’t think about it. If I think about it, I get in my own head and end up guessing where the ball is. You turn your mind off and let your body take care of it.”
Zissi said that because goalies stand in front of high-speed shots flung at them from all angles, “They’re stereotypically a little weird. A lot of them have long hair. They’re good because they’re huge — or couldn’t run, so they got stuck at goalie in the seventh grade.”
In his 23 years of coaching, Zissi said McElroy is “the most normal person I’ve seen play goalie.”
“He’s a smart kid,” said Sepeta. “A very likable kid. Confident but not arrogant.”
“You won’t find one kid who doesn’t love Eddie,” said Zissi. “He’s a sweet kid.”
Added Bishop’s teammate Ryan Linda: “You see him and he makes you happy. He brings everyone up. He’s always in a good mood.”
McElroy has an older sister who’s a student at Georgetown. Asked what he likes to do when he’s not studying or playing lacrosse, he said, “When my sister’s back home, I like hanging with her.”
Said Zissi: “I mean what 18-year-old will say he wants to spend down time with his sister?”
In high school, Torrey Pines’ Prior and McElroy are rivals. But they’ve traveled together to club tournaments for years and are best friends.
Few know McElroy better than Prior.
Without prompting, Prior said: “I love that guy. He’s an elite human.”
