Lacrosse player Michael O’Brien plans to make most of high expectations

As the 2019 Mercer lacrosse season gets underway, all eyes seem to be on junior defenseman Michael O’Brien.

O’Brien was honored this pre-season with his selected to the Preseason All-Southern Conference Men’s Lacrosse Team. The honor is not the first of his career.

According to O’Brien, it’s a great feeling to be chosen. “They took a chance on me … when like no other school really would. I mean, I always thank them for doing that. It was awesome of them. That's kind of why I ended up here,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien had offers from many division one schools after his outstanding high school career. However, after suffering two torn ACLs, many of those offers went away. But it was Mercer Head Coach Kyle Hannan who never gave up on O’Brien and wanted O’Brien to play for Mercer lacrosse the entire way through.

Now with the 2019 season about to begin, O’Brien is preparing himself for the challenges that are ahead of his team. His goals for the upcoming year are not only to improve his own game, but to focus more on the overall success of his team. O’Brien wants to energize his team when he is on the field, and push his team to new heights.

When asked what a successful season looks like for him personally, O’Brien said it’s all about the effort and energy he puts into the season. “I guess me just doing my job to the best of my abilities,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien also laid out his goals for his team, which include going far in the conference tournament and hopefully winning a Southern Conference championship. Even with his more lofty long term goal of winning a conference championship, in the short term O’Brien said he has one simple goal.

“I just want us to get as many wins as we can, and for the whole team to compete,” O’Brien said.

His team has opened the 2019 season with three tough games against out-of-conference opponents, with each resulting in losses. However, the Bears will look to get back on track on Mar. 2 against Cleveland State here in Macon.