College Corner: Neumann University Lax Midfielder Mark Consolo

Spring-Ford lost a group of leaders on the boys lacrosse squad when it said goodbye to graduates like Tyler Novotny, Jesse Ercole and Ryan Somplasky. All three were captains during the 2008 season, head coach Kevin Donnelly expected one of his players to be a leader on and off the field despite not naming him captain.

That player was Mark Consolo, who now plays midfield at Neumann University. With practices already starting in less than a week and the Knights just missing the playoffs last year, Limerick's own Consolo is pumped to get things going again in 2011-2012.

"I would say we have five or six upperclassmen, but we’re pretty young still," Consolo said. "Anything less of making the playoffs would be a total disappointment to us. We have practice in a week and you can feel the excitement already. We want to make the playoffs more than anything. Anything less would be heartbreaking. It’s like you’re job. You put so much work into it."

It wasn't an easy road to get to his junior year, as with the loss of 12 seniors between his freshman and sophomore year, and changing over from defense to offense, Consolo had to step in to an early leadership role, finding himself in a similar situation to 2008.

"My coach pulled me aside and even though I wasn’t a captain, he told me I needed to be a leader out there," said Consolo. "And last year, I tried to be a little more outspoken than I was as a freshman, because I didn’t want to try to speak too much with the seniors there. But, I got on the guys. If things went wrong or adversity was upon us, coach told me to show these guys to stay positive and play with heart. I tried to speak to that every game."

Consolo attributes his success at Neumann to Donnelly, his father and God. Without them, he said, the adversity would be much harder to get over. With the game speeding up and the opponents getting bigger in size, Consolo's battle to leadership and glory was uphill, but he took it on with hard work and a lot of faith.

He said he has no regrets so far.

"I have to admit, it was a lot of pressure," Consolo said. "I felt it in the beginning, but to tell you the truth, when I got on the field, I gave a little prayer to God to make me feel good and have no fear out there on the field and play with my heart. I didn’t try to think about how small or how young I was out there. When you’re out there playing the game, your adrenaline takes over and it makes you feel older."

Currently, Consolo majors in sports management and is actively looking for internships as he enters his junior year. In the future, he'd like to come back to Philadelphia and work in the media or management for sports.

"I got a lot of interest in sports," Consolo said. "My father put me in football when I was four years old at Lower Providence. I can’t stop watching sports. I am a major in sports management. I love Philly sports and would love to stay in the area and contribute to anything media-wise or management-wise to all four major sports."

Overall, Consolo wishes to end his college career with maintaining friendships, academic success, a league championship and some major networking. One of his role models gave him a piece of inspiration in his book and Consolo lives by that in life.

"I read up on Pat Croche a lot and he said to soak up everything you can in sports because it goes by so quick," said Consolo.