Professional PLL
06:00 PM
Jul 19
Phi
Den
The driving rain at Rentschler Field had reached its apex when Jake Lutz received a pass from teammate Colin Sypek late in the NCAA Division II championship game. Lutz caught the pass, sprinted toward the cage and launched a bouncer off the right side of the goal as he was knocked to the ground.
When Lutz got back to his feet after the errant shot, he glanced upward at the Rentschler Field scoreboard in the east end zone.
Le Moyne 12, Lenoir-Rhyne 6.
“I was very happy I missed it,” Lutz said. “I ran off the field and looked at Matt Hutchings and said ‘Let’s finish it off.’”
The Dolphins let the shot clock run out of the ensuing possession, knowing they wouldn’t need to score again to secure their sixth national championship. Lutz hugged Will Pieterse and began crying.
“It’s a storybook ending,” he said. “I still haven’t grasped it.”
Before the before had even sounded, Lutz’s mind — and that of many of his teammates — turned to Kaiden Tubbert.
He was a grinder on the field and had a personality that lit up the locker room. He was obsessed with “Fortnite.” He was a teammate, roommate and friend.
Tubbert, 20, died by suicide March 14, 2020. Le Moyne grieved while also navigating the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. He wore No. 12.
Instead of coping with the loss of a season, coach Dan Sheehan and his team dealt with a far greater absence. Nothing could replace the junior midfielder on the field or his bubbly personality off of it. Still, the Dolphins were committed to keeping Tubbert’s story alive.
After the funeral, Sheehan and Tubbert’s mother, Sarah Lormand, had a conversation about how Le Moyne could continue to honor his memory. Lormand offered two ways in which Kaiden’s spirit could remain with the men’s lacrosse program.
“One was, when you see the sun poking through clouds and you see those rays of sun off in the distance, think of Kaiden,” Sheehan said. “The other was when you see the number 12, think of Kaiden.”
Over the next few months, while the Le Moyne men’s lacrosse team was mostly apart during the pandemic, the reminders were evident. Not a day went by that a team member did not mentioned the sight of the number. It appeared on telephone poles and in unknown numbers that texted Sheehan. Le Moyne had the number painted onto Ted Grant Field, right next to Sheehan in the coaches’ box.
The Dolphins had shooting shirts made with No. 12 on the backs, making it so that Tubbert took the field in every one of the Dolphins’ games this season. Le Moyne opened its season with a 12-7 win over Adelphi.
“He was everywhere,” Sheehan said. “I told the boys after the game, we should win every game. We played with 11 guys on the field all the time.”
As Le Moyne swept through its regular season schedule, Tubbert never left the minds of coaches and players. The reminders continued to manifest themselves in different forms. Some players taped No. 12 onto their helmets. Others bought wristbands with the number on them.
“You’re in the locker room and you look around,” Lutz said. “It’s like a calming presence at times. You’ll see a 12 wristband and take a deep breath, take in the moment, strap up your helmet and walk back on the field.”
The Dolphins tore through NE-10 play and into the NCAA tournament, where they took down Saint Anselm and Mercyhurst en route to the championship game in East Hartford, Conn. The weather was so hot during the win over Saint Anselm that Sheehan rolled the sleeves up on his shooting shirt and wrote “12” on his forearm.
Le Moyne held Lenoir-Rhyne to one goal en route to the 12-6 victory and the program’s sixth national title. The weather was much colder, so Sheehan could wear his full sleeves again. Soon after Lutz realized the number on the scoreboard, assistant coach Vinnie Alexander shouted, “Keep it a 12!”
The buzzer sounded amid tears and triumph. Le Moyne won another NCAA title, and Kaiden Tubbert was there the whole time.
“He's a huge piece of our heart,” Sheehan said. “He was with us every single day. He's on the field with us. He's in the locker room with us. One of those guys that was a best friend to every single person in the locker room.”