Football, Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Aaron Rodgers
Favorite team: Eagles
Best memory competing in sports: Beating CB East in overtime in football.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Tripping while running a lap in warm-ups.
Music on iPod: Every genre
Future plans: Attend Binghamton University and play lacrosse
Words to live by: “To be the man, you need to beat the man.”
One goal before turning 30: Be settled and starting a family.
One thing people don’t know about me: I enjoy singing.
By DAN DUNKIN
The three-sport high school star has basically gone the way of rotary phones, CDs and postcards.
Playing two – and playing them well – can qualify as a full plate for scholastic athletes these days, especially given the off-season demands that weren’t present back in the day. But when you simply love to play with your pals and to compete at a high level, two sports is akin to a bonus system for a high school athlete. The two-sport payoff comes, win or lose, in the joy and virtuous life experience of playing for your school, reveling in the ups and learning how to rebound through the downs, and sometimes it comes in the form of a college scholarship.
In the latter case, there’s a lesson in there for kids who early on put all their eggs in the one-sport basket, and a message for their parents and/or coaches who insisted such a tunnel-vision focus was necessary in order to secure a scholarship in that sport. The lesson/message is this: Playing a second sport doesn’t derail or distract an athlete from a scholarship in his or her preferred sport. Playing a second sport may even enhance the ability and potential in the preferred sport.
And in that context, we give you Council Rock South senior Brendan Patterson, a football and lacrosse star and the Univest Featured Athlete of the Week. Patterson, an outstanding midfielder, will realize his dream of playing Division I lacrosse. He earned a scholarship to Binghamton University. And the way his dad, Mark, figured it, football was only going to substantially supplement his lacrosse and thus his overall athletic/life experience.
“My dad always said, ‘You want to be more than just a one-sport athlete; it’ll help you in every aspect of any sport,’ ” Brendan said. “Football really gave me an edge in lacrosse with the discipline, physicality, getting stronger and faster. Football really had an impact on my lacrosse.”
Patterson has been a major impact player in both sports at CR South. Presently, he’s a big reason the Golden Hawks are leading the Suburban One League National Conference and gunning for the school’s first league boys lacrosse title.
“We have a lot of seniors this year, and I knew some players needed to step up after we lost some players from last year,” Patterson said. “And those kids couldn’t have done any better. After the first two games, I knew this would be a good season for us.”
The 6-foot, 190-pound Patterson, named first-team all-conference as a junior, is a talented and tenacious all-around player who impacts the game offensively and defensively.
“He’s a real game-changer,” first-year CR South boys lacrosse coach Mike Murray says. “He gives us a huge advantage.
“He settles down our whole team, and he’s definitely one of the better athletes on our team. He can really do it all. He leads by example. He’s laser-focused. He’s always fired up. He has really good determination and good self-drive. He’s one of our best passers as well and he’s strong with the ball, too; he can handle the ball in traffic.
“Brendan also helps our clear. When we need to move the ball upfield, he’s the first look. We’re trying to get the ball to him. He’s pretty much like a one-man clear. “
Patterson is a dominant faceoff man. Learning the finer points of the faceoff marked the turning point of his young career.
At the beginning of his junior year while competing in the Philly Showcase, a recruiting event, Patterson met his faceoff coach, John Bodnar.
“He really just set the bar for me and helped with the whole recruiting process, and it sped up from there,” said Patterson, who ultimately chose Binghamton over Villanova and High Point (NC) and is leaning toward a major in computer sciences. “He really broke (the faceoff process) down for me. I still go to him today, and my younger brother goes to him. He made me a lot better player and really changed my game.”
Patterson’s younger brother is Chase, a talented midfielder himself and just a freshman who’s already getting varsity time.
“It’s definitely really cool,” Brendan said. “I always thought about when I’d be a senior and he’d be a freshman. The time has come and it has really flown by. I’m really enjoying it, helping him out, and we’re helping each other be better players. I have a lot of fun doing it with him. I enjoy watching him play, and it makes me feel good if I can help him in any way.”
“Brendan has really mentored Chase this year, and Chase has had an outstanding season, too,” Murray said. “Brendan’s always available. I tell our team if they want to learn how to faceoff and other things, you better get with Brendan because he really knows his stuff.”
The family theme is big with Brendan. He credits his family – including his dad, mother Nancy, older brother Mark (who played football at CR South) and Chase for helping him build a sturdy inner foundation to weather adversity in both sports, to keep pushing and improving.
“I come from a very competitive family, and we hate to lose,” Brendan said. “That’s part of the game. When things don’t go your way in sports, or you get hurt or you lose, you’ve just got to tough it up and there’ll always be another game. I won’t quit. That’s what it comes down to.”
Lacrosse was Patterson’s first love and it stayed that way. He loves the pace and physicality of the game and the multiple aspects of being a midfielder. From the fourth grade on, he watched the sport on television and dreamed of playing in college. And with a lot of hard work, commitment and talent, it will happen.
Football was a close second. What Patterson did for coach Vince Bedesem’s CR South football program the past two seasons in particular won’t be forgotten.
As a junior, Patterson played a solid fullback as a complementary player to star halfback Vince Alimenti in Bedesem’s wishbone attack.
“He was only about 170-175 pounds, but he ran with the power of a 200-pounder,” Bedesem recalls. “And he’s such a coachable kid.”
Before his senior year, Patterson bulked up in the weight room, got to the 190-pound range, and became a versatile halfback-fullback in Bedesem’s system.
“We asked him to fill Vince’s shoes, and they were big shoes,” Bedesem said. “Brendan did a phenomenal job. The luxury we had was his versatility.”
Patterson rushed for 1,134 yards, a 7.3 per-carry average and 15 touchdowns as a senior (he added two receiving TDs). He was a first-team All-Suburban One honoree. The second half of the season he also played defense at outside linebacker and strong safety. CR South had a good season, just missing the playoffs in a regular-season finale loss to archrival CR North.
“He’s just a tremendous kid, somebody that led by example,” Bedesem said. “He’d outwork everybody, come early, leave late.”
“I knew I had some big shoes to fill, so all offseason I really worked and coach Bedesem got on me to get bigger,” Patterson said. “It was an awesome feeling knowing Coach Vince trusted me to play two (offensive) positions along with offense and defense.”
Patterson noted how playing running back helped with his vision and agility as a midfielder.
“In football,” he said, ”to be a good running back you need good vision, and it’s the same in lacrosse - keep your head up, look for your best options of where to cut, or what move to make.”
And so, the kid kept his head up, kept pushing, kept playing two sports, ended up with terrific college options, and made the right moves. And now, Brendan adds, “I can’t wait for the next chapter.”
