Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Jimmer Fredette, Pat Burrell
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating Bristol in the District Championship for football
Most embarrassing/funniest think that has happened while competing in sports: Losing to my mom in every 5K race
Music on iPod: Meek Mill, Rap, Classic Rock, Kesha
Future Plans: Work as hard as I can throughout college and attend Graduate School.
Words to live by: “Together We Bond”
One goal before turning 30: I would like to travel to Europe
One thing people don’t know about you: I lived in San Francisco
By Mary Jane Souder
George Baughan is a gifted student-athlete. He’s also intensely loyal.
Bound for Princeton University to play lacrosse, the Springfield Township senior not only had his choice of colleges but high schools as well. He could have gone anywhere. He chose to stay home, and Springfield Township is indeed his home.
“I really just love my teammates, my friends and my teachers, and I kind of just wanted to do something different, I’d say,” Baughan said. “I definitely would have said I could have played elsewhere and played with better competition, but I really just wanted to start a change where not all the really good athletes leave for private school.
“I really felt strongly towards my school. I’ve been here since kindergarten.”
That pretty much says all anyone needs to know about George Baughan. He doesn’t need or want the spotlight, and it’s not just lip service. He means it.
When his lacrosse team comes up in conversation, Baughan’s first mention is of his teammate and close friend, Nick Bond, who passed away as the result of a brain aneurysm one day after collapsing shortly after playing in an ice hockey game.
“He was actually a very good lacrosse player too,” Baughan said. “He was one of our captains, so he would have been a big part of our season.
“He was a really good kid. He wasn’t that big – he’s actually pretty small, but he was the toughest kid on the field. He really just loved our school, and it’s definitely a hard loss.”
The lacrosse team played its recent game against Devon Prep in memory of Bond, and the NB2 on the Spartans’ helmets is a constant reminder of their teammate.
“He had tweeted out a couple of months ago, ‘Don’t take anything for granted,’” Baughan recalled. “He was just such a good kid.
“It was so sudden, it was really, really tough. In terms of lacrosse, he’s been a huge, huge part of our team.”
Baughan and his teammates used Bond’s sudden passing as motivation.
“We definitely worked harder than we ever have in the offseason,” he said. “Especially as a captain, I remember our coach telling us, ‘Even if you guys aren’t feeling right, you just gotta be there for the younger kids.’
“For me, it helped helping the younger kids because it kind of took my mind off everything, but it was definitely a tough scene in school. It was hard.”
Baughan and co-captain Charlie Rittenhouse are the undisputed leaders of this year’s successful squad.
“I’ve been on teams where guys would get on other guys and that was effective too, but (George) and Charlie are very positive leaders,” coach Hank Resch said. “In the past, for instance, there’d be some picking on young kids by older guys, and there’s none of that with this team.
“They’ve made the young kids feel very much a part of it, which leads to the whole atmosphere of being a pretty close-knit team. Kids have not always been that inclusive at times in the past, and this is a much better thing.”
The Spartans’ long stick midfielder (LSM), Baughan is the team’s top defender, and he is also scoring goals this year.
“He’s got great stick skills and good speed,” assistant coach Bill Krewson said. “As a defender, he’s just relentless. He’s not going to stop, he wants the ball most.
“He’s motivated, and he’s intense, and if they’re not intense, he’ll let them know.”
The Spartans are 11-3 heading down the homestretch of the regular season.
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Baseball and soccer were the first sports on Baughan’s resume, and he began playing football in middle school. He never played lacrosse until the spring of his eighth grade year when he signed up to play with the township.
“Coach Resch gave me a D-pole the very first day of practice in eighth grade, and ever since then, I kind of just took off with it,” Baughan said. “I kind of got bored with baseball, standing in the outfield, so lacrosse was kind of like my perfect thing. Hank (Resch) was one of my eighth grade coaches. We got lucky - he coaches our high school team now.”
Baughan was a natural on the lacrosse field, and the summer after his introduction to the sport, he began playing for LB3 Lacrosse Club.
“That’s when I really started picking it up,” Baughan said. “I knew I had a lot of work to do.
“I always felt I was behind. I felt a little unconventional just because I started late, so I always would try to do the things – not necessarily scoring all the goals or anything, but I would try and get a lot of ground balls.”
By his freshman year – a year after he was given a D-pole by Resch, he was being recruited by Syracuse, the standard bearer in men’s lacrosse with 10 national championships to its credit.
“I went to a showcase at Syracuse and the coaches liked me,” said Baughan. “It was definitely overwhelming and a little scary.
“A lot of my coaches said I had the potential to play in college, so I worked real hard for that.”
He committed to Syracuse early in his sophomore year, but in August prior to his junior year, he had a chance of heart.
“I switched over to Princeton,” Baughan said, pointing to academics as the primary reason. “It’s one of the top schools in the country, and I’ve always put my grades before sports.
“I thought it was a great balance of lacrosse and academics.”
In the fall of his junior year, Baughan suffered a torn ACL in the Spartans’ final regular season game.
“I was returning a kick,” he said. “I walked off the field. I would have tried to get back in the game, but I couldn’t.
“I thought I pulled my hamstring or something and I’d be back the next week. It was definitely tough news when I went to a specialist and he said I’d be out for months.”
Baughan underwent surgery in December and was sidelined until the following fall, missing his entire junior season.
“It was definitely really tough watching from the sidelines,” he said. “It kind of makes you realize – you can’t take anything for granted. I try and take it one day at a time, for sure.”
Baughan is making his presence felt this season.
“He’s fast and he’s strong and gifted in that he can do things athletically – catch and throw and shoot and all that kind of stuff,” Resch said. “He has great athletic ability, but he’s worked hard to maximize that ability.
“What he does, you can’t teach. I’ve been coaching for close to 40 years, and he certainly is the most consistently really good player I’ve seen. Every game he’s just done a lot of good things. He’s a fantastic player.”
That Spartans’ coach laughs when he recounts how – the summer before Baughan’s junior year – he was looking to get his standout a spot on a club team coached by now Germantown Academy coach William “Bill” McKinney.
“I said, ‘I’ve got a kid – do you mind if he comes and works out with you?’” Resch recalled. “He said, ‘I already picked the team. I can’t bring somebody in.’
“I said, ‘Well, he just wants to practice with you so he gets a workout. He’s got a lot of potential, and it would do him good to play against real good competition.’ He said, ‘Okay.’ He saw me two weeks later, and said, ‘Are you kidding?’”
Resch wasn’t kidding, and the rest is pretty much history. An All-American nominee, Baughan – who grew up thinking he might play collegiate soccer – is at the top of his sport, but he’s hardly one dimensional.
A member of the National Honor Society, Baughan has always placed a high emphasis on academics.
“It starts with my parents,” he said of Nick and Eileen Baughan. “They have always been extremely supportive of me and made sure I always did my work.
“I’d say I’m pretty self motivated, but they were always looking at my grades, and they would definitely sit me out from games and practices if my grades aren’t there. I’m definitely thankful they were like that throughout the whole time.”
Baughan has been involved in Springfield’s Youth in Government for four years, this year serving as treasurer. He has also been part of Student Council for four years, and this year, he and four of his buddies started the Peer Tutoring Club at Springfield.
“We really liked our two advisors and just thought it would be a cool idea,” he said. “It was a way for my friends and I to stick together.
“We recruited some other good students who came in and helped us work out the kinks. It’s just during homeroom. It definitely needs some work, but it’s helped a lot of kids.”
Baughan is undecided on a major but is considering economics.
“I knew George in elementary school and watched him grow up,” Krewson said. “You see these kids in elementary school and you try to tell who some of your leaders and your athletes are at that age.”
In Baughan, Krewson saw a student-athlete with the potential to lead. The senior captain has not disappointed.
