C.J. Costabile honored as Tewaaraton Trophy finalist

C.J. Costabile, who had already taken home the Lowe’s Senior CLASS award and been named a First-team All-American, received recognition as one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Award Thursday night at the National Museum of the American Indian. The Tewaaraton Foundation and the University Club of Washington, D.C annually present the award to the best male and female lacrosse players in the nation. The trophy’s name comes from the Mohawk word for lacrosse and is meant to recognize the sport’s Native American origins.

Colgate’s Peter Baum took home the trophy after an outstanding statistical season, in which he notched 67 goals and 30 assists. In addition to Baum and Costabile, attackmen Will Manny of Massachusetts, Mike Sawyer of Loyola, and Steele Stanwick of Virginia were named finalists for the men’s trophy. Costabile was the only defensive player to be named a finalist for the award. No defensive player has ever won the Tewaaraton Trophy.

“Just being nominated as a defenseman is rare,” said head coach John Danowski, who also attended Thursday night’s ceremony. “So we are very proud of the fact that he was recognized and nominated for the award…. It’s just like the Heisman Trophy: quarterbacks put up gaudy numbers. You compare numbers…. There are no stats for a center or a linebacker…. It’s the same way in our sport. C.J. took a lot of draws, did a lot of dirty work, and did a lot of things that get unnoticed.”

Costabile, who was picked in the first round of January’s Major League Lacrosse draft, will continue his lacrosse career professionally with the Long Island Lizards alongside former Duke teammate Parker McKee.