Wantagh Native Leads Duke Men's Lacrosse to National Championship

Wantagh native Brendan Fowler can now call himself a national champion.  

The 2010 Chaminade High School graduate won 20-of-28 faceoffs in helping lead the Duke men’s lacrosse team to the 2013 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse National Championship with a 16-10 victory against top-seeded Syracuse on Memorial Day. Fowler’s domination on faceoffs garnered him the Most Outstanding Player award for the national title game played before 28,224 fans at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Fowler’s stellar play, which included winning 13 straight faceoffs during one stretch of the game, helped Duke rebound from an early 5-0 deficit and capture the program's second national title. The Blue Devils are coached by former longtime Hofstra men's lacrosse head coach John Danowski, an East Meadow native and former Farmingdale resident. 

“Obviously winning faceoffs and getting the ball back makes it a lot easier to score goals,” said the 6- 0 210-pound Fowler in a postgame press conference after Monday’s national championship victory. “But early I violated a few times, kind of let it get to my head a little bit. Once I cooled down a little and stuck to what I do every day, got into a groove there and just felt pretty good going out there every time.”  

In addition to being a junior faceoff specialist for Duke men’s lacrosse, Fowler is also a linebacker on the Blue Devils’ football team. He won 64 percent of his faceoffs in 2013 a year removed from suffering a fractured collarbone in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament against Syracuse. 

During his high school lacrosse career at Chaminade in Mineola, Fowler earned all-league honors as a senior and was named the NYCHSAA Faceoff Man of the Year in 2010.