By Charles Jardine
Sports Editor
Peter Hildebrand is an outgoing, humorous and dedicated individual. Hailing from the local town of Toronto, Ohio, he is currently a sophomore defensive player for the university’s men’s lacrosse team and is studying theology and catechetics.
Prior to college, Hildebrand played basketball, football and many different sports in a recreational sense. Going into college, he said “I knew I wanted to play a sport in college and the summer before I got really into field hockey and saw the similarities between it and lacrosse, so I decided to give it a shot.”
When it comes to being caught up to a collegiate level Hildebrand said, “Coach Pete [Pete Rosaschi, the head men’s lacrosse coach] does a great job of teaching the fundamentals, but he also instills in us the discipline to improve ourselves off the field. On the field we’re gonna work on the basic skills, but its our responsibility to work on the areas we need training in off the field.”
Besides training, off the field Hildebrand likes to hang out with his household, Servants of the Savior, sleep and “spend too much money at Sheetz.” He is an avid Lego and Star Wars enthusiast, a dedicated Seattle Seahawks fan and an unguardable receiver in his family’s backyard football games.
As a team Hildebrand is thankful for the community it provides saying, “our goalie Fabian, when he gets on the aux in the locker room it gets hype, and gets everybody ready for practice or a game.” Furthermore, he is especially grateful for his coach, Coach Pete, who gave him “a love of the game and the drive to become better.”
One of Hildebrand’s favorite memories with the team was the lacrosse retreat because as he says, “although we were friends and for the most part got along, getting to know each other on that level really helped us bond and improve our chemistry on the field.”
One of the struggles of being on the ,acrosse team he explains, “is in the past few years our team hasn’t been great and not many people actually know about the team even now, which made it really hard to be proud to be on the team my first year. However, the recruiting efforts and development of players by coach has made the program respectable and deserving of the fan support that our other sports get.”
Hildebrand wants to give everyone this message that the lacrosse team is back, quoting Seattle Seahawk’s quarterback, Geno Smith, “They wrote [us] off, [we] ain’t write back though.” The lacrosse team wants you to know that they are ready to prove themselves worthy of your support.
After college, Hildebrand is not quite sure of what he wants to do yet, but is considering doing missionary work, something that being in a service minded household like Servants has opened his eyes to and inspired him to possibly pursue.