Dan O’Connell answers the question before it’s even asked.

If you had told him four years ago that he’d be a faceoff specialist at a program as storied as Duke while also getting a master’s degree in management from the Fuqua School of Business, he would not have believed you. 

“I would have told you that you were literally the craziest person on Earth,” he said earlier this week during a Zoom call from his off-campus apartment on the eve of the first day of classes. A purple Holy Cross flag adorned the wall behind him. He shares the apartment with fellow grad transfer and former Saint Joseph’s goalie Mike Adler. 

The roommates make up half of the Blue Devils’ grad transfer haul. Former Princeton attackman Michael Sowers, the Tewaaraton favorite last spring who set Princeton’s all-time scoring record, and his running mate Phillip Robertson headline the quartet. O’Connell, though, was the first addition to what will likely be a top preseason pick when (or if) the 2021 college lacrosse season commences. 

Through seven games in a COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, O’Connell ranked eighth in the nation in faceoff percentage (66.2 percent) at Holy Cross. His junior year, he was sixth, led the Patriot League in ground balls per game and helped the Crusaders to a 7-7 record. It was the program’s best mark since 1987. 

“He was a real difference-maker for us at the X and a big reason for our recent success we've had,” said Holy Cross coach Peter Burke, who took over in 2019. “I also think he could have been a great offensive or defensive midfielder. Whatever we put him in, he would have thrived at. That's just the type of person he is.”

O’Connell’s path to finding success at the X and his route to Holy Cross were anything but routine. His senior year highlight reel at Winchester (Mass.) High School includes more split dodges and pinpoint shots than quick clamps and clean releases. The first player in Winchester history to be named captain both his junior and senior years, O’Connell led Winchester in points all three years he was on the varsity and set the school record for assists. He took faceoffs, too, but just because they had no one else to do it. He won 68 percent of his draws his senior year, mostly by leveraging his athleticism. 

Despite those gaudy numbers, O’Connell was not on many, if any, college radars back then. A three-sport athlete in high school who was a Massachusetts All-Star hockey selection at center, O’Connell never played club lacrosse — the foundation of the recruiting landscape. Looking back on it, he has no regrets.

“If you’re going to make it, you’re going to make it,” he said. 

O’Connell followed his older brother, Christopher, to the University of South Carolina, but something felt off. He played with the club lacrosse team for two weeks in the fall, but it wasn’t what he was looking for. He sought a greater challenge and a different college experience.

“It just wasn’t the spot for me,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell applied to several schools that spring, including Notre Dame, Dartmouth and North Carolina. Holy Cross made the list since it was close to home, and he had seven relatives who graduated from the college dating back to his great grandfather James A. Brennan (1913). 

Back home attending a Winchester lacrosse game, O’Connell noticed then-Holy Cross assistant Nico Capron in the stands at Knowlton Stadium. He introduced himself and told Capron his transfer application to Holy Cross had just been accepted. 

“Do you take walk-ons?” O’Connell asked. The Crusaders did. 

The chance encounter was a “miracle,” according to O’Connell, who describes himself as a very spiritual person. “It was divine intervention,” he said.

While O’Connell said his time at Holy Cross helped him grow both spiritually and academically, he helped the Crusaders through a different role on the field. He expected to play offensive midfield, but the first day of fall practice, Burke handed him a faceoff stick since they had an opening at the position. O’Connell’s technique originally consisted of throwing his hands at the ball or trying to mimic whatever tutorial he watched on YouTube that day. 

“I was terrible,” O’Connell said with a short laugh. “I was so bad and getting beat by anyone who could do it.”

It’s a position he has come to love, though, because success is predicated on how hard you are willing to work and scrap for the ball. When O’Connell first attended the Faceoff Factory training sessions, led by Whipsnakes specialist Joe Nardella, he went against high school players. He mostly lost. He shortened the learning curve through his attitude and willingness to be coached. Sometimes he’d head straight from practice to put in extra work on faceoffs. Every time Nardella saw O’Connell, it seemed like he got better. He also seemed to improve as games progressed. 

In Holy Cross’s 2019 matchup against Harvard, the Crusaders trailed 10-3 with 9:10 remaining in the third quarter. O’Connell won 11 of 13 faceoffs in the second half to ignite a comeback. Holy Cross won 11-10 in overtime.

During his career, O’Connell has gone a perfect 8-for-8 in overtime faceoffs. Holy Cross went 5-0 in those contests.

“His tenacity and ability to steal back faceoffs after he loses clamps and situational awareness when the ball is on the ground I think is unmatched for a lot of the other college guys that I have worked with,” said Nardella, who had the unenviable position of being on the Crimson’s sideline when O’Connell caught fire that day. “That's something that is really hard to teach, but he just has it.” 

This summer, Nardella mentored O’Connell in the standing neutral grip, now the only way college players can face off. In July, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved rule changes to prevent long stalemates. Chief among them was the eradication of the motorcycle grip — where the stick is held with both palms down. O’Connell has embraced learning the new technique. “If that helps promote athleticism and being more of a lacrosse player, I think it is great,” he said. 

Nardella compared the alterations to asking a quarterback to run a different offense, but he believes the changes play right into O’Connell’s strengths. 

“He is not your traditional knee-down power clamper,” Nardella said. “He is someone who thrives when the ball hits the deck and gets away from the circle. He reminds me of myself in that way. I’m really excited to watch him play with the new rules, especially the situation he’s walking into with a pretty good team.”

That’s an understatement. Besides the four graduate transfers, the Blue Devils bring back 10 seniors from the 2020 roster. Their recruiting class features six Inside Lacrosse Top 100 picks, led by No. 1 Brennan O’Neill out of St. Anthony’s (N.Y.). At the X, O’Connell bolsters a unit that features Jordan Ginder and Joe Stein, who combined to win 129 of 222 faceoffs (58.1 percent) in 2020. They also added freshman faceoff specialist Jake Naso, a teammate of O’Neill’s from St. Anthony’s and, like O’Neill, a five-star recruit and a member of the U.S. U20 training roster. 

“The better guys you train with, the better you get,” O’Connell said. “We’re going to be pushing each other the entire year.” 

Since Holy Cross does not have graduate programs and O’Connell still had another year of eligibility left, he entered the transfer portal after his junior year. Unlike his senior year of high school, he had several options. Duke’s perennial competitiveness was a huge pull. O’Connell attended final fours at Gillette Stadium and has always dreamed of playing on Memorial Day weekend, which coincides with his birthday. While Holy Cross will always be home, he felt a level of comfort with Duke’s culture and the positive energy Blue Devils head coach John Danowski exuded from their first phone call. 

Those initial impressions have been affirmed since O’Connell arrived in Durham on Aug. 8 and completed COVID-19 testing. He described his new environs as a very competitive but welcoming atmosphere, whether that’s on the practice field — where the Blue Devils have started working in smaller groups — or a (socially distant) paintball outing they had recently. 

“Sowers was running like a chicken with his head cut off and shooting the paintball gun,” O’Connell said. “It was pretty funny to see who gets into those things.”

But even amid the different surroundings and added competition, one important detail for O’Connell will remain the same. He wore the number 45 all three years at Holy Cross in memory of Winchester teammate and co-captain Patrick Gill Jr. The (exclusively) left-handed attackman was known for his intensity on the field and his knack for eliciting laughs off it. He died on the morning of Sept. 20, 2014, in a single-car accident when the Honda Pilot SUV he was driving crashed into a tree on Manomet Road. He was 17. 

“Pat was the perfect Sachem because it wasn’t all about skill,” former longtime Winchester lacrosse coach John Pirani told the Boston Globe in the wake of Gill’s death. “It was all about how hard he played, how sincerely hard he tried, how deeply he processed coaching and what a great teammate he was.” 

For the 2015 season, the Winchester lacrosse team wore a “Play Like Pat” sticker on their helmets. O’Connell does so every time he takes the field. 

“He sells out on every play,” Burke said. “He takes the hits. He’s willing to take an extra step towards the goal as he shoots. All the things you want as a coach, he naturally does.” 

O’Connell believes Gill “pulled some strings” to help steer his path toward Holy Cross and now Duke. The player who always seems to be in the right place at the right time does not have to look far for motivation as he embarks on the next step of his improbable lacrosse journey. 

“I really want to honor him with my play and the man I become,” O’Connell said. “He had a tremendous impact on me, and I hope to repay that in some way by keeping his number going.”