This article originally appeared on BlueHens.com, the official site of Delaware Athletics, and is being republished with permission from the university's athletic department.

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elaware men’s lacrosse senior attack Charlie Kitchen has scored a goal in every Blue Hens game since April 15, 2017. The 36-game goal streak is the longest in Division I men’s lacrosse and is a part of why the Marlton, N.J., product is one of the best offensive talents in the country.

But anybody who knows “Chuck” knows that his list of achievements on the lacrosse field only scratch the surface of who he is.

“The first words that come to mind are free spirit,” Delaware assistant coach Matt Rewkowski said.

“I think the best way to describe him is that he’s a free spirit,” Delaware head coach Ben DeLuca echoed a few days later. “He’s got a heck of a sense of style, too. The way he dresses on game days is outstanding … He’s got a really nice pinstripe suit, he’s got a big shiny belt, he’s got some nice shoes. He just expresses himself in a very unique and individual fashion that is, I think, a breath of fresh air for everybody on the team.”

From spontaneously doing the worm in math class to putting on a skit from Grease with his friends in the fifth grade talent show, Kitchen, the middle child of three siblings, has always been outgoing.

“My personality is pretty out there, it’s a good time,” Kitchen said with a smirk. “I just strive to be different.”

While he stands out for his goal scoring ability, he also stands out for his ability to celebrate goals. Kitchen loves to break out the dance moves.

“My sister goes to Virginia Tech, so she can’t come to the games. So she was like, ‘Every time you score, do a funny dance for me,’” Kitchen said. “That started last year, I just started dancing around the field and laughing and having a bunch of fun.”

Kitchen had plenty of opportunities to dance last year, leading Delaware with 37 goals in 15 games on his way to earning 2019 Colonial Athletic Association Co-Offensive Player of the Year honors. The 2020 CAA Preseason Offensive Player of the Year is the Blue Hens’ leading scorer again early this year, racking up 17 points on 10 goals and seven assists through four contests.

At 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, Kitchen is certainly a physical presence, and with agile feet and quick hands, he presents matchup problems for opposing defenses.

“It’s not just about his size, he’s willing to be physical,” Rewkowski said. “He’s got a really quick first step. So he’s not just big and bruising, he’s got kind of an explosiveness to his game.”

As a freshman, Kitchen served as more of an interior player, finishing off plays near the goal crease. But when DeLuca and his staff got to campus before his sophomore season, they identified him as a player who could be initiating offense with the ball in his stick.

That transition unlocked the next level of his game. Now Kitchen is a multi-faceted, dodging, passing and scoring threat. Often starting the offense from behind the cage, he excels at drawing a slide or a double team and then finding an open teammate. Or sometimes he’ll just score himself anyway.

“His evolution has been fun to watch,” DeLuca said. “We put the ball in his stick a little bit more and moved him out to the perimeter and utilized him as more of an initiator and a focal point of the offense, and he really gravitated to that. He did a really nice job embracing that and growing in that regard.”

Kitchen’s passing especially has improved since his freshman year, particularly as the Blue Hens have acquired more and more attacking weapons. The 2020 iteration of the Blue Hens offense is unselfish and balanced, with its top four scorers (Kitchen, sophomores Tye Kurtz and Clay Miller and freshman Mike Robinson) all with at least 13 points through four games.

Kitchen has particularly enjoyed playing with Canadians like Kurtz and Robinson and learning from their perspective growing up playing box lacrosse. The indoor game is faster and more compact than the field lacrosse played in the states, forcing players to react and make decisions at a much quicker rate. Box lacrosse players are also known for their great hands.

“Having two Canadians that are known for finishing is absolutely unreal,” Kitchen said. “It’s good knowing you can throw to them, and they’ll hit the net no matter where you put the pass.”

This summer, Kitchen got a taste for the Canadian game by joining sophomore defenseman Owen Grant on the Toronto Beaches, a Junior A box lacrosse team. The experience helped him hone and diversify his skills as an attacker.

“Unreal, so much fun,” Kitchen said. “It was an awesome experience playing with bigger goalies, smaller goals. You really have to place the ball more than shoot it hard. It really helped my spatial awareness this year, knowing where to go when someone’s pushing you a certain way.”

For the outgoing Kitchen, traveling to a different country for the first time enriched the experience even more. From experiencing Pride Toronto the first week he got there, to being in the city when the Raptors won the NBA Finals, to being perched atop the CN Tower (the one on the cover of Drake’s Views album) getting a 360-degree view of the city, the summer abroad was one that will stick with him for a long time.

Just as he expresses himself on the field through his play and his celebrations and the energy he provides to his teammates, Kitchen expresses himself artistically, too. He loves music. He played eight different instruments throughout his childhood, really loved when he could play the saxophone and is currently trying to learn guitar. He listens to Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin albums playing ping pong with his dad, sees The Dirty Heads every summer and loves listening to rap and dance music.

But the avenue of artistic expression that possibly explains Kitchen the best is also the Christmas gift from his brother that mortified his mother: his own tattoo gun.

“I’ve given myself five tattoos,” said Kitchen, who has upwards of 16 total tattoos. “I’ve always loved art; I used to draw a lot. So I was like, ‘OK, awesome. I can start doing my own tattoos.’ It’s a lot harder than you think, it’s like a vibrating pencil basically.”

He shows off a roman numeral “XI” that he did himself on his wrist in addition to other ink that was done professionally. A bird on his arm, a knife through a rose done in the American traditional style on his leg, and his most recent: the word “magnanimity” printed across his bicep.

“It’s our team motto,” Kitchen said. “It stands for the striving of the soul towards great things.”

The most noticeable tattoo when he’s playing, on the outside of his left forearm, is an old-school lacrosse stick. Because at the end of the day, Kitchen loves the game.

“He’s got a great passion for the game of lacrosse. He loves to play, he loves to watch film, he loves to talk about it,” DeLuca said. “A guy that just lives, breathes, sleeps, thinks about lacrosse all the time.”

While the goofy personality, the musical ambitions and the self-drawn tattoos are all part of what makes Kitchen the person he is, he’s still able to channel that energy into being a tireless worker. DeLuca credits his nation-leading goal streak to his preparation outside of games. Now in his senior season, he’s also channeling his spirit into being a leader for Delaware’s talented attack.

“I think he understands the urgency that comes with senior year, that this is his last opportunity to put on a Delaware jersey, and he wants to make it special. He wants to make sure that his class puts their stamp on the Blue Hens lacrosse tradition, and he’s done a really good job mentoring some younger players, too,” DeLuca said. “He’s a great ambassador for us off of the field and on the field. He’s definitely a leader of the attack unit.”