As much as the 2021 season could be capped with a run to the NCAA tournament for Albany men’s lacrosse, it will also be remembered as the year that star attackman Tehoka Nanticoke saw his Great Danes career end prematurely.

Nanticoke, the former top recruit who joined Albany in 2017, was dismissed by the program on March 31 due to what coach Scott Marr called “internal team issues.” It was later reported that Nanticoke had a pattern of confrontations with teammates and coaches.

In one of his first interviews since that day, Marr spoke with Paul Carcaterra about the behavior that led to the dismissal of Nanticoke on the “Overtime” podcast, which dropped Wednesday morning.

You can listen to the episode on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Marr said the decision to dismiss his star player was not a quick one. Rather, it was something that he thought about for quite some time.

“He’s an unbelievably talented player,” Marr said of Nanticoke. “To have to make that decision was not a snap decision. In the long run, sometimes you have to learn hard lessons, and this was a hard one, but one that will benefit him down the road. I think he realizes where I was coming from.”

Marr pointed to Nanticoke’s interactions with others as somewhere he has room to improve. Chris Jastrzembski reported in March that Nanticoke was yelling at teammates and coaches during a loss to Stony Brook earlier this season. Nanticoke was also suspended after a fight broke out between the Albany and Binghamton on March 20.

The combination of these behaviors ultimately led Marr and his staff to dismiss Nanticoke, thought it was not an easy decision to make.

“It’s heartwrenching, to be honest,” Marr said. “I love the kid, and we’re still communicating and working on him graduating. He was having a tough time with our system and what we were doing. Unfortunately, we had to make a decision that was best for the team, but honestly best for him. For him moving on professionally, I think he needed to learn some lessons of teammates and how he treated and acted around other people.”

Although Nanticoke was not picked in the Premier Lacrosse League College Draft last month, Marr is confident that he’ll have his shot to play professionally.