Catching Up with Harvard Lacrosse Alumni in the PLL

Harvard Men’s Lacrosse welcomed home a few of its decorated alumni when the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) hosted its third annual Boston Cannons Homecoming at Harvard Stadium last weekend. A record-breaking event for the league, over 15,000 fans poured onto campus to watch this weekend, setting a new league single weekend revenue record. 

Prior to their games, Logan Ip ’26 of the Boston Cannons and Ray Dearth ’25 and Teddy Malone ’26 of the Carolina Chaos spoke on the impact that both Harvard Lacrosse and the broader community made on them. 

The Frisbie Family Head Coach Gerry Byrne and his staff were praised highly for helping Ip, Dearth and Malone make their marks on the pro stage. Ip and Malone both mentioned how the staff developed their lacrosse IQ, with Ip explaining he “didn’t really know…a lot of the little things very well” when he came into the program and the Crimson coaches taught him how to be a better overall and more complete player.

Malone and Dearth echoed similar statements, saying that Coach Byrne and Coach Hutchinson showed them how to play “the game the right way, the smart way, and unselfishly.” Dearth added that Coach Byrne “does such a good job of explaining the ‘why’ behind things, and he’s been doing it for so long that it was very easy to trust him and very easy to see results on the field.”

When asked about their development within the Harvard program, each athlete was quick to mention their former Crimson teammates, with Dearth saying that “the whole team culture just made it easy to want to get better because there were people working so hard every single day…it made it easy to put in work with your teammates.” Malone added that he was “surrounded by so many great people and very intelligent people” in the locker room that pushed him to work harder, both on and off the field.

Some of those former teammates included Andrew O’Berry ’24, Sam King ’25, Francisco Cortes ’26, Jack Speidell ’27 and Nick Bruckner ‘27. King, now a star attackman for the Utah Archers, was Harvard’s first-ever Tewaaraton Award finalist and certainly left his mark on his teammates. Ip described that O’Berry and King, as well as others in their classes, were instrumental in teaching him “what it means to be a Harvard Lacrosse player on and off the field.”

The Harvard Lacrosse community is one that players are part of for the rest of their lives - it follows and connects them long after their playing days are over. Dearth and Malone both live in New York City now and said that, even if they have not seen a former teammate for a while, “it’s so easy to pick back up right where you left off,” with Dearth saying that was his favorite part about Harvard. Malone explained how, no matter what city someone moves to, “you’re always going to look up the closest Harvard Lacrosse guy” because that was the foundation that was laid out for them when they came in as first-years. 

Something Coach Byrne and Coach Hutchinson instilled in their athletes that Malone described was that “there is so much more to being a Division I Lacrosse athlete rather than performing on the field and being a leader in the locker room.” Working with Coach Byrne and the Crimson staff opened doors for Dearth, Malone and Ip to meet with program alumni and discuss what life looks like after lacrosse. A tool that was developed once Byrne took over the Head Coaching role was a LinkedIn group named the 1881 Alumni Network. This page which now is up to over 750 members, allows alumni to connect with current and former players, give career advice and help line up career opportunities.

Malone mentioned that “it’s a very unique connection” and “there is always someone to talk to in every single field;” he even said, “it is really cool how [Harvard Lacrosse alumni] cover such a span of careers and interests.” Ip added that getting to know the program alumni “has paid dividends” in many ways, and Dearth said that he got his current job through former defenseman Beau Botkiss ’20. 

Although Ip, Malone, King and Dearth have since left Cambridge, the life they created within Harvard Lacrosse will stay with them throughout their time in the PLL and beyond.