Rookie comes with hype and delivers in full

After starting a little slowly, McBride exploded for eight goals on eight consecutive shots last week. Six of the goals came against a surprised Penn team, while he added two more against Harvard.

“The best part of his game is his skill and natural talent,” head coach Bill Tierney said. “He’s a gamer who doesn’t get frazzled in tough situations. He was also a first-team all-state quarterback over kids who went to places like Notre Dame. He isn’t a real big guy, but is a competitor, a great teammate and does best in tough situations.”

The transition to the college game was tough at first for McBride, especially mentally.

“The mental aspect of the college game was a big change,” McBride said. “In college you have to focus every day because the strategy is so much more advanced. Also, the talent level is higher. Every defender is really good, and every team is good. You can’t take any days off.”

After only achieving success in bursts through his first few games, however, McBride has recently begun putting complete games together. He attributes most of this to coaching.

“The coaches have helped me out a lot,” McBride said. “They brought me in gradually. I’ve started gaining more and more chemistry with [my] teammates and confidence individually, and hopefully it continues to build. Heading into the Penn game, I’d been getting more and more confident [and] was waiting for the game where I’d play a complete game. I was able to do that against Penn.”

McBride’s lacrosse journey started in fifth grade when he, though previously focused on baseball, was introduced to lacrosse by the family of his cousin Chris McBride, also a freshman attack for the Tigers.

“Baseball was bigger where I live, but Chris’ town was a huge lacrosse town and he was playing really well,” McBride said.

The cousins played against each other during the year while playing on the same summer team. The full-time association started when the pair arrived at Delbarton.

“When we were little, it was real competitive,” McBride said. “We were always trying to outdo each other. As we’ve grown up, we’ve become each others’ biggest fans. Christopher is my best friend. It may seem weird since we’re related, but we’re more like brothers than we are like cousins.”

Lacrosse is taken very seriously at Delbarton, and the competitive environment fueled McBride’s desire to succeed. Led by Cocoziello and Hewit, Delbarton went undefeated and won a state championship during McBride’s freshman year. After that experience, he knew he wanted to get serious.

“Delbarton helped me prepare for Princeton,” McBride said. “The coaching and competition was similar to here. After going undefeated freshman year, I realized I wanted to play big time lacrosse.”

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McBride’s affinity for Princeton was actually born at a very young age. It was a convenient coincidence that Princeton chose to recruit him so heavily.

“Growing up in New Jersey, the only lacrosse I ever watched was Princeton lacrosse,” McBride said. “Watching guys like [Jesse] Hubbard [’98] and [Chris] Massey [’98], I was always a big fan. It was cool when I started getting recruited because I’ve always been a secret fan of Princeton.”

The decision to come to Princeton together started out as two individual decisions for the cousins. While some schools were recruiting one but not the other, Princeton recruited both.

“It just turned out that Princeton was the best fit for me,” McBride said. “After I committed, I tried to persuade Christopher without forcing him. Looking back on it, we didn’t want to force each other to go to the same school but still wanted to play together.”

Off the field

Though still unsure of his major, McBride is currently considering history. In his spare time, he enjoys playing video games and going to Market Fair to watch movies. His favorite musician is Jay-Z.

As for the sporting world beyond lacrosse, McBride’s favorite team is the NFL’s New York Giants.

“This was the best year ever,” McBride said of the Giants’ successful season and upset Super Bowl win.

McBride doesn’t have any personal goals in mind for this season. The focus is currently on getting past Cornell this weekend and winning the Ivy League title.

“The goal has been to win Ivies since September,” McBride said. “We gotta go out and bring everything we’ve got. Our backs are against the wall. We’ll talk about the tournament if we get there.”

While this season hasn’t quite gone as the team planned, Tierney sees a bright future for the McBrides.

“We’re going to get great leadership and have huge success on the field,” Tierney said. “But beyond that, Jack is just a really great person. He has a magnetic personality, and the guys on the team love him. He and his cousin Chris have great smiles and are great to be around in practice or during games. We’re all better for having the McBrides here.”