FEATURES | THE NORTHPORT RECORD, OCTOBER 14, 2004

A Golden Road To Notre Dame

Lady Tiger Jillian Byers makes a harrowing college decision

By Michael R. Sisak / The Northport Record

The clovers of congratulations for Jillian Byers came in person, by telephone and in the flash of an instant message, last week. The Northport High School senior, a three-sport varsity wonder in lacrosse, basketball and soccer, had made perhaps the most harrowing and taxing decision of her 17-year life. Byers had decided where she would go to college, shared it with a few close confidents and, somehow, nearly everybody knew.

Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame.

“It’s such a relief,” Byers said of the decision to attend and play lacrosse for the tradition-steeped university in South Bend, Indiana. She will receive a full scholarship. “I go into school and kids are so stressed, talking about doing this and doing that, getting [college] applications in. I look at them and laugh. I’m done. It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. Now I can enjoy my senior year.”

Wake up the echoes cheering her name.

Much of Northport learned of Byers’ choice, selected from a final four of schools big on lacrosse, academics and tradition: the University of Virginia, the University of Maryland and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from an article in Newsday, by high school sports beat writer Erik Boland.

“I couldn’t believe how many people knew,” Byers said. Even her basketball coach, Rich Castellano, a man whom Byers calls her “second father,” found out from a whisper that led him to the newspaper article.

“She kind of kept it close because … not that she wanted to keep it a secret, but I think she was thinking about it,” Castellano said.

Send a volley cheer on high.

Prior to Byers’ decision, which is expected to be made official with the signing of a national letter of intent on November 10, she wavered between each of the four schools, moving another to the top of her list each time she returned from an on-campus visit.

“Notre Dame wasn’t my first choice,” Byers said. “I didn’t think I could feel that way about a school yet.”

Last year, Maura Costello, a friend from Manhasset and a senior midfielder at Notre Dame, pressed Byers to consider becoming one of the Fighting Irish. Costello told her coach, Tracey Coyne, to take a look at Byers, by now one of the best lacrosse players on Long Island, and requested they begin a recruiting barrage.

“I’m not going to go there, I’m going down South,” Byers would tell Costello. “Then they started recruiting me and it all came into perspective.”

Shake down the thunder from the sky.

More perspective came when Byers visited Notre Dame, a Jesuit university, in mid-September and quickly became enchanted by the aura and mystique of the gilded, ornate campus, with its Golden Dome, a mural nicknamed Touchdown Jesus and the university’s omnipresent pride in academics, athletics and its storied football team.

“They make movies about that school. It’s not like any other school. It’s one of the most prestigious schools in the country,” Byers said. “When I graduate it’s not going to matter about lacrosse, to graduate from Notre Dame is pretty unbelievable.”

Byers dressed in green and sat with her potential Irish teammates, a hospitable group, in the student section at Notre Dame Stadium as the beloved home team upset Michigan on September 11. She joined her potential classmates as they stormed the field after the game, shook hands with the football players and coaches and appeared briefly at the end of the NBC telecast of the game. It was every bit of the communal feel of Northport on a larger nationally-renowned scale. Byers, the frenetic athlete, had become the rabid student, the excited future alumna, and the decision was nearly done.

“I need to go somewhere where I’m going to feel welcome with all the girls,” Byers said. “They cared about everyone so much.”

What though the odds be great or small.

Carol Rose, the lacrosse coach who helped guide Byers through the college selection process, expected the transition from high school to college to be fluid. Last season, as a junior, Byers scored a state-record 119 goals as she helped the Lady Tigers to the state semifinals in Cortland.

“She’s going to be an impact player and a starter, in my opinion, on the Notre Dame team,” said Rose, who has coached Byers at Northport and during the travel league season on the Long Island Yellow Jackets. “I’m going to be devastated when she leaves. She’s not only a great athlete, she’s a great person. She’s a true leader, a true friend to her teammates and a team-oriented player.”

With the decision made, Byers said she will continue to focus on class work, the current soccer season, in which the Lady Tigers are so-far undefeated, and the upcoming basketball and lacrosse seasons.

“I have a responsibility to my team,” Byers said. “I’m not going to slack off for the rest of the year. We’re not going to just stop playing because of that.”

Onward to victory.