Finding her voice, Donnelly wins Jack Duddy Leadership Award

As a senior, Leah Donnelly donned the number 99. She had transformed as a leader, found her voice and grown into a bigger role. A captain and the leading scorer. The COVID-19 pandemic cut the women's lacrosse season short but not before coaches and athletics staff noticed the transformation. Donnelly has been selected as the Jack Duddy Leadership Award winner for the 2019-20 school year.

"Leah was incredibly quiet (as a freshman). She was very happy to go along, get along and do what was asked of her by her teammates without much input or backtalk," recalled head coach Daniel Kirkpatrick. "Whether it was right or wrong, she was willing to do what her teammates asked of her. Going from an incredibly quiet freshman to a communicative senior, to someone who is willing to step up and say what needed to be said is a huge transformation and something that I'm very proud of."

When Donnelly arrived at Chapman, the quiet asked head coach Daniel Kirkpatrick to wear No. 99 – a number with deep roots in the Donnelly family. Her dad and brother had previously worn the number. However, he quickly refused – mainly because the number wasn't in any of the uniform sets that were already hanging in team storage. Before her senior year, Donnelly asked again and Kirkpatrick granted her wish.

"I just wasn't ready to be 99 as a freshman and it definitely wouldn't have meant as much as it did this year if I was 99. The best part is that I had to earn it," Donnelly recalled. "I was even hesitant to change my number to 99. Just putting on that jersey, I don't know what it is about that number but it's just a good number. It makes you feel like you can tackle anything."

"It was something that she wanted and an easy way to celebrate being a senior," added Kirkpatrick. "Also, reward her for an awesome career that was unfortunately coming to a close and an easy way to say thank you."

Once a quieter and more reserved version of herself, Donnelly was an immediate contributor as a freshman. She scored seven goals in 12 matches as a freshman. Those contributions jumped to 18 goals as a sophomore and 28 as a junior with 10 assists. She had already scored 12 times in 2020 before her season even reached the midway point.

Besides her quantitative contributions on the field, Donnelly looked to the captains of her early seasons as an example of how to step up as a leader. Former Teammates such as Kelsey Mackin and Julia Farino turned into lifelong friends showed Donnelly helped her find her voice and learn what a leader should be.

"I saw girls above me that just went out and gave it their all and that was leadership to me. They pushed me to be where I was at and I was determined to do that for girls my grade, girls below me and girls older than me."

The example was there but it was a conversation with Kirkpatrick as a sophomore that really opened her eyes to the role that she could fulfil as she progressed in her career.

"I had a meeting with DK [Kirkpatrick] my sophomore year," Donnelly recalled. "I felt like I was still a very young person on the team. I don't want to step on anyone's toes. I don't want to say anything. I remember he pulled me aside and he said, 'I need you to be that person. I need you to speak up.' At that point, I realized that he does recognize me as a leader. He sees that my presence affects others and I just need to step up and be confident in myself."

She took the challenge head on and grew into the student-athlete and leader that Kirkpatrick envisioned her being. Her enthusiasm was infectious – even weekdays at 7 a.m. when the Panthers take the field for practice.

Before most of the campus began to stir, Donnelly and her teammates were out on Wilson Field and preparing for their next opponent. When Kirkpatrick changed practices to the early morning slot, he knew it wouldn't be easy.

"I will often ask the team for a joke. Leah was always prepared with a joke," Kirkpatrick noted about his captain. "It would almost be a rhetorical question, 'Does anyone have a joke?' Leah would always get us started at practice with a good, solid, very appropriate and juvenile joke that would put a smile on everyone's face and set the tone for the day."

Who else would he turn to? Donnelly admits that not every joke landed with every teammate but she was always prepared. A longtime follower of the one-liner, she came in prepared with an arsenal of snappy jokes. For new material, she turned an Instagram feed filled with Dad jokes.

Donnelly does not consider herself a morning person, averaging a wake up time more like 10 a.m. since the lockdown started, but was always prepared for those early mornings. She found strength and motivation in the unity with her teammates as they all rolled into campus during those early morning hours.

The Panthers, like every other sports team across the world, had their season come to a screeching halt in March. No more early morning practices. No more 7 p.m. matches to be played or conference titles to fight for. A senior season that was left unfinished. On March 11, Chapman became the first SCIAC school to shut down all campus activities. The rest of the conference and the world quickly followed over the next 48 hours or so.

No. 99 reminded her teammates and is still thankful that the Panthers had a game against Whittier scheduled for that night. One last time to preform under the lights. The moment was made an more special for her and the lacrosse seniors as all the spring seniors were honored at halftime for an impromptu Senior Day, which brought hundreds of her fellow student-athletes to Wilson Field to cheer one last time.

"We know how lucky we were as a team that we got to play one final game. Honestly, it couldn't have ended in couldn't have ended in a better way in the circumstances that we had."

By Steven Olveda.
Sports Information Director

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