Harvard men’s lacrosse coach Chris Wojcik ’96 was not surprised when his team selected rising-senior defenseman Jason Gonos to lead the Crimson as its sole captain for the 2013 season.

“The coaches are not involved in picking captains,” Wojcik said. “But I think the team chose him because he is an outstanding person, he is immensely passionate about lacrosse, and he cares deeply about his teammates. He was the person they wanted to lead them in practice and on the field.”

Having a solo captain is somewhat unusual for a lacrosse team. Typically a team will field two or three captains, and Harvard had not had a solo captain since 2000.

TOP CLASS

This year, when the NCAA lacrosse finalists for the Senior CLASS Award were announced on April 3, Wojcik was again unsurprised to find his senior leader listed among the ten players chosen.

The award, which stands for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, “honors the attributes of NCAA Division I senior student-athletes in four areas: community, classroom, character, and competition,” according to its website.

Finalists and award recipients are chosen through a combination of voting by NCAA Division I coaches, the media, and fans. Supporters can now vote for their favorite candidates by going to the Senior Class Award website until May 13.

“It is definitely a great honor and a very humbling experience,” Gonos said. “The credit really goes to everyone in my life who helped me along the way.”

ON THE FIELD

Gonos came to Harvard out of St. Mary’s Parish high school in Annapolis, Maryland. The No. 52 recruit in the country was looking to start right away for the Crimson.

“In the fall of my freshman year, I had slowly worked my way into the top three or four defensemen after playing in practice and in fall scrimmages,” Gonos said. “But I sustained an injury in our last fall team event which put me out of training all winter.”

“That injury was really disappointing,” he added. “I had probably gotten into the starting lineup before it happened, but I lost all that after the injury.”

Despite not starting initially for Harvard, Gonos did manage to earn some playing time in each game, which he used to try to earn a starting spot.

It didn’t take long. After only four games, the freshman started for the first time of his career against Colgate, and has been a fixture on the Crimson’s defense ever since.

In all but one of Harvard’s games since then, a senior-night in which Wojcik started all of the seniors for the first play, Gonos has suited up as a starter.