It’s been the talk of the lacrosse world this week. On Monday we found out that Notre Dame Senior attackman Ryder Garnsey is academically ineligible for the 2019 season (per Chris Jastrzembski). Thus ending his career with the Irish.
Garnsey burst onto the scene before he stepped on campus in South Bend in the fall of 2015 after his highlight reel for his PG season at Phillips Andover went Lacrosse-World viral. His flare and free-playing spirit provided glimpses of Lyle Thompson, Mikey Powell, and other creative players.
Since joining the Irish he has been an instant contributor, earning ACC Freshman of the year in 2016 playing alongside ND great, Matt Kavanaugh. In his sophomore and junior seasons, he led the team in points, most impressively doing so this past spring, a season where he only started 9 games.
Lax-Twitter blew up on the Irish senior, many citing the unfortunate news, others obnoxiously scolding the college student. Last night Garnsey tweeted from his personal account, confirming his ineligibility and apologizing to his coaches, teammates, family, friends, and fans.
In looking at Garnsey’s note, you can’t ignore his final words. “This is not the end of my story at Notre Dame.”
What does this mean?
This is Garnsey’s Loophole. Garnsey still has a chance to play in 2019. If Ryder were to get his grades up above the eligibility threshold following completion of his spring semester classes, he would then become NCAA eligible.
A similar instance happened in 2014 to Loyola. Sophomore attackmen Zach Herreweyers was ruled academically ineligible for the season. He continued to train on his own while emphasizing his school work. Loyola’s academic calendar ended before the start of the NCAA Tournament and their opening round game against Albany. Herreweyers completed his spring semester, got his grades up, and Coach Toomey elected to include him in their roster and gameplan. The same is possible this time around for Garnsey.
The First Round of the NCAA Tournament is the weekend of May 11-12. According to Notre Dame’s academic calendar, their spring exams take place May 6-10. If Garnsey were to pass his classes with grades strong enough to bring his overall numbers above the eligibility threshold, he would be eligible.
Perhaps that is why he noted that “This is not the end of my story at Notre Dame.” We shall see.
But as we know, in order for this to even be possible, the Irish need to make the Tournament and Coach Corrigan needs to elect to include Garnsey on their roster. Whether this all happens, who knows. One thing’s for sure, it’s clearly the fan favorite outcome. I know I’d play big bucks to watch #50 rocking a golden dome one more time.
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