‘The Standard’: Brian Tevlin’s coaches, teammates explain why he won Teammate of the Year

Anthony Kelly stood before the California Redwoods after the opening day of training camp, complimenting the players on a good first practice. He liked the pressure the defense applied, he liked the way the offense always had a response, and he liked the energy the team brought to the field.

“Where’s my ‘Dap King’?” he called out to a chorus of cheers from the team. “We need more of that, right? Across the board.”

The “Dap King” was short-stick defensive midfielder and team captain Brian Tevlin.

Defender Chris Conlin – who was also teammates with Tevlin at Notre Dame – remembered Tevlin’s goal in training camp. During a team meeting, when players were asked what they wanted to be known for that season, Tevlin said he wanted to get the most “touches” on the team.

“Meaning high fives, daps, little moments of connection,” Conlin said. “It sounds funny, but he was serious about it. He’d read that team success is directly linked to those kinds of interactions, and he made it his goal to keep positivity flowing. I think that’s a huge part of why we were able to stay together and push through our mid-season rut.”

Tevlin’s effort paid off. Not only did the team turn around a season that included a five-game losing streak in order to make the semifinals, Tevlin also won the Jimmy Regan Teammate of the Year Award.

Kelly said he recognized there was something special about Tevlin almost immediately upon connecting with him. When Kelly was named the team’s head coach, he called Tevlin, and he said the two had a strong understanding of each other. Kelly was impressed with Tevlin’s leadership experience: He captained both Yale and Notre Dame and helped lead both to national championships.

“I don’t think there’s any luck in something like that happening,” Kelly said. “There’s a huge connection between that young man and those things happening at those programs. I knew the backstory there, and once I connected with him, and we started talking, I really encouraged him to be a leader of our group.”

Even though Tevlin was only in his third season of professional lacrosse, Kelly told him his leadership experience was necessary to help his even younger and inexperienced Redwoods teammates.

“I told him the story of myself when I showed up in LA [with the Los Angeles Riptide in the MLL], and I was a second-year guy, and I was a captain of that team my second year in the league, and I never thought I’d end up in a position like that,” Kelly said. “It’s one of those things where I was like, ‘Leaders lead, and you can’t be afraid to lead. You’ve got to be a guy that comes into this room and leads on Day 1. Guys are going to look to you, and guys are going to respect you if you take that role and run with it.’ And that’s exactly what he did.”

Rookie Andrew McAdorey said he had heard great things about Tevlin from the captain’s teammates at Notre Dame. He was one of the top people McAdorey was looking forward to getting the opportunity to work with.

Tevlin lived up to the hype that McAdorey had heard. He said that Tevlin would “juice up” everyone at practice, he would take guys aside and talk through things with them, and the fist bumps were just a little extra thing that made everyone feel good about what they were doing.

“He’s a natural leader,” McAdorey said. “When he speaks, everyone listens. He’s a vocal leader, and he leads by example. He’s a presence everyone looks to. He does the little things. He’s a selfless guy. He does anything you ask him to. It’s been unreal to work with him.”

One of the things that makes Tevlin unique, according to his teammates, is his ability to build a unique relationship with every individual while also bonding the team as a whole at the same time.

Redwoods defender Chris Fake has been teammates with Tevlin since 2018, playing together at Yale, Notre Dame and now with California. He called Tevlin the “best natural leader.”

“Both on and off the field, he earns his teammates’ respect and simultaneously supports all of us individually, celebrating our victories more than his own,” Fake said.

“He’s someone that’s mastered how to reach everyone in the locker room,” added Romar Dennis. “Pro lacrosse rosters are a little smaller than when we were in college, but every person on our team has an inside joke with him, or he knows exactly what everyone’s schedule is. He’s reached everyone and been able to keep that special relationship with everyone while also bringing us together. He’s always got the right message for our pregame warmup. He’s so incredibly present, and he’s so incredibly omnipresent. He’s everywhere, and he’s in everyone’s lives.”

When teammates are asked about Tevlin, they unanimously say he is everything a great teammate should be. They praise his leadership as well as how he tries to connect with each of them. They also talk about how Tevlin would do anything for them and for the team, showing up when the team needed him most. It’s why goalie Chayse Ierlan calls Tevlin “The Standard.”

In the team’s final game of the regular season, with a spot in the playoffs on the line, Tevlin became the first short stick in PLL history to cause five turnovers in a single game.

Ierlan remembered the penultimate regular-season game against the Maryland Whipsnakes. He said he wasn’t playing well, but knew Tevlin and the defense had his back. He remembered Tevlin jumping in front of a shot and letting it hit him before Ierlan had to make a play on it.

“You see that play and might be like, ‘Oh, wow! What an incredible singular action,’” Ierlan said. “Tev was doing that on a Wednesday in Albany at 3 p.m. in the rain, on a work-down grass field three months prior. Tev is doing the same action and even more every walkthrough. You could say, ‘Why risk it?’ No cameras around. No media. No crowd. Just the boys. It was sick. That is the standard that Brian Tevlin sets.”

Kelly challenged Tevlin to lead the team, adding that part of being a good leader is being a good teammate. Tevlin already was a lead-by-example type of player, but Kelly wanted him to be a more vocal leader. Tevlin is the first player Kelly turns to when he needs a specific message shared with the group, but Kelly said he really saw Tevlin rise to the occasion after fellow short-stick midfielder Chris Merle went down with a season-ending injury in the third game of the season.

Seeing the growth he made, as well as the growth the team made, Kelly said he felt like a proud dad.

“One of the more impactful and powerful awards the guys can win is the Teammate of the Year Award,” Kelly said. “I couldn’t be prouder that it went to Tevlin this year.”