June 2, 2006
Washington, D.C. - Georgetown men's lacrosse player Rob Lemos (Camillus, N.Y./West Genesee) may have graduated from the University and finished his playing days with the Hoyas in late May, but he has certainly left his mark.
Lemos, who helped lead the Georgetown lacrosse team to its fifth-straight appearance in the NCAA Quarterfinals, and a community-service program he laid the groundwork for this spring - Hoya Dreams - generated several stories in local newspapers and on television stations.
Hoya Dreams will partner Georgetown student-athletes with children treated at Georgetown University Hospital Pediatrics. The program that Lemos started has two goals. First, to bring children treated there to the campus so they can spend an afternoon with student-athletes and attend an athletic event. The second is to have student-athletes visit current patients on a bi-weekly basis to provide motivation and support during their hospital stay.
Prior to Easter, Lemos worked with the staff and arranged for the Hoya team to visit for an Easter egg hunt at the hospital. About 40 members of the team, in shifts of 10 for at least an hour, spent the morning and early afternoon hours on a day off setting up for the hunt. The players hid Easter eggs, decorated cookies and took part in face-painting on a day that was fun for everyone involved.
That event spawned stories in the Syracuse student newspaper, The Daily Orange, and in the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey. Click here to read the piece from the Syracuse paper and here to read the Asbury Park Press piece.
The NCAA News ran a photo of the team from the event and subsequently, WUSA-TV (CBS) in Washington aired a segment on Lemos and Hoya Dreams, and just before the Hoyas' NCAA Quarterfinal game, WTTG-TV (FOX) spotlighted the program. Click here to watch the segment that aired on WUSA on May 11 and here for the piece that aired on WTTG on May 22.
Lemos, a defender, appeared in every game this season, earning three starts, including both NCAA Tournament games. He was fifth on the team with 30 ground balls and helped the squad rank 12th nationally in scoring defense, allowing only 8.43 goals per game. Lemos, who appeared in 43 games in his career, earned his degree in international politics and was selected as the recipient of the School of Foreign Service's Stephanie Waterman Award, which goes to the outstanding SFS athlete of the graduating class. The award is in honor of Waterman, who was a captain of the varsity tennis team before dying in Senegal in 1985.
Georgetown finished the 2006 season with a 12-3 overall record and won its fifth ECAC League Championship in the last seven years with a 6-1 mark in conference action. The Hoyas advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the 10th-straight year and reached the Quarterfinals for the eighth time in the last nine years. Following the season, six players earned All-ECAC honors, including three first team selections, and five members of the team earned All-American honors.
