College Lacrosse's Top Award
Goes To Former SHP Standout

Whether he was excelling for Seton Hall Prep’s lacrosse team while earning New Jersey high school’s Player of the Year award in 2023, or hauling in a rebound or running up and down the hardwood as a valuable contributor to the Pirates’ Essex County Tournament championship basketball team, Shawn Lyght was the ultimate all-around athlete and top-flight competitor.

Now, the junior at national power Notre Dame has achieved the highest honor in NCAA men’s Division I lacrosse when it was announced on Thursday, May 28, that he had made history as the first defenseman to win the Tewaaraton Award, which is the equivalent of the Heisman Trophy in college football.

The Tewaaraton Award announcement came during a ceremony at the Andrew W. Melton Auditorium in Washington, D.C.

“We are incredibly proud of Shawn for earning this distinguished award,” said Larry Baggitt, the athletic director at SHP. “He is the essence of a high-character student-athlete — dedicated, respectful, and committed to excellence both in the classroom and in competition. We couldn’t be happier for him, and they could not have chosen a better student-athlete and person to represent such an honored award.”

The powerful 6-foot-3, 200-pound Scotch Plains native is just the second Notre Dame men’s player to win the award after the Fighting Irish’s Pat Kavanagh also received the sport’s highest honor in 2024.

Lyght, who helped lead Notre Dame to the national championship game and a runner-up finish to Princeton as the Fighting Irish were defeated, 16-9, in the NCAA final on Memorial Day, spearheaded a defensive unit that finished sixth nationally with 8.94 goals allowed per game.

He had 26 ground balls and 11 caused turnovers this past season, but his greatest attribute is his ability to almost always be able to completely shut down the opposing team’s top offensive player.

He follows former Delbarton star C.J. Kirst as the second straight former New Jersey high school player to win the Tewaaraton Award. The Green Wave’s Ned Crotty also won the award back in 2010.

Lyght is a 2-time first-team All-American as selected by the United States Interscholastic Lacrosse Association and USA Lacrosse and has been chosen as the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year for a second straight year.     

Known for his calm demeanor yet fierce competitiveness, Lyght’s strong connection to SHP was highlighted in a USA Lacrosse article entitled, “The Ultimate Eraser” about the Notre Dame standout when he was a freshman phenom for the 2024 national championship Fighting Irish team which defeated Maryland, 15-5, in the national final played at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pa.

The passage in that article read:

“Although the spotlight shined brighter on Lyght than he’d previously grown accustomed to, the Scotch Plains product said he developed his championship caliber clutch gene as a two-sport standout at Seton Hall Prep”

Speaking of great athletic genes, Shawn’s dad, Eric, played college basketball at St. Anselm’s and his mom Rose-Marie was a soccer player at Villanova. Plus, is cousin, Todd Lyght, was an All-American cornerback for the Notre Dame football team and later played in the NFL for both the St. Louis and Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions.

Shawn Lyght is one of two players from the 2026 season to be invited to the U.S. Men’s National team training camp. He had joined others, including Rutgers star midfielder Colin Kurdyla, as one of the captains for the 2025 Under-20 USA team in the World Championships in South Korea.  

Toughness has always been a trademark for the former SHP Pirate. During the 2023 Essex County Tournament he returned to action from an ankle sprain and scored 15 points and grabbed 5 rebounds to help lead the Pirates past Immaculate, 51-45, in the semifinals before also contributing with a strong floor game as SHP defeated Arts, 46-32, for the championship of the 76th ECT.

Now three years later the superb all-around athlete and team leader is the top player in all of NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse