When Loyola’s Grace Dwyer looks at her baby sister, Faith, she sees a possible future lacrosse player.
“Maybe I’ll coach my younger sister one day,” Grace Dwyer said. “Coaching is definitely part of my plan.”
Faith Brennan Dwyer was born in January. If she plays lacrosse when she’s older, she’ll follow in the footsteps of many other people in her family.
Brennan Dwyer, one of Faith’s namesakes, is an assistant for Loyola girls lacrosse and is one of the most decorated players in program history. Grace Dwyer just finished her sophomore season at Loyola.
John Dwyer, Grace Dwyer’s grandfather, has been Loyola’s coach since 2002. He has led the Ramblers to 500 wins in that time and two of the five state titles since the sport became fully sanctioned by the Illinois High School Association.
Nearly every member of the Dwyer family was in attendance when the Ramblers defeated Hinsdale Central 13-8 in the state championship game on June 3.
“It’s really fun for our family,” John Dwyer said. “It’s something that started many years ago with our older girls playing lacrosse, and then we just kept winning. Everyone buys into it.”
Indeed, Loyola lacrosse has become part of the family. Little kids first picking up lacrosse sticks don the old, tattered jerseys that once belonged to their parents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and those adults coach them.
For example, Brennan Dwyer went from Loyola to national powerhouse Northwestern, where she appeared in three Final Fours, and then back to Loyola to coach.
“It’s always been around the family,” Brennan Dwyer said. “Seeing my sisters play was a big part of it. Being around it so much pushed me to keep playing, and coming back to coach was also something all my sisters had done after college, so I’m following their footsteps.”
This season, she mentored her niece, Grace Dwyer, zoning in on draw control.
“I’m definitely a lot harder on Grace,” Brennan Dwyer said. “But she handles it really well.”
Grace Dwyer developed into a top player this season. She was named first-team all-state.
“This year, I was able to play a lot more,” she said. “I feel like I grew a lot individually.”
Grace Dwyer finished with 51 goals, which ranked third on the team, and 17 assists.
“Grace had a great year for us,” John Dwyer said. “We had a lot of seniors graduate, so we needed her to step up and fill a gap in our scoring. She has a wonderful knack for getting into open space and finishing.”
Football, not lacrosse, was John Dwyer’s sport. He played at Loyola and then at Georgetown, where he was an All-American twice and held 31 program records. He agreed to coach Loyola girls lacrosse in 2002 on a one-year basis. But he’s still there.
“Lacrosse was new to me then,” he said. “I said, ‘I’ll do the best job I can for the Loyola Academy kids and program.’ But I never thought I would coach for this long.”
John Dwyer said he had played lacrosse “here and there” at Georgetown and helped his daughters as their lacrosse careers took off. But that was the extent of his experience. To learn the sport, John Dwyer leaned on both his coaching counterparts and his family.
“You can tell how much he cares about the girls and the team,” Brennan Dwyer said. “He’s open to the rest of our opinions and experience. That’s what allows the team to be so successful.”
More than 30 members of the Dwyer family live within walking distance of each other in Winnetka. They get together for Sunday night dinners, which might appear more like banquets.
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“We’re a really close-knit family, and it isn’t all because of lacrosse,” Brennan Dwyer said. “But it’s something we all share with each other. Taking our family relationships into lacrosse, which we all love, is really special.”
Will that connection extend to Faith Brennan Dwyer?
“She’ll be a lefty,” John Dwyer said. “She has really good left-arm strength for a 4-month-old.”
Sam Brief is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.