Former lacrosse player now football co-captain Last March, Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo banished linebacker Brye French from the football team. The sticking point: French’s insistence to play lacrosse rather than run through spring drills with the football team.
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A year later, however, after reinstatement and his decision to pursue football full time, French is co-captain of the Midshipmen, and a team symbol of the importance of commitment.
Monday afternoon, as the Navy football and lacrosse teams practiced on adjacent fields off the Severn River, thoughts drifted to French, the last player in more than a decade to play both sports.
“I don’t even notice them. I’m so focused, honed in here,” French said. “I hear a whistle every once in a while. But you can’t lose your mind looking over there.”
A year ago, French was one of them, wearing the smaller shoulder pads of a lacrosse player, and apparently doing that sport full time. French had always found time for spring football meetings and tried to stay as connected to the team as possible. But then he wasn’t welcome.
That changed when Navy captains Alex Teich and Jabaree Tuani asked Niumatalolo to reconsider.
“I told them that if the team was comfortable with that, then I was good with it,” Niumatalolo said last spring. “I’m not saying playing another sport is bad or wrong. I just didn’t know if it was the right thing for our football team to build the right mindset and foundation.”
French might have emerged earlier in his career and committed solely to football, but as a sophomore, a season-ending shoulder injury in the third game at Louisiana Tech helped convince him to play lacrosse last spring.
With his football reprieve last fall, French blossomed. In the first start of his career, French had 13 tackles as Navy took No. 10 South Carolina to the wire in a 24-21 loss. After Navy’s next game, a heart-wrenching 35-34 loss to Air Force, French knew he was a football player for good.
“Seeing how much that hurt the guys, I wanted to have more of a leadership impact,” French said. “I didn’t want to just show up during the summer.”
A coaching change this year — Rick Sowell replacing Richie Meade — made leaving the lacrosse team easier, though French says his decision was all about football. This spring, while the lacrosse team undergoes transition, French also is moving from outside linebacker to inside. It’s not a radical change. He played inside at Stanhope Elmore High in Alabama.
“Brye did some really good things off the ball,” linebacker coach Steve Johns said. “It’s kind of what we were looking for [inside].”
There’s never been much doubt about French’s talent. At 6-foot-1, 216 pounds, he was a huge defensive midfielder in lacrosse, but fast enough to excel. And there’s never been much doubt about his leadership qualities.
“Even though he tried to play two sports last year, the kids really respected his work ethic,” Johns said. “He just has one of those personalities that motivates kids.”
