Laker Profiles

BEN SMITH AND MATT BRANDAU

By Mac Kennedy

There has always been a special relationship between students and coaches at Boys’ Latin. Some of Boys’ Latin’s longtime teachers/coaches mentored multigenerational families. Basketball coach Hugh Gelston ’56 coached Jerry Sullivan ’71 and later his son Pat ’94. And through the years many classroom teachers have taught BL alumni and later their sons. But never in the history of the School it is believed, has a BL student collided with his former coach in a collegiate match-up, until this year.

Last year, during BL’s miracle run to the MIAA “A” Conference lacrosse title, star attackman Ben Smith ’22 (pictured-above far left) was coached by former BL star attackman Matt Brandau ’18 (pictured-above far right). Matt and Ben were teammates in BL maroon and white in 2018 when Matt was a senior and Ben just a freshman. Matt, now a student-athlete at Yale University, decided to sit-out the 2021 lacrosse season because of the Ivy League’s decision to suspend lacrosse for the season due to COVID-19. As not to lose a year of eligibility (Ivy League rules state a year of eligibility is lost if a student stays enrolled in the school even during a sport shutdown) Matt decided to journey home and help coach the 2021 BL attack unit for Brian Farrell’s Lakers.

After graduating from BL, last fall Ben Smith followed in his dad’s (Ryan Smith ’91) footsteps and play lacrosse at the University of Pennsylvania. Also in September, Matt re-enrolled at Yale to continue his career playing for the Bulldogs.

During the regular season, Ben suited up against his former coach and teammate and once again in the Ivy League Lacrosse Tournament. Yale won the first game, 12-11. Matt scored a goal and assisted on two other tallies while Ben was held scoreless. The rematch game in the Ivy League Tournament, saw Matt explode for four The fondness and respect both have for each other stretches way beyond 822 Lake Avenue.Matt recently wrote of Ben, “He’s been a great lacrosse player the whole time, but the coolest thing has been to see him become a leader from freshman to senior year at BL. He was a phenomenal mentor for the younger members of the team and led BL to a championship, and instead of being complacent, worked very hard and earned a starting spot at Penn. His development as a person and player is incredible and even though we are competing against each other, I can’t help but be proud of him when he’s doing well.”

Ben continues to look up to his former mentor/teammate. He wrote, “Playing [against] Matt this year was really cool. Not just because he was [my] coach last year, but because he has had a lot of success for Yale and in the lacrosse community. It’s always cool to see another Laker and play against one. Matt is a great guy, as he helped me a lot last year and taught me a lot. It’s always weird to play against one of your old teammates but it was a cool experience. We caught up after the game [in] the handshake lines and talked for a little…about how we both love our schools and how Yale vs. Penn is always a fun and good game.”

Yale and Penn both qualified for the NCAA Men’s Division I Lacrosse Championship Playoffs. Unfortunately, both schools lost in the quarter-finals, ending their seasons.

Both attackmen finished the season strong. Matt finished the year as a Tewaaraton Finalist and a first team AllAmerican. Ben had a career high with five goals and six points in a huge NCAA first round 11-10 overtime win. over Richmond.

MRS. CHERISE MCKAY

By Mac Kennedy

So many people have driven the team buses at Boys’ Latin through the years. But perhaps no driver has had a more profound effect on the student athletes than Cherise McKay. “Miss Cherise,” as the boys affectionately call her,

Administrative Assistant to the Althetic Director Phyllis Novotny recalls it all started with her dispatch asking if Cherise would pick up the BL hockey team from Ice World, and from that pick-up in 2015 and ever since, she started to take the ice hockey team on all the runs. Cherise and hockey Coach Butch Maisel H’09 struck up a friendship that has lasted through the years. Butch says, “It is just not the same with any other driver. She makes a real effort to know the players and is their #1 fan.”

Now all the BL coaches want her as their bus driver. Phyllis writes, “Sometimes we have to have a lottery to see which team gets the best driver. Cherise is always on time and gets the boys where they need to be safely. All of our boys think the world of her. Whenever she is here, every BL player says hello and asks how she is doing quickly followed by, ‘Are you driving us today?’”

The affection between Cherise and the boys goes both ways. During the Covid-19 shutdown she would take her mother to lunch at Pepe’s and every time she drove past Boys’ Latin would say, “Look, mom, there is BL, I miss them so much!”

Cherise speaks about the BL boys with pride. Boys’ Latin students are special to her. She writes, “The boys and young gentlemen make me laugh, humble me, and make me a better person. BL students are also bright and innovative…My goal is to be understanding, considerate, energetic and a determined bus driver to my BL students.”

Her energy does not just come physically from driving alone. She explains that it also comes from participating and involving herself as a BL fan and watching the boys play sports. She wants everyone to know that she drives for more reasons than just to make the money.

During this year’s Homecoming lacrosse game, Cherise drove the visiting Mt. St. Joe team to BL. Of course when she arrived to pick up the team in Irvington, the first thing she did was to explain to the Gaels’ coach why she was wearing her Boys’ Latin sweatshirt. All was forgiven.

A student recently described how a typical bus trip with Miss Cherise starts with a “very warm greeting from Miss Cherise, followed by continuous positive reinforcement about beating our opponent.” She always refers to “we” with her boys telling them, “We’re going to win this game…we got this!” The boys all believe there is no better bus driver to prepare a team for a game. She helps the players get in the right frame of mind and win the game that day. Senior Jake Blibaum had a special situation come up this year and Miss Cherise was there to save the day. When Jake’s parents couldn’t make it to his senior day game due to his brother’s college graduation (senior day is the last home game of the year for seniors on varsity teams and pre-game festivities are shared with the parents) Miss Cherise happily stepped in as his “mother.” Jake wrote, “She really made my day with her kind remarks and her positive thoughts on the day. I would say Miss Cherise is a motherly figure to me….I am very thankful for the years I have spent with Miss Cherise and all that she has done for us. Whether it is stopping on the way home to get some food, or singing along in the bus, Miss Cherise has positively affected the BL community in many ways.”

Jake’s lacrosse teammate and senior Cardin Stoller agrees. “I think the energy she brought always got the team, or any team I’ve been a part of, really pumped up,” he wrote. “Everyone knew it was going to be a good day when we would walk down from the upper school and see the school bus waiting outside the Gelston Athletic Center with Miss Cherise in it.”

Cherise also loves interacting with the BL parents. She gets great pleasure being with the parents as well, and she wants them to know that their sons are in good hands when she drives the team bus. “It is a beautiful feeling to see the parents’ faces at sporting events,” she writes.

The BL community has this same “beautiful feeling” when they see Cherise. “When I see a Woodlawn bus on campus I make a point to see if Cherise is driving in order to say hello,” Butch Maisel said.

Cherise drove the bus for the Class of 2022 one last time this past May – to the Senior Prom. She was dressed NOT in her usual Laker attire but in a light blue floral dress with pearls! She looked spectacular and the boys loved it.