Albany, NY — The Sage Colleges' department of athletics recently announced the recipients of the department's annual awards. Named the 2019-2020 Sage men's lacrosse Gator of the Year was sophomore Shea Obado (Spotswood, NJ/Spotswood).
Head men's lacrosse coach Ryan Lanigan commented, "Shea has shown tremendous growth on and off the field since he has stepped foot in the Capital Region." Lanigan added, "He leads by example at Sage and is a terrific student in the classroom. On the field, he shows relentless effort and brings energy and focus every day. He has never had a bad practice or game. Plus he can do it all on the field. He has played offense, defense, man-up, man-down, wings and faceoffs. When Shea finishes his athletic career at Sage, he will undoubtedly be one of the best athletes to ever walk through this program and we are much better off for having him."
As team captain in 2020, Obado helped to anchor the midfield unit. He played in all 7 games with 10 points on 3 goals with 7 assists. He added 18 ground balls with 13 caused turnovers. To date, he is now fifth on the program's career record book with his 30 career points, while his 12 career goals is No. 8. He is second in career assists with 18. Obado has 113 career ground balls to hold the mark in the career book. He is also first with his 23 career caused turnovers and has played in 23 games, which is third for third most at Sage.
A business major at Sage, he was a member of the first Sage men's lacrosse varsity team in 2019. He started 5 of 16 games played and racked up 20 points on 9 goals with 11 assists. Obado also had a team-best 95 ground balls in 2019, while also causing 10 turnovers. He added the game-winning goal as Sage beat Houghton College, 12-9 for an Empire 8 victory.
