Cole Kirst

Classroom

Kirst owns a strong GPA over 3.2 as a journalism major.

Throughout his career, Kirst has been named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll, Dean’s List multiple times, and has garnered the Faculty Athletics Council Award.

This school year, he has gained relevant experience as a multimedia intern with Lehigh Sports Communications, helping produce content for the Lehigh Athletics website, social media accounts and live sporting events on ESPN+. Since 2019, he has also been a sports reporter for the Lehigh University student newspaper, The Brown and White.

Character

Kirst is a team captain for the 2022 season as someone who is greatly respected and looked up to by his teammates and peers. He also has experience as a member of the Lehigh Athletics C.O.A.C.H. (Community Outreach by Athletes who Care about Helping) program.

Community

In 2018, Kirst got involved with the C.O.A.C.H. program. Among the things C.O.A.C.H. spearheads is the Adopt-A-Family program, where each Lehigh team provides a holiday for a local underprivileged family. The process typically includes shopping for gifts, wrapping and delivering them in early December. The pandemic has changed how things looked, but Lehigh Athletics continued to raise funds and help local families in need but in different ways.

In addition, just a few days into some fall semesters, the men’s lacrosse program held an annual community service kickoff for the City of Bethlehem Parks and Recreation.

Also, Lehigh has a strong connection to the HEADstrong Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to providing essential services to improve lives affected by cancer. This past fall, the Mountain Hawks took part in HEADstrong’s Lax Stache Madness and raised nearly $13,000 (as of December) for the fight against cancer, with Lehigh fifth among Division I programs in money raised. In 2018, the Mountain Hawks absolutely shattered their goal, raising over $20,000 for HEADstrong and the fight against cancer.

Competition

Kirst has only gotten better as his career has gone on, culminating with earning second team All-Patriot League honors as a junior last season. He finished 2021 second on the Mountain Hawks in goals (26) and third in points (34). Kirst was consistent in recording multiple points in all 12 contests, including eight multi-goal games and five hat tricks. He began the season with seven consecutive multi-goal games.

Entering his senior season, Kirst owns 37 goals and 14 assists for 51 points – recording 12 points as a rookie and five as a sophomore to go with his 34 as a junior.

In late November, Kirst was also named to the final 23-player United States roster for the 2022 Under-21 Championship. He will travel to Limerick, Ireland for the Aug. 10-20 championships.