Stephen O’Hara

Classroom

Stephen has a 3.436 cumulative GPA as a finance major in Notre Dame’s nationally-ranked Mendoza College of Business. He is minoring in Chinese. Stephen was named to the BIG EAST Academic All-Star Team each of the last three seasons. Stephen interned in the UBS Sales and Trading program last summer and signed on to work there next year on the Equity Research Sales desk.

Character

Stephen was elected as a team captain for the 2014 season. Since 2011, he has been a member of Notre Dame’s Rosenthal Leadership Academy, which develops, challenges and supports student-athletes and coaches in their continual quest to become world-class leaders in athletics, academics and life.

Community

Stephen has taken part in numerous community service projects in the South Bend/Notre Dame community. He has been a mentor for struggling and at-risk students at Dickinson Middle School (2012-13) and at the Perley Primary Fine Arts Academy (2011-12). Stephen also worked the South Bend Career Academy lacrosse clinic in 2013.He has been involved in the Playing for Peace initiative at Notre Dame to help promote awareness for lasting peace in Sudan. He has participated in community service work, athletic events and peace rallies to help with the Playing for Peace cause. The Playing for Peace initiative seeks to use the platform of sport to transcend boundaries and bring people together in the pursuit of peace, justice and human understanding. Stephen and the Irish men’s lacrosse program have also been instrumental in bringing the initiative to the local level by doing community service work in South Bend and Chicago.

Competition

Stephen was named to the 2014 Inside Lacrosse Preseason All-America First Team. He has started every game over the last two seasons in Notre Dame’s close defense, which has been one of the best in the nation over that time. The Fighting Irish boasted the nation’s top defense in 2012 by allowing just 6.31 goals per game. Notre Dame also had the country’s best man-down unit that season (.892). That stingy defense was a key reason why the Irish captured the 2012 BIG EAST regular-season title and eventually advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship. The Fighting Irish ranked 10th nationally in scoring defense (8.31) last season. Notre Dame finished the 2013 regular season with the top RPI in the nation and the team earned the No. 2 seed for the NCAA Championship before advancing to the quarterfinals of that tournament. Stephen has helped Notre Dame post a 24-8 record over the past two seasons. The Irish have defeated 14 ranked opponents, including eight top-10 teams, during the last two campaigns and the defense has held opponents to six goals or fewer 11 times in that span (32 games). Stephen, who has 71 career ground balls, was named to the All-BIG EAST Second Team last season. The Ohio Machine selected Stephen in the sixth round (41st overall selection) of the 2014 Major League Lacrosse Collegiate Draft.