Kenan Everhart's Emergence Tied to Loyola's Turnaround

Kenan Everhart needed a way to be seen as a high school player along North Carolina’s Atlantic coast.

And that meant a lot of miles for a few summers on his mom’s Chevy Tahoe.

All those trips north eventually landed him at Loyola, where after a pair of injury-plagued seasons, he’s emerged as a key figure for a Greyhounds team that has already surpassed its victory total from last season.

“We knew what we were getting when we recruited Kenan,” coach Charley Toomey said. “Now the world is seeing what we recruited. We knew it was there. But I think health is obviously a big part of it, and I also think confidence is a big part of it.”

Everhart has 16 goals and a team-high 13 assists as Loyola (4-3) enters Tuesday night’s game against Georgetown (2-3), a contest postponed from late January.

There was a lot more uncertainty back then about Loyola, which was coming off a 3-11 season. Everhart wasn’t on the field for a chunk of it after suffering an AC joint separation last March.

That came after taking a redshirt year in 2024 as a freshman. He dealt with an external oblique injury just before the start of the season. By the time he was cleared, the Greyhounds had played eight games and had several veteran players on offense. Banking the season to use down the road made sense.

Yet coupled with last year’s interrupted campaign, it meant Everhart had played in only 10 career games as Loyola welcomed alum Justin Ward back as the program’s offensive coordinator.

Whatever rust was there didn’t last long, as Everhart has teamed with senior Matthew Minicus and sophomore Mason Cook on attack to help the Greyhounds average 12 goals in the first half of the season. Last year, Loyola managed just 9.3 goals a game.

“I feel like we always had chemistry, especially with Matthew and Cook,” Everhart said. “I think Coach Ward has definitely come in and motivated us to step up a little bit more.”

Everhart’s year-over-year improvement stands out. As a redshirt freshman, he had seven goals and three assists while shooting 20 percent while making nine starts. Over the last month and a half, he’s shot 37.2 percent and managed at least three points in all but one of Loyola’s games.

That includes a breakout five-goal, four-assist outing on March 3 against Towson. It came a few days after a four-assist effort in a victory at Colgate, and he followed it up with two goals and two assists against Providence.

A year ago, Minicus was the only Greyhounds to post a 25-point season. Cook (26 goals, four assists) and Everhart have already gotten there, with Minicus (12 goals, 11 assists) on the cusp as he and Everhart have emerged as a combo well-suited to playing off each other’s strengths.

“We all knew what he was capable of,” Minicus said. “He has great eyes at X. He can beat his guy very effectively and it’s nice because if my guy goes to his guy..."

“I’m passing it right to him,” Everhart quickly added.

The decision-making is a bit of an echo of another table-setting Greyhound.

“I just see a lot of parallels with how I see the game,” Ward said. “He’s just been absolute sponge. Very hard-working, very coachable and obviously skilled and talented.”

Everhart said he effectively lived in Maryland during some of his high school summers in the hopes of attracting some attention from colleges. It’s more than 400 miles from Loyola to Eugene Ashley High in Wilmington, one of many non-traditional areas for the sport.

But maybe not much longer if the Carolina Beach, N.C., native has his way.

“We’ve been starting little programs there and I coach every summer,” Everhart said. “Just trying to recruit kids to come play lacrosse because it wasn’t popular for me growing up. I had to travel up to Maryland and my parents had to take me seven hours every weekend just to get looked at it. We’re just trying to grow the game down there.”