STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Matt DeMeo attended the Stony Brook men's lacrosse game against Princeton on Alumni Day two years ago, when his father was recognized with other members of the 1997 Seawolves.
DeMeo, then a sophomore attackman for Division III SUNY Maritime, would go on to lead the Privateers to the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament victory a month later.
He did not foresee at the time that he now would be playing for Stony Brook.
Concerned that the lacrosse season might not be played at Maritime this spring due to the pandemic, and able to graduate a semester early, DeMeo completed his bachelor's degree in international trade and transportation in early January at the maritime school, which is located in the shadows of the Throgs Neck Bridge. He since has enrolled at Stony Brook as a graduate student.
He will wear No. 18 for the Seawolves when they open their season on Saturday at noon against Sacred Heart at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium.
The 6-foot-4, 190-pound DeMeo, who will see action at attack and midfield for Stony Brook as he pursues a master's degree in higher education administration, arrives having set the Maritime career records for goals (142) and points (186) in only two-plus seasons.
He earned All-American honorable mention, Skyline Conference Player of Year and second-team All-ECAC honors as a sophomore in 2019 while setting program single-season records for goals (79) and points (101). That production included scoring seven goals in a 14-13 opening-round NCAA win against Grove City.
"Right when I got there, the culture changed, I think," said DeMeo, a Sayville High School product. "It feels good to change the culture of a program. We won our conference. We won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time. It was just a great coaching staff. I was very underrecruited out of high school, I believe. They believed in me ever since I got there."
DeMeo's father, Jerry, now a volunteer assistant coach at Suffolk Community College, had been with his son at Maritime for that championship season in 2019 as the Privateers' first-year defensive coordinator.
The elder DeMeo coached under
John Espey at Stony Brook from 1994 through 1998, and also has coached at Dartmouth and Cornell.
"I'm just truly grateful to win a championship with my dad," the younger DeMeo said. "It's something not a lot of people can say they did. A lot of people think that my dad is going to be easy on me, but he was harder on me than anyone on our team.
"I've been around the game my whole life. I've been around a bunch of great coaches because of him. I think my game has taken the next step because of him."
As for the transition from D-III to D-I, he is confident.
"So far I think it's been pretty seamless for me," he said. "It is a higher-paced game. I had great players at Maritime, but we've got a lot of depth on this team, and I see us going pretty far this year. This is a great opportunity being surrounded by so many great players. They're all helping me out to learn the offense. They all have no problem helping me out. It's great stuff."
