Kolyn Kirby is a lacrosse legend at Kent County High School.
That’s not meant to dismiss his other accomplishments.
He was the quarterback, played some safety and returned punts for the football team; competed in the 1600 meters, 4×800-meter relay, 55-meter hurdles and high jump in indoor track; and collected nine varsity letters while building a résumé that would earn him the title of outstanding male athlete in the Class of 2004.
Kolyn was one of five athletes inducted into Kent County High School’s Hall of Fame on Saturday, Oct. 18. The Evening Enterprise is telling their stories, one at a time, in the order of their year of graduation.
It was on the lacrosse field where Kolyn left an indelible mark.
Kolyn was just getting started, figuratively and literally, when he scored 11 goals as a freshman for the 4-9 Trojans.
He quadrupled that number, and then some, the following year when his offensive output was a team-leading 47 goals to go with 18 assists for an improved 9-5 squad. He landed on the elite All-Mid-Shore first team, for the first time.
In Kolyn’s junior year of 2003, his talent was unmatched as he was named to the All-Mid-Shore first team, for the second time, and was the Mid-Shore Player of the Year and the team MVP, for the first time.
In the words of coach Rusty Pritzlaff, Kolyn was the Trojans’ “go-to guy” — both the creator and finisher. He scored 61 goals — including a whopping eight against James M. Bennett and seven against both WiHi and Easton — and handed out 37 assists. Kent went 12-5 and reached the 1A/2A East Region finals where its five-game winning streak came to a screeching stop at Parkside in a 10-7 loss.
The script was pretty similar in 2004 when Kolyn repeated as the team MVP and Mid-Shore Player of the Year and was a first-team All-Mid-Shore performer for the third year in a row. Seeing the best and biggest defenders, he still piled up more than 100 points with 50 goals and a career-high 55 assists.
Kolyn led KCHS to a program-record 15 wins that included two in overtime against nemesis Parkside in the span of 17 days — 10-9 in the eighth game of the regular season and 11-10 in the inaugural Bayside Conference championship game.
Kolyn had four goals and four assists in the Bayside championship game, and scored the golden goal with 1 minute, 42 seconds remaining in the four-minute extra period. From the top of the box, he ran right-handed through an open lane, shot high to low and buried the ball past Parkside keeper Mike Foderaro, who would go on to play and then coach at Greensboro College in North Carolina.
Kolyn also scored the game-winning goal in the regular-season victory against Parkside.
To cap his senior year, Kolyn was named the outstanding Maryland high school lacrosse player for Class 1A/2A schools in voting by members of the Maryland State Lacrosse Coaches Association and selected media representatives.
Not for nothing, it also should be noted that Kolyn was an excellent student. He was KCHS’ male Bayside Conference Scholar Athlete in 2004, meeting criteria that included lettering in at least two sports in his senior year while maintaining a minimum grade point average of 3.25 on a 4.0 scale.
Kolyn went on to play collegiate lacrosse for two years at McDaniel and then finishing up at Washington, just a couple of blocks from his home in Chestertown.
As a senior attackman for the No. 5-ranked Shoremen in 2008, Kolyn earned All-Centennial Conference and All-American honors. He totaled 71 points on 42 goals and 29 assists — second on the team in all three categories.
Thirteen of Kolyn’s goals were scored on extra-man chances, which led the team and tied for the most in the conference.
Kolyn also ranked second in the conference in points per game, fourth in assists per game and seventh in goals per game.
He started all 18 games for the 14-4 Shoremen, bringing his two-year total at Washington to 35 games with 21 starts. He totaled 66 goals, 36 assists and 102 points.
He graduated from Washington College with a degree in business management, and continues to live in Chestertown.
Kolyn is now in his 13th year with Kent County Public Schools, most of that time as an instructional assistant in technology at Kent County High School.
He’s been an assistant golf, football and lacrosse coach at alma mater KCHS, and in August became the school’s athletic director.
