Sometimes, as the saying goes, athletic success is “in the genes.”
Consider the genes possessed by Rye High School’s April Athlete of the Month, Tucker Hess: His father, Jon, was a three-time national champion lacrosse player at Princeton, where he was voted attackman of the year by the NCAA before moving on to play professionally. Tucker’s mother, playing under her maiden name of Sara Whalen, was a defender for the U.S. soccer national team that won the Women’s World Cup in 1999. She also played professionally, helping found the WUSA women’s soccer league.
“I guess I get my speed from my mother and my field vision from my dad,” said Hess, who earned the monthly honor from Rye’s Lions Club and the high school’s athletic department.
“Tucker is a truly amazing athlete and person, and one of the greatest teammates I have ever coached,” said Rye lacrosse coach Steve Lennon. “He is a captain on our team, and is going to Villanova to play lacrosse. He has 128 career points (59 goals and 69 assists as of May 6), which puts him in Rye’s all-time top 10 in scoring.”
The senior has had no shortage of highlights this season. In a 17-2 drubbing of Lakeland-Panas, Hess tallied four goals and three assists. Against Wappingers High School, he scored five goals and added a couple of assists. In a tight 14-13 win against highly rated Horace Greeley, Hess hit the cage three times with an assist. He added another three goals in an 18-6 victory over Scarsdale.
“I am so happy Tucker Hess was chosen as Athlete of the Month, because he represents everything the Lions Club stands for and is an elite-level athlete,” Lennon said. “He is always the first person to celebrate his peers, and puts a tremendous amount of energy into making sure he is there to help every single member of our team. He is a fierce competitor, but he is also empathetic, kind, and a great leader who serves his teammates.”
In the fall, Hess was a wide receiver for the Garnets football team, a squad that won the state championship in 2023. Before that, he enrolled for a year at Iona Prep and played on their highly rated lacrosse team as a freshman.
“It was a year after Covid, and I wasn’t sure the Rye system was right for me,” Hess said. “But in the summer, I realized Rye was my home … where my friends were … and where I wanted to be.”
In the classroom, Hess’ favorite classes are AP U.S. History, taught by Michael Szarkowicz, who “really makes connections with his students,” and Robert Coppola’s chemistry and physics classes.
“I was really fortunate to have Mr. Coppola two years in a row,” Hess said. “I was surprised to discover I had a knack for the sciences.”
Outside of school, Hess is involved with the Bread of Life organization, a Rye-based charity whose purpose is feeding the poor and homeless. In addition to helping with their food drives, he helped initiate and prepare Bread of Life’s Thanksgiving to-go meals.
Asked whom he’d like to thank for being a Lions Club honoree, Hess answered quickly: “Coach Lennon. We have a really good bond. He pushes me to elevate my game, to go to the limit of my abilities. And, of course, I thank my parents. My mom showed me how an athlete has to prepare himself, and my dad urged me to have fun, to enjoy playing sports.”
Finally, Hess was asked what, if anything, there was about him that even his good friends don’t know.
“Maybe,” he said, “they don’t know how much I love making people happy. My best friend, (fellow Rye senior) Tyler McDermott, was accepted to Princeton, and I think it made me happier than it did him.”
As with the other monthly winners, this victory makes Hess eligible to be named Rye’s Athlete of the Year at the Lions Club’s annual awards luncheon this spring.
