Aidan Maguire: A Duke Man Through and Through

Photo by: Nat LeDonne / Duke Athletics

Aidan Maguire: A Duke Man Through and Through

5/11/2026 7:30:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse

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Family, faith and fierce competitiveness have shaped one of Duke men’s lacrosse’s most impactful leaders, on and off the field.

By: Meredith Rieder, GoDuke The Magazine

GRATEFUL FOR FAMILY NEAR. Grateful for family far. Duke men’s lacrosse senior Aidan Maguire considers himself lucky to be a part of the Blue Devil family, understanding that wherever he may find himself at any point in his life, he can always say with the utmost pride, “I am a Duke man.”

“I am so so lucky to be here at Duke and to play for the coaches — Coach D (John Danowski), Coach Cap (Ron Caputo), 40 (Matt Danowski), KU (Kevin Unterstein) — with my teammates, for all the guys who came before me and the guys I played with who have since graduated,” said Maguire. “All the people in this building, the people who serve us food in the dining hall and just all the people who work at Duke. This is the most special place I’ve ever been. I’m really sad to be leaving it, but at the end of the day, I can leave and know I can look people in the eye and be so proud to say I went here and I was a part of this program. It changed my life and I’m so grateful for it.”

As fortunate as Maguire feels to be a member and soon to be alumnus of the Duke men’s lacrosse program, Duke University, teammates, coaches and staff members are equally as lucky to have had the opportunity to play with, coach and watch him grow 14 into the young man he is over his four years in Durham.

“Aidan is the most loyal person I have ever met,” said roommate and fellow senior Charlie Johnson. “Once you are in his corner, it’s for life. He will not give up on you. He will not tolerate anybody talking poorly about you. He’s just an incredibly loyal friend and teammate.”

One of five children of Amy and Michael Maguire, there is nothing more Aidan treasures than his family. With the five kids spanning 10 years in age, the Maguire household was busy to say the least. There were, indubitably, plenty of arguments Amy and Michael had to officiate and some bumps and bruises along the way, but it was the best. And the glimmer in Aidan’s eyes and the unabashed joy in his quick smile as he reflects on his childhood in Hingham, Massachusetts, proves this to be absolutely true.

“It was so much fun,” Maguire said about his childhood. “It was ultra competitive. There were a lot of fights and a lot of tears, but there was a lot of fun. We played knee hockey constantly. Plenty of holes (made in the house) and some gashes in foreheads, but there was so much fun in the house. I would never change a thing.”

Aidan’s knee hockey companions consisted of older sisters Kira and Ava, a younger brother Devin, and younger sister Carly. Ava is junior on the Boston University women’s soccer team, while Kira played three seasons of soccer at Brown after spending her first two years at Virginia. Devin is committed to play lacrosse at Army West Point next season and Carly is a freshman in high school with dreams of following in her siblings’ footsteps.

It is this competitiveness honed with family and combined with an elite athleticism sharpened through his youth sports career that eventually landed Maguire on the Duke coaching staff’s radar.

A self-proclaimed hyper kid, Maguire played hockey and lacrosse from an early age as both sports were a good fit for his energy level. Lacrosse eventually won between the two in middle school as he discovered he was “meant for a field.”

“I love to run around,” Maguire said. “I was a hyper kid. I was a reckless kid, and lacrosse was nice because you could hit and you could run and it seemed like the game never really stopped. I think that’s something that stuck with me.”

Fast forward through his outstanding career at St. Sebastian’s and with Laxachusetts in the club lacrosse scene, Maguire felt at home instantly when he visited the Duke campus with his mom during covid 19. It wasn’t a rash decision for him to commit to Duke because he knew it felt right.

Maguire has shined at Duke. Despite being unfamiliar with Duke’s defensive schemes as a freshman, he was the player you had to have on the field because he could change a game simply through his athleticism and will.

His understanding of the game grew over the years and the accolades followed. He won the Lt. Donald 15MacLaughlin National Midfielder of the Year award, was a consensus first-team All-American and the ACC Co-Defensive Player of the Year as a junior.

Most recently he was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 Premier Lacrosse League Draft — the first shortstick defensive midfielder to go No. 1 in any professional lacrosse draft. He holds the Duke season and career records for caused turnovers by a defensive midfielder and he’s done it all while maintaining over a 3.4 grade point average.

Defense is rarely considered cool. It is gritty and ugly and that’s what he likes most about it.

“I love going out there and just knowing my job is to play mean and be gritty and ugly,” Maguire said. “That’s the best part of our job as d-middies is to make it ugly. We want to make opponents’ offenses look ugly. We’re scrapping on the ground and on the wings. It’s not at all flashy, but that’s kind of the beauty of it.”

We could talk about how opponents plan around Maguire, which is rare for someone at his position. Or we could list more of his athletic feats like a running 66-inch box jump. But instead, let’s turn the focus away from Maguire as an individual and towards what matters to him the most — his faith and family.

Maguire is not shy about displaying what means the most to him, and Johnson remembers feeling comforted the moment he saw his desk at freshman move-in. Any nervousness Johnson felt about this transition in his life quickly disappeared.

“He had fully moved into the room and he had nothing,” Johnson said. “It was like four shirts, a pair of shoes and maybe one Bruins jersey or something. Then you look at his desk, and he had four crosses, a Bible and a picture of him and his family. I was like, “You know what?’ I think I’ll get along with this guy. He knows what’s up.”

Maguire’s unwavering belief in God is what guides him daily. He understands there are difficult days and life is far from perfect, but then he takes time to look at what surrounds him here and back home in Hingham and he counts his blessings.

“You grow up Catholic. I was taught to pray before bed every night. I didn’t rebel against it, but as a kid I didn’t understand it. I tried to understand it as best as I could, but I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found there’s too many good people and places and events in my life that surround me every day to not believe in God. I can look back and say, ‘It’s not perfect every day.’ There’s 16a lot of failure in it and sometimes you question why that is, but at the end of the day, all the greatness and the happiness this place brings me, I can say God has a plan for me and God has taken care of me in a really beautiful way.”

While Maguire’s strong faith influences how he approaches every day, it also shines through on the lacrosse field. Johnson, also an All-American defenseman playing alongside Maguire, believes what you see on the field is a direct reflection of him as a person.

“I think his faith defines who he is,” Johnson said. “In many ways, it’s inseparable from a lot of his character and even the way he plays on the field. He’s just so relentless, and he never gives up. That’s really the story of his life. He’s gone through difficult things. He’s had ups and downs, but he’s just relentless, and that’s what makes him successful.”

What drives Maguire to push through the challenging moments and situations? Why does he never seem tired despite playing what feels like every defensive possession and every faceoff wing? The simple answer is family. His teammates, his parents, his siblings. Not to mention Grandma Judy Hardiman, who watches every game and will send her grandson texts both with praise and constructive feedback. He can’t wait to share graduation day with Grandma Judy.

“My family is the greatest blessing I could ask for,” Maguire said. “And there’s just so many things for me to be grateful for. God has bestowed them to me. I wasn’t ready to leave my family as a high schooler and so stepping into a new family, just with different names and faces, was something I could manage. I’m so lucky to just have that and be able to show up every day and know I have family near and far.”

In fact, Maguire takes a moment at Mass every Sunday after he takes communion to stop and thank God for his family back in Massachusetts and his family here in Durham.

With faith and family as his anchors, Maguire has grown both as a player who understands Duke’s defensive schemes and as a leader. When he started at Duke, Maguire was quiet and reserved and admittedly was not prepared to be a leader. He had to constantly develop those skills. So what did he do? He leaned on his greatest support system — his brothers in the locker room.

“It’s an incredible honor to be named a captain of the Duke lacrosse team,” Maguire said. "But it also makes me look myself in the mirror and say, ‘There’s things I need to do for these men. They are my brothers and they voted me to be one of the guys who they can look upon when things get hard.’ So, when I think, I’m tired today. I’m sore today. I have excuses today. Then I look at (fellow captains Henry Bard, Benn Johnston and Charlie Johnson) and they aren’t making excuses, so I shouldn’t. That’s my job as a leader, but these guys make it so much easier because of their support and reinforcement.

It was his leadership and willingness to speak up during practice leading up to the rivalry game that spurred Duke to a commanding 16-12 victory over No. 3 North Carolina to finish the regular season. With no chance of making the ACC Tournament, the Blue Devils could easily have shown up in Chapel Hill and simply gone through the motions. But with Maguire leading the charge, Duke displayed resiliency and what it means to play with pride for each other and your university.

This season certainly has had its challenges and Maguire’s four years at Duke haven’t always been easy. He’s had his missteps and failures, but he has allowed the people and everything that encompasses Duke to carry him through this journey of change.

“Change is something I still struggle with,” Maguire said. “I’ll be graduating soon and that’s a big change and I’ll have to use the skills I’ve learned here to accept that change. There are times you can feel change, and you want to combat it. The things that have changed for me on the field and off the field have sculpted me into a man. They’ve made me a better friend, a better teammate, a better son and a better sibling. That change, as much as I probably fought it and probably ignored it, it happened because that’s what this place can do. It has only brought me more happiness and j oy.”

This story originally appeared in the 17.9 issue of GoDuke The Magazine. Dedicated to sharing the stories of Duke student-athletes, present and past, GoDuke The Magazine is published for Duke Athletics by LEARFIELD with editorial offices at 3100 Tower Blvd., Suite 404, Durham, NC 27707. To subscribe, join the Iron Dukes or call (336) 831-0767.