Awarded to Best Player in Div II
About David Leistman
David Leistman was a devoted father and a dedicated coach, and with his two children – Brian, 13, and Katie, 12 – he was able to combine his two passions.
Leistman, of Garden City, coached the boys’ and the girls’ lacrosse teams that his children played on with a zest for the sport that began when he was a child himself. “He was always totally devoted to his children,” said his brother, Donald Leistman. “These kids have been playing one sport or another practically since they’ve been able to walk, and maybe even before. He was constantly out with them. I would say no travel tournament was too far, no practice was too mundane.” On Sept. 11, the Leistman children lost both a father and a coach. The father who never left the house without kissing each of them goodbye was at his job for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center on the day that terrorists flew two planes into the Twin Towers. David Leistman grew up in Stewart Manor, where he attended Sewanhaka High School and played football, basketball and, of course, lacrosse.”The school was renowned for its lacrosse program,” said Donald Leistman. His brother went on to Adelphi University, where, as a lacrosse midfielder, he was named an All-American several times and played on the 1979 team that won the Division II National Lacrosse Championship.