October 29, 2024
Working out with the BIG EAST’s best goalie, Lukas Burns ’24
By Matthew Crean ’24
Entering Concannon Fitness Center, the best goalie in the BIG EAST heads straight for the leg machines. It’s soccer’s off-season and Lukas Burns ’24, ’25G is trying to build muscle mass in preparation for his fifth and final year at Providence.
He wears gym shorts and a black pullover embossed with the Friar logo. Standing at 6’4’’ and weighing 181 pounds, he certainly looks the part of a Division I goalkeeper, with large, muscular hands that have years of experience batting away balls. His short, black hair is combed over slickly, just as it always is on the field.
“I’m more confident when I feel like I am looking good,” said Burns, who makes sure to get a haircut before every game. “It’s also something mental with it being my routine.”
By contrast, I’m 5’10 and 155 pounds with a mop of frazzled blond hair. While I work out regularly, I’m far from DI material. But I was curious what someone like Burns does when he hits the gym, so on a recent weekday afternoon he let me tag along with him.
As we warmed up our quads and hamstrings with some low-weight leg curls and leg extensions, Burns told me about his decision to stay at Providence for a graduate year to earn his MBA and return as the Friars’ starting goalkeeper for a fourth year in a row. He briefly considered going pro but opted to develop with Providence for another year on scholarship.
“I want to win a championship with the team and hopefully be the goalkeeper of the year,” said Burns, who last season was named to the All-BIG EAST Second Team, which essentially made him the second-best goalie in the conference after a senior from Georgetown. He was named BIG EAST preseason goalie of the year in August 2024.
Warm-ups done, we walked upstairs to the squat machine, where Burns’ workout philosophy became clearer. While my normal gym routine would focus on building strength and size with slow, controlled repetitions until failure, Burns prefers half-reps and quarter-reps of much higher weights that he tries to execute as fast as possible. There’s one word to describe the theory behind this workout: explosiveness. Burns is trying to develop the explosive power needed to jump higher and further and move quicker on his feet.
Soon we were both grunting out squat reps of 320 pounds. But whereas I tried to do them all slowly and in control, Burns went down slowly and then burst upward.
Born and raised in the south of New Jersey outside of Philadelphia, he grew up playing on the youth and developmental teams for the Philadelphia Union Academy, which is affiliated with the Major League Soccer team Phillie Union. At the end of high school, Phillie Union offered Burns a contract to join the developmental team full time and forgo college, though he committed instead to Providence.
“I believe I made the right choice because it’s good to have my degree, it’s much safer,” Burns said. “I was also able to develop here whereas in Philadelphia it’s a professional environment where if something happens it’s very cutthroat and nothing is guaranteed.”
We went back downstairs in Concannon Fitness Center to do leg curls and leg extensions with weights of 100 to 120 pounds. We then switched to calf raises. Along with developing power, Burns was also doing the kind of strength training that helps prevent injury — something he knows can quickly end a player’s season.
During his first year at Providence, Burns had found himself playing backup to another goalie with several years of eligibility. He played just one game the entire season and was on the verge of quitting. Then the starting goalie was injured in a summer workout, which created an opening for Burns.
“I had an idea I would be starting that year but still had to earn my spots through the games and practices throughout the first couple weeks,” he said.
Burns would end up starting all 21 matches his sophomore season en route to a 12-5-4 record. He posted seven shutouts to go along with a career best .729 save percentage and 1.05 goals against average. He’s been starting ever since.
“Honestly, during the games I really don’t remember anything that goes on through my mind,” he said. “I’m always trying to stay focused on the game.”
As a senior, Burns was named BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week and a member of the College Soccer News Men’s National Team of the Week. Those awards came during a four-game shutout streak, including against Georgetown, which was ranked fifth in the nation at the time.
“He was playing on another level during October,” starting center back Jason Pereira ’24 said of Burns’s performance.
“We’re all just so happy that he was able to prove himself and stay at Providence like he wanted,” his mom Phyllis Burns said.
Burns and I finished our workout with sets on the hip abductor and hip adductor machines. I was pushing weights of 140-150 pounds, whereas Burns was doing 160-180 pounds. After some light stretching, Burns was ready for more. He walked toward the treadmills. I reluctantly followed.
He immediately kicked up the treadmill to the 16th speed and said he would be “jogging and sprinting in intervals” for 45 minutes. What he defined as “jogging” would have sent me flying. Too embarrassed to ask Burns what his sprint speed would be, I left him to finish his never-ending workout.
“What pushes me is winning a championship with the team and pursuing my dream that I have had since I was a kid with playing professional soccer,” Burns said.
This story was written as an assignment for the Sports Journalism course taught by Stephen Kurczy, M.S., visiting professor of English, during the Spring 2024 semester. Matthew Crean ’24, from Southold, New Jersey, studied finance at PC.
The Fund for Providence College supports the development of academic opportunities at PC, like this sports journalism class. A gift through The Fund for Providence College contributes to the success of faculty scholars and the students they teach.
