Photography by Steve Buchanan
Many athletes overcome severe injuries, but Connor Cashman faced a medical issue that was even more complex and challenging. Cashman, a senior at McDonogh School in Owings Mills, was susceptible to life-threatening food allergies for most of his youth.
“You realize you could die at any moment,” Cashman says. “My throat would start to close, so I wasn’t able to breathe. My eyes would shut. You can die pretty quickly.” Cashman, of Annapolis, has needed an EpiPen injection to save his life more than 20 times. For many of those episodes he was taken to an emergency room.
As an accomplished swimmer for two club teams, Eagles Swim and Naval Academy Aquatic Club (NAAC), it made things difficult. “I have had two attacks at a swim practice,” Cashman explains. “They want you to get the EpiPen within five minutes.”
But things began to change for Cashman by age seven. He entered a four-year medical study at John Hopkins hospital. There, he endured bi-weekly visits for blood draws, and daily exposure to antigens. It worked. Eventually, he reached the point where he could drink milk anytime he wanted.
Then at age 12, he entered a second study at Hopkins for his nut allergy. It lasted three years. “It was the same thing,” Cashman says. “I would get a shot every month. They would give me little doses of peanuts, cashews, and walnuts every night. Then every month or two they would give me more doses of antigens until I built up immunotherapy.”
His allergies are now gone. It has relieved his mental burden and he no longer has restrictions on his diet.
Cashman continued to swim and took up water polo—a sport he thrives in—in middle school at McDonogh. He later competed for NAAC and in high school.
Eventually, he became so good in water polo, colleges around the country coveted Cashman, and it was a long list. He was selected for USA Water Polo Junior Olympic All-American First-Team while competing for NAAC. And he eventually chose to attend the Naval Academy, where he wants to become a fighter pilot after graduation.
“I have grown up in Annapolis my entire life and I have met a lot of midshipmen,” Cashman says. “We sponsor them, and they come over to our house. I have admired them my entire life. I went on a visit to the Academy, and I got to see what life was like. I was impressed.”
Cashman’s mother Kelly Sullivan adds, “We sponsored three midshipmen this year who were on the water polo team. They are like big brothers to him.”
Cashman’s own recruiting process left him exhausted. He visited six schools in California, including UCLA, Stanford, and the University of California, Berkley. Clemson and Tennessee offered academic scholarships to Cashman, who carries a weighted 4.3 grade-point average.
“The California teams usually don’t recruit on the East Coast,” McDonogh Water Polo Coach Scott Ward says. “It’s impressive that they were interested in him. The schools saw him play in tournaments in the West.”
Ward says Cashman “is the best water polo player we have ever had at McDonogh.”
After joining the McDonogh middle school team in seventh grade, Cashman started for four years on the varsity and Ward named him captain for the Eagles as a senior. Cashman dominated during his entire career, earning First-Team Maryland Interscholastic Association of Maryland for each season.
He capped his career with league coaches picking him as MIAA Player of the Year. The 6-foot, 180-pound Cashman also competed for the year-round NAAC to help develop his skills. His four years on the team included several trips to the West Coast, where the best water polo in the country is played.
“Chris Bowman was an All-American in the ’90s,” Ward says. “He was a great player, but Connor is a better all-around player. He has the perfect mix of skills. He can handle bigger players. He has great quickness. That’s the physical side. The mental side: he is cool under pressure and won’t let things rattle him. He is very instinctive. His athletic IQ is very high.”
The 18-year-old Cashman accomplished a lot in swimming, too. He swam for both the McDonogh varsity team and NAAC. He posted top finishes during the MIAA tournaments in 2022 and 2023 in the 50- and 100-meter freestyles. Cashman was named a USA Swimming All-American as part of the 200-meter freestyle relay team last year and the medley relay team this year. He swam in the anchor leg on the medley relay.
“He was our first polo player who was an All-American in swimming,” says Ward, who doubles as McDonogh’s swimming coach. “Right now, he could swim Division I in college.”
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