“Syracuse just plays with this mystique, I can’t really describe it,” said SU assistant Lelan Rogers, who played for the Orange in the mid-1980s “They play with a confidence that they know they’re going to come through.
Cody Jamieson (right) scored the overtime winner as Syracuse rallied to beat Cornell 10-9 in the NCAA title game.
(From InsideLacrosse Blog, May 25th, 2009 by John Jiloty)
There was never any panic, never any nerves on the SU sideline Monday in a game they never led until the final whistle. The players just said they believed all the way through that they would pull it out.
“This year and last year were two totally different teams, but the one constant was that mystique.”
Part of that is the past success still defining the program. Dan Hardy, Tom Guadagnolo and Pat Perritt have older brothers that played at SU. The fathers of Hardy, Kenny Nims, Kevin Drew (basketball) and Matt Abbott played there. All four coaches are alums. Among the 27 Syracuse players that played Monday, 12 are from Central New York.
But it’s also the more direct connections like Simmons Jr., who will be honored Thursday by the Tewaaraton Trophy Committee in Washington, D.C. Simmons Jr. is a Hall of Famer who coached SU to six national titles, including the first in 1983. He addressed the Orange in the locker room before Monday’s final (at the coaches’ request, he noted), just like he did last year when Syracuse won the title.
“We never talk about coming in second,” he said amid the postgame celebration, arm in arm with SU Chancellor Nancy Cantor. “I talked to them about walking out of here with their heads held high and told them to eliminate two words: ashamed and regret. We were not going to be ashamed and we weren’t going to have any regrets.”
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