Daily Archives: January 15, 2010

Many words were spoken Thursday afternoon during the Syracuse University lacrosse team’s annual media day in the Carrier Dome. The one uttered most often, though, was the one head coach John Desko and his players least wanted to hear.

Three-peat.

It was on the minds – and then the lips – of many in the media herd that hounded the Orange for an hour prior to its first practice of preseason camp. SU will enter the Feb. 19 season-opener vs. Denver in the Carrier Dome with a gaudy record of 32-4 over the last two years. Each season ended with the team celebrating a Division I national championship.

So, guys, how about a third?

Syracuse Men's Lacrosse Coach John Desko

“I’ve never been one to talk about national championships on the opening day of practice,” Desko said. “For everybody who talks about defending national championships, I’ve never talked about it. Those championships from previous years are in the bank. I’m not defending those. They’re there and they’re always going to be there. We’d much rather climb the mountain than stand on top of it and try to push everybody aside.”

It soon became obvious that the veteran head coach had already addressed the very topic with his players.

“No one is thinking three-peat,” said senior attackman Cody Jamieson, whose overtime goal gave the Orange a dramatic 10-9 victory over Cornell in last season’s title game. “We’re all just here to win a national championship, and that’s it. That’s all it comes down to.”

“It’s a new season, a new group of guys,” junior longstick midfielder Joel White said.

“It’s great motivation for us, to have an opportunity to do something special,” junior goaltender John Galloway said, ” but like Coach said, we’re not defending anything. No one can take those championships away from us.”

There are some good reasons for Desko and his troops to display caution heading into their first year as a member of the new seven-team Big East men’s lacrosse conference. Among them:

• The team will enter the season without All-America attackman Kenny Nims, who was second in the nation in scoring last season with 74 points (32 goals, 42 assists). More importantly, Nims served as the team’s offensive quarterback, a role Desko admitted will be tougher to replace than Nims’ production.

“As far as dodging and feeding, I don’t think we have anybody as good as Kenny back there,” he said.

• The team will also be missing its quarterback at the other end of the field, All-America close defender Sid Smith.

“To lose a guy like that is real tough,” White said. “The one big thing he did for us was communication.”

• Perhaps most importantly, the team bid farewell to five of its top six offensive midfielders following last season, among them powerful left-hander Dan Hardy and the game’s best two-way middie, Matt Abbott. Only junior Josh Amidon (LaFayette) is back from the top two lines. Desko said filling the holes around Amidon will be the biggest challenge of camp.

“I think so,” he said. “I think we’re looking at eight or nine guys there. We don’t know. It could be set groups. We could use groups of four (in a rotation). I think you’re going to see some of the guys who played more of a defensive role in the past play a little bit more of an offensive role. We’re still figuring it out.”

Among the leading candidates are true freshman JoJo Marasco, the team’s most highly touted newcomer; redshirt freshmen Steve Ianzito (Cicero-North Syracuse) and Peter Coleman; senior Max Bartig; sophomore Kevin Drew; and juniors Jovan Miller (CBA), Jeff Gilbert (C-NS) and Jeremy Thompson (LaFayette). The most intriguing is Thompson, who helped Onondaga CC win the national championship last season and can provide instant offense from the faceoff X. Overall, though, the group is green.

“We’re not filling in with a lot of game experience,” Desko said. “I told the guys this morning I have a lot of confidence in this group. It’s a very good team. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.”

With a schedule that features eight games away from home – including SU’s biggest rivals Virginia, Johns Hopkins and Princeton and last season’s title-game foe, Cornell – “when” had better be sooner than later.

“It’s a little different group than in the past,” Desko said. “Obviously, the last couple of years we’ve had some very strong senior classes. I think we’re going to be relying on more younger players than we’re used to.”

That noted, the team returns four accomplished attackmen in Jamieson, fellow senior Chris Daniello (21-3), junior Stephen Keogh (49-6) and freshman Tim Desko (13-4); one of the game’s premier goalies in Galloway; the nation’s top longstick middie in White; one of the game’s hardest shots in Amidon (14-9); and two very good close defenders in senior Matt Tierney and junior John Lade.

And while it may lack the overall experience of last season’s title team, the word coming out of fall ball was the Orange is more athletic overall and may push the ball in transition even more than usual, which is plenty.

“You’d like to think so,” White said when asked if the assessment was accurate. “And why not? We like to run. We like to get up and down, and we’ve got plenty of guys who can do that. Plenty.”

Plenty of holes to fill. Plenty of tough games on the road. Plenty of potential.

Enough to take a run at a three-peat? Don’t mention it. At least not yet.

Note: Desko restructured his coaching staff in the off-season, assigning veteran assistant Roy Simmons III to a new role as director of operations and assistant strength and conditioning coach, returning Kevin Donahue to full-time assistant status, keeping Lelan Rogers as defensive coordinator and adding former Orange and West Genesee High School star Steve Scaramuzzino as a volunteer assistant to help coach the offense.

http://blog.syracuse.com/orangelacrosse/2010/01/three-peat_dont_mention_it_to.html