Was He the Best Player On Your Team? Part 3

Tom Nims 1983 

Tim Nelson 1983 championship game

Kevin Sheehan  28  hoisting the 1983 championship trophy at Rutgers Stadium 

I am rifting off of a question a reporter asked me about Tim Nelson who was just inducted into the National Hall of Fame. Was he the best player on the team? We had very talented Syracuse teams in 1984 and 1985 with lots of players making important contributions including Tim. There was All American goalie Tom Nims (West Genesee) the father of All American attackmen Kenny. In the goal, Nimmer, as we called him, operated like a Clint Eastwood character without the aggression. And his passing skills facilitated our fast break transition style in which defensive men and mid fields pushed the ball up field and scored goals. On defense we had big Kevin Sheehan (Baldwinsville, NY) who the team called Sheedog or just dog for short. I called him Chewie because he was so big and thick and had long hair like the star wars character Chewbaka. Kevin’s physical play, ability to dislodge the ball from an opponent’s stick, ground ball ability, and offensive threat made him a 3 x All American.  Jeff Desko (West Genesee, Camillus, NY), the younger brother of head coach John Desko a 79 SU All American and assistant coach during my years and Dave 2 x who All American, also played defense. Baby D [Desko], as some called him, ran like a gazelle and played tremendous position defense. I recall when he shut down Carolinas Hall Fame attackmen Mac Ford which earned Jeff first team All-American honors is sophomore year an honor repeated the rest of his career at SU.