The Roots of the Game: A Syracuse Lacrosse Memoir

College Lacrosse Recruiting Series: Academics and Affordability First

2011-08-08T03:18:00.000-07:00

Me in the 1985 NCAA semi finals championship game covering University of North Carolina’s All American midfielder Steve Martel in the Carrier Dome.

When it comes to lacrosse and college, my advice is always choose an academic program that is both affordable and will help you develop your non-lacrosse passion. I also suggest a school that is relatively close to home say 4 or less hours from home if you want your folks to see you play and you want to make it home for holidays and special occasions. Then choose a school where there is a need for you at your position earlier rather than in your junior or senior year. Most competitive athletes come apart emotionally and get depressed when they are not playing; that happened to me on more than one occasion during my career. Ask important questions to coaches recruiting you. For example, how deep is a team’s roster is at your position? Remember in the fall of 1983 Syracuse had graduated three starting defensemen, that made SU appealing to me. Finally let me quote Lou Holtz as it is related to the stress one might feel when top coaches are evaluating you as a potential recruit: “You only succumb to stress if your are ill-prepared.” In short, make sure you are prepared physically, emotionally, and most important in my book, spiritually. That is, have your house in order. Success I say is when preparation meets opportunity.

Dealing With Rejection As a Lacrosse Recruit

2011-07-27T03:29:00.000-07:00

Me (far left) in a Herk vs. Nassau game at Hofstra University 1983

It’s that time of the year when college coaches are out traveling around the country watching tournaments and checking out prospective players and deciding who they can and should recruit. Soon some players will start receiving email, mail, and phone calls and invitations to visit campuses. Some highly coveted players entering their sophomore and junior years in high school are starting to feel the pressure. Those not receiving any "love from coaches" are starting to feel low self-esteem. My story as former scholarship lacrosse player at Syracuse University and U. S. National Team player may surprise you. I did not receive allot of love my junior or senior year. As senior I might have received two letters from Division III coaches My prospects improved after attending junior college (JUCO) at Herkimer County Community college and playing for now Hall of Fame Coach Paul Wehrum. I first tearn All American honors my first year at Herkimer but the honor did not help my case much because are team did not advance to the final four teams in the JUCO championships. That was the stage in the game when coaches came to see players like they now do at summer tournaments and thereafter offered opportunities to the players they believed would contribute their programs. Clay Johnson from my hometown played for Maryland and he was my hero. Thus naturally I wanted to play for Maryland one day. The problem was I recruited Maryland harder than they recruited me a guy with little notoriety. University of Maryland coach Dino Mattessich supposedly sent somone to watch me play against Nassau Community College on the island. Nassau was the top rank team in the nation at the time and players from the program regularly earned scholarships to the top lacrosse programs and schools in the country. I played perhaps my best lacrosse ever. However following the game Maryland continued show little interest no discussion of scholarship money occurred. I sent inquiries’ to the coaches at Carolina and West Point receiving in turn cordial rejection letters. It was during this time I learned the skill of how to spot a rejection letter without opening the envelope. This skill would later serve me well as I tried to get my first books published from 2000 to 2009. Syracuse went on to beat Maryland in the NCAA quarter finals that year in the Career Dome. Coach Dino Mattessich resigned as the Maryland lacrosse coach shortly thereafter and left coaching to become an athletic director. I don’t believe one of my many phone calls to the Maryland lacrosse office ever made it pass the secretaries who screened calls; nor did any of the coaches return my calls. Now that friends and people who I've coach are college coaches, I better understand both the process and just how many contacts they get about prospective players. Most do the best the can returning calls and emails but they are simply understaffed and overworked. Coaches feel terrible when a great player gets overlooked and players feel slighted when coaches show them no love. I certainly learned over the years how to make myself more attractive as I candidate and much of what I learned happened through lacrosse. Perhaps most importantly, I learned how to separate what I do from who I am and the importance of fit when potential employers or publishers say no to me.

Summer League Series: Part 1 My Story

2011-07-04T06:58:00.000-07:00

That me “the brown person” as my six year old daughter would say in ninth grade (click the image to enlarge)

I am starting a new series today on summer league lacrosse. My lacrosse playing days started in the summer in the mid-1970s. Our physical education teacher, Don Daubney, a Springfield College grad, taught a lacrosse (soft stick and soft ball) unit every spring to his eighth grade classes. He followed that up with a summer rec program that lasted about three or four weeks. We learned the basics and once we had them down, the summer program culminated with a game against the Lakeland/Walter Panas rec program. Like my first Division one game at Syracuse against the North Carolina Tar Heels, I was both scared and thrilled at the same time. We faced off on Lakeland middle school field across from the old Westchester Mall on route 6. That summer league space would continue to have an important impact on my lacrosse career and that of many others. The summer before I entered 9th or 10th grade Steve Mabus’ family moved on street. At the time Steve played college lacrosse at Kutz Town State in Pennsylvania. Don’t remember how it started, but before I knew it, Steve and I started playing catch, shooting on goal in his yard, and played one on one in his yard. Steve played in a college summer league at the Lakeland middle school field and started taking me along his game. I remember watching Scott Finlay (Yorktown, West Point), Scott Nelson (Yorktown, North Carolina State) and Bill Simunek (Walter Panas, St. Lawrence), Greg Rivers (Yorktown, Delaware) and Clay Johnson (Croton, Maryland) play. These guys were terrific athletes, with great sticks, and lacrosse intellect. Watching them provided a visual image of how the game should be played. Graduate school advisors once told me that I should apply to the best possible Ph.D. programs. She explained, “You will rise to the occasion in an atmosphere of very bright people and become a much more polished scholar.” The same is true with the summer lacrosse you watch and the leagues you play in.

New Navy Coach Rick Sowell On How He Started Playing Lacrosse

2011-06-16T02:10:00.000-07:00

Rick Sowell # 30 back in 1983 playing attack for Colblesskill. That's me and Billy Barth chasing a ground ball in the middle of the photo

Rick Sowell became the 104th Head Lacrosse Coach at the U. S. Naval Academy earlier this month. I asked my long time friend to answer a couple of questions about his own lacrosse history. I’ve know Rick since 1982 but I never asked him how he started playing lacrosse.

Rick Sowell: After successful seasons playing freshmen basketball and JV football, I was introduced to the sport of lacrosse by Tom Moffitt, who also taught me both algebra I and II in 9th and 10th grade. Prior to Coach Moffitt’s arrival in Horseheads in 1976 (I was in 8th grade), our area [Western Tier of upstate New York] did not have lacrosse, but somehow he quickly convinced our school board to approve a lacrosse program. It began as a club sport and after 2 years it officially became a varsity sport for the 1979 season (my sophomore year). As was the case with many athletes who played both football and basketball for coach Moffitt, he somehow talked us out of playing baseball and joining him on the lacrosse field. To this day, I really don’t know what made me decide to give up baseball for this sport. I had never seen it before nor was I excited to try a sport where you “whack” your opponent with a stick.

http://www.laxpower.com/laxnews/news.php?story=25629

Croton Lacrosse History: Part I Elliot Stark

2011-06-12T03:15:00.000-07:00

Photo: of NYU lacrosse 1930. Elliot Stark played for NYU and Rutgers University back during the Depression

My hometown recently hosted an alumni game and last night I attended my 30 year class reunion. Thanks to Bill Morrison (CHHS 81) and Joe Borges (CHHS/Yorktown 90s?) lacrosse in Croton is in great shape with a vibrant youth program. Many of the families that have moved to Croton since I graduated probably don't know the history of the game in the town. My high school and junior college teammate Josh Stark’s dad Elliot Stark introduced the game to Croton-on-Hudson back in about the late 1960s early 1970s. A Brooklyn native, Mr. Stark played lacrosse at Rutgers University and later at New York University (NYU) in the early 1930s. The NYU lacrosse program argues that it has the oldest collegiate-level lacrosse program in the country with the first game played against Manhattan College in 1877. Until the 1970s, just about all the city universities had lacrosse teams. Stark would later go on to play and promote professional indoor lacrosse throughout New York City (NYC). For example, Stark organized a game between members of the Onondaga Nation (near Syracuse University) and the “New York City All-Stars” for the 1939 World’s Fair held that year in NYC. I’ll have more on Elliot Stark and Croton lacrosse tomorrow.

My First Stick: lacrosse commerce in the 1970s

2011-06-09T03:15:00.000-07:00

Photo of the old STX Barney. My first stick was a STX 76er which was a lot like a Barney that came thereafter.

Like your first kiss, any fanatical lacrosse player remembers his or her first stick. Mine was a red STX 76er with a traditional pocket, and by today’s standard, a heavy round white shaft. The head was the size and shape of STX barney accept it had three wide stripes at the top of the head similar to the 1978 STX Sam-which by the way made a lot of money for STX. I ordered the 76er through Varsity Lacrosse Coach Nick Padula. This was the summer of 1976. Pack in those days, coaches in small villages in places like Croton-on-Hudson served as the middle men between local players and the three lacrosse companies of that time: Brine, STX, and Warrior. Truth be told, the Warrior Company of that era is a shadow of the company on steroids today which is sponsoring the U. S. Men’s National team. Coach would put the word out that he would be putting in a mail order for sticks in hope of getting enough orders to merit a discount on the entire order. That’s how it was in those days. My town, which always had thriving youth sports, never had a sporting goods store. In fact, I dad had to take me to nearby Peekskill to purchase me first baseball glove and rubber spikes to play minor league. Lacrosse sticks in those days were like really high quality imported olives—most stores not only did not carry them—they never heard of them before; more on lacrosse commerce in the 1970s tomorrow.

Great Coaches Don't Play Favorites: Shaping Boys into Men.

2011-06-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

UVA's Head Coach Dom Starsia, (photo from http://www.laxmagazine.com)

This past Monday the 2011 Men’s Division 1 lacrosse season ended with the University of Virginia (UVA) winning the national championship. This is Head Coach Dom Starsia’s fourth title and I would argue one of the greatest examples of coaching and shaping boys into men. After a tumultuous season last year, Coach Starsia had to tighten things up. Senior team captains instituted, with the coach’s approval, a strict code of conduct a code that some of his most talented players quibbled with and tested several times. One of the famed Bratton twins was benched 2 x s for violating the rules and finally tossed off the team after a third violation. The other twin violated the rules 1 x and he was suspended indefinitely on a third infraction. The Twins were seniors and I think this is a crucial point; coaches need seniors to lead by a positive example for the underclassmen on and off the field. Unfortunately most coaches cannot resist the temptation to win at all cost and they let their best players get away with poor choices instead of teaching them how to be a man. Men have caring relationships with other men. Men don't need alcohol to prove they are men; men don't need athletic accomplishments to make them men; and men care for the women in their lives not exploit them. Coach Starsia and his team focused on long term success instead of short term gratification. Another player, Colin Briggs, was benched in the semi-finals for similar infraction of the team rules and did not dress for the game. Briggs played in the finals and apologized after the finals for breaking the rules and letting his team down; he had five goals in the finals. Coach Starsia had to play zone defense which he admittedly hates to do, but he taught zone fundamentals and got his players to buy into playing zone. He had to move players around on offense switching people back and forth on midfield and attack and again he got his players to respond. It wasn’t easy and probably could not have been without excellent leadership from team captains and players who would not quick even when they loss in the middle of the season. In the end, UVA played great lacrosse without two great players who broke team rules. In 1989 I had to make similar tough decisions without the same championship results. I was a first year head varsity lacrosse coach at Hempstead High School on Long Island. I held my first lacrosse practices of the season before school to make sure my players attended their first period classes and I had dress code on the field to insure we looked uniform. I tried to instill discipline in a program that had lost it focus over the years at a high school with great football and basketball programs. I tried to make too many changes too soon and some that frankly were not necessary. The seniors rebelled and I threw them off the team—these were great athletes and some good lacrosse players; some had already signed letters of intent to play Division 1 football and basketball in college. Losing these seniors meant I was going to have tough road to hoe ahead with a team full of underclass men. It was a long season and we didn’t win thereafter. I regrets about not getting more input from the players about the rules but not about how I disciplined my players. Here’s my message, as a coach you are hurting your best players and your program when you play favorites with them. Just hold them accountable for their actions and bench them even if it means losing a game. In the long wrong you will do more to help that player become a better person and you will establish a reputation for fairness that will help you and your student athletes in the long term. UVA played better without the twins and the decision not to play them will only help the program in the long run and help the players in question if they learned a lesson from this ordeal. It’s important to know that the UVA players in good standing voted to discipline teammates who violated team rules and the coaches approved the decision. These are tough decisions and I hope coaches and players around the country that follow the sport learned the lesson that no one is above the law and you can always be replaced. I also think UVA probably helped their recruiting with the courageous stand its coaches and players made this year. Well done cavaliers!

Related Link: http://laxunation.com/2011/04/shamel-bratton-dismissed-rhamel-suspended-indefinitely.

More on my Hempstead lacrosse year: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Head+Lacrosse+Coach+at+Hempstead+

Jim Brown Named The inaugural Tewaaraton Legend

2011-05-31T02:45:00.000-07:00

Coach Roy Simmons Jr. once told me the story of how Manhasset native Jim Brown came to Syracuse. Judge Kenny Molloy, a Syracuse alum, served as one of Brown’s mentors in Manhasset and he’s the one that influenced Jim to go Syracuse. Molloy also raised the tuition to pay for Brown’s first year and solicited a promise of a future scholarship from the SU Athletic department if he proved to be the superstar that his Manhasset patrons claimed he would be. You see Syracuse Football Coach Ben Schwartzwalder did not want African Americans on his team and he never made it easy for them to play under him. What few know is that Schwartzwalder reluctantly gave Brown a football scholarship after he was a walk on (non-scholarship athlete) is freshmen year and still refused to play him until injuries forced him to do so. “The Superintendent of Manhasset High School flew up to Syracuse and told me not to quit the football team when I was down about not playing. I went from 5th string to All-American in two years,” recalls Brown. Lacrosse proved different for Brown at Syracuse. Roy Simmons Sr. who also coached football gave Brown a fair shot and Jim dominated the game for three years (freshmen) did not play varsity in those days. In lacrosse at Syracuse, Brown earned Second Team All-American selection in 1956 and First Team in 1957. He also finished second in the nation in scoring his senior year as a member of an undefeated Syracuse Lacrosse squad that included my coach Roy Simmons Jr. In that year’s senior all-star game Brown scored five goals in one-half.

Jim Brown Tewaaraton Legends Award Story: http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2011/05/31/jim-brown-receive-inaugural-tewaaraton-legends-award-june-2-washington-dc

Related Links: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Jim+Brown&updated-max=2010-02-04T06%3A26%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=20

Reflections on Coaches: John Desko

2011-03-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Fred Opie # 34 in a 1985 game in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse against North Carolina.

My decision to pick up the game again, all started with a casual conversation John Desko while I was working the SU lacrosse camp in the summer of 1986. While driving a group of us from the field to the dorms, John asked me out of the blue, “why I didn’t you try out for the 86 World Team, you would have had a good chance of making it?” The question shocked me and planted an idea in my mind—try out for the 90 team four years later. So that summer I reloaded and geared up to start playing again. I had continued to work out because that had become a lifestyle that continues today, but playing shape is another fitness level. My return to lacrosse started at the once premier summer tournament in Glastonbury Connecticut. Jamesville Dewitt alum (a school in the Suburbs of Syracuse with a great lacrosse tradition) who played at Cornell invited me to play with a Cornell team that had a spattering of SU players; more on the Glastonbury tournament later. What’s interesting is that to this day, John Desko probably has no idea the role he played in my decision to try out for the 90 National team. I played for John in 84 and 85 and it took a long time for me to earn his respect after I transferred into Syracuse from Herkimer in the fall of 83. As I wrote earlier (go to the blog archives on the right side to read old stories), I came to SU in the fall of 83 out of shape from off season knee surgery and full of bad habits like throwing too many home run checks too often. The light went on for me one day at the end of my junior season when John casually said to me “you need to speed up your jog.” I wasn’t trying to dog it, but it looked like to him and I that's what counted. John's mantra then and mine now as a youth coach is "on the hop [translation, hustle at all times]." I had to change gears to show him and my teamates I was serious and I did. Second, another light went on when I asked him (in an attempt to get out of his dog house my junior year—almost the whole year) what do I have to do to improve my game? John responded, “Stay on your guy’s gloves! [translation, stop throwing so many home run checks and square up!]." That’s a problem I see among too many even top division one players—they play to much defense with their stick and not enough with their feet—shuttle, drop step, catch up, and then we can talk about checks! So by my senior year at SU, my defense became style became very boring to but I cut down on penalties and shut down the top players I covered. But my offensive game remained just as flashy as ever. It may sound odd but it's true. I threw checks but sparingly and in position to recover if I missed.

Radio interview with Opie on the presence of African Americans in the game: http://waersports.podbean.com/2011/03/15/frederick-douglass-opie-interview/

A Central New York Culinary Observation

2010-11-27T04:33:00.001-08:00

Venison pie, this and other recipes below

Raised around members of the Onondaga Nation, I found that my SU teammates from Central New York were serious woodsmen. Midfielders and defensemen from West Genesee disappeared during hunting season and came back with freezers full of venison. When the campus cafeterias where closed at 7:30 pm, the upstate guys gorged on venison dishes while my teammates from down state and other points south of SU's Carrier Dome made due with thanksgiving leftovers, kraft mac and cheese kits, and or takeout pizza and buffalo wings. Thus I learned over the years that folks in Central New York loved to eat wild game.

Venison pie:http://debsravingrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/09/venison-pie-wintry-hit.html

Insanely Delicious Venison recipes:http://www.yumdiary.com/2010/07/venison-burgers-sliders-appetizers.html

Check Out The Archived Stories

2010-09-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

I will be posting periodically over the next couple of weeks. I am completing a memoir (which is how this blog started) and there is little lacrosse in the sections related to my time working on a graduate degree history at Syracuse University in the 1990s. I will post on the experience of being a doctoral student while I also preparing for the 1994 US National Men’s Lacrosse team tryouts and the tryouts themselves in the summer of 1993. However, there are many interesting post leading up to that point that you can read in the blog archives (on the rights side of the page). Please share your comments and questions that will generate additional post and I hope you are enjoying my life story through the lens of lacrosse (and food).

Fred Opie

College Lacrosse Recruiting Series: Lacrosse Networking

2010-09-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

Photo from the 1983 championship game, the first one for SU. Right, Hopkins Hall of famer John Detomasso covering SU's Tim Nelson left.

As compared to my days as a high school player, today recruiting camps create high pressure scenario for very young high school freshmen and sophomore athletes. The sad reality is if you don’t have coaches showing you love (letters, emails, phone calls, etc) by your junior year, you are not on the anybodies admission support or scholarship radar. The other thing is you never know who is watching you so give your best effort during practice, at camps, summer league games, leagues games, etc. Coaches use their networks of friends, coaches, players, and alum to evaluate a player as well as alumni. As in my own case, many players that have come through Syracuse over the years were spotted obscure venues and recruited in non-traditional way by members of the Syracuse network that like most universities is extensive. For example, I contact the SU coaching staff when I see talented players because I want them to help Syracuse to continue to win national championships! Hopkins, UNC, and Cornell alum do the same thing and they should. Coaches generally trust the recommendation of alum because they have come through the system and know what it will take to play at a Syracuse. I’ve also had the experience of people contacting me to get my endorsement and help and give them an honest assessment of their ability and if I can help them. Any lacrosse player who has played in college can do that for you. I suggest programs other than Syracuse where a player can have an enjoyable college lacrosse experience. There is a place in college for most people play including some great Club teams at major universities like Michigan and the University of Texas etc. If a player is Syracuse material I will tell them so.

College Lacrosse Recruiting Series: Part 4 Dealing With The Pressure

2010-09-19T04:57:00.000-07:00

That me with the red gloves on and Herkkimer Coach Paul Wehrum Warming up Greg Kaplan at the old Coyne Field before the stadium received a face lift , Syracuse University 1982

After the recommendation of Tim Nelson, coaches Roy Simmons Jr. and John Desko came to watch me when my junior college, Herkimer County Community College (see http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/03/reflections-on-coaches-paul-wehrum-part.html) played the Syracuse B team. In those days schools who could afford them had B teams which included their new recruits and walk ons. The structure gave rookies playing time in scrimmages against other B teams and junior colleges in games that would not count against their four years of eligibility. Athletic department budget cuts have done away with most B teams. I remember the game well because we played on Coyne Field on astro-turf at night. That was my first time playing on a synthetic surface. I enjoyed playing on turf because it complemented my game which was based on speed and trick moves in which I would roll, flip, and bounce pass on the turf. I remember covering Frank Lanuto (Sachem) who would later go on to run first midfield as a team at Syracuse with future hall of famers Todd Curry and Brad Kotz (both West Genesee products). Frank was a very strong player who protected his stick extremely well. I apparently held my own defensively against him. More importantly I played my game which was forcing turnovers, getting ground balls, pushing the ball up field, and creating scoring opportunities with my stick skills and field vision as former attackman. I also did not come apart under the pressure of knowing a coach had come to evaluate me.

College Lacrosse Recruiting Series: Part 3 Be Kind, Be Safe, and Do Your Best

2010-09-18T17:45:00.000-07:00

Me in my first season as Herkimer Lacrosse Player in game against Hobart’s B team at Herk, Spring 1982

The saying goes that God works in mysterious ways. I have learned over the years of my Christian walk that when you get to know Him, He’s not so mysterious any more. Perhaps the person that the Lord used the most to turn the attention of Syracuse Lacrosse coaches Roy Simmons Jr. (Simmie) and John Desko (defensive coordinator back when I was being recruited) toward me was Tim Nelson (Yorktown High School). Our high schools played against each other back in Westchester in Section 1. We also played together on a Manhasset summer league team in the old Freeport Summer League after my first year in college. As a result of our shared history, Tim (Nellie) knew my game and knew it well. When I went to Herkimer as a virtual unknown player, he went as a highly recruited two-time high school All American who had played in two New York State title games to NC State. Tim chose NC State because back in the late 1970s and early 1980s State had a great team that included Tim’s older brother Scott, now the head coach at Marist College. At the end of his first year, State dropped their lacrosse program and Simmie offered him a scholarship to Syracuse which he accepted. In his first season at Syracuse, SU won its first national championship in 1983, Nellie earned first team All American honors and he won the Turnbull Award as the best attackman in the country that year. Syracuse had three senior defensemen on that 83 championship team and they needed to replace them. During that championship season, I had visited SU and ran into Nellie at a SU team party. He asked me what I was doing and told me about the teams need for defensemen. In addition, he lobbied the coaching staff to offer me a scholarship based on what he knew of me as a high school player and teammate on that Manhasset summer league team. When few coaches knew who I was Simmie knew me because Tim Nelson told him I was a defenseman he should know. That’s the story of how I became a coveted Syracuse Lacrosse recruit when most other programs and coaches showed no interest in me. But what if I was an opponent in high school who was a jerk and cheap shot to Nellie? What if I was a selfish and an undependable teammate during that summer league? I was the one who introduced Tim to the Manhasset team and I was the one who drove Nellie to the Freeport League. I never did it for something in return. I did it because like Tim, I loved playing with and against the best. Let me close my recruiting saga with the three principles of my daughter’s kindergarten class this year that I learned this past week at back to school night: Be Kind, Be Safe, and Do Your Best. That would be my suggestion to a young player interested in playing college lacrosse.

College Lacrosse Recruiting Series Part 2

2010-09-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

Photo of me on attack my senior year at Croton Harmon High School in New York. Little know secret is that I was a high school attackman. I also played man down an on occasion close defense. Like Chris Paul, I was not highly recruited early in my career.

Launched a series yesterday on recruiting. I recall watching Charlie Rose interview NBA all-star guard Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets. I loved Paul story about his recruiting experience as high school player in North Carolina because it parallels somewhat how I earned a lacrosse scholarship to Syracuse University. Like most North Carolinians, Paul wanted to play for the UNC Tar Heels. However the UNC coaching staff, and few other division 1 coaches, showed no interest in Paul until his senior year. Paul never played on the varsity at his high school until he was a junior and he was very tall (still isn’t) as compared to his peers on the court. Paul said the way he caught the attention of coaches at elite programs like UNC is they turned out to see a highly touted guard and Paul was going up against him. Paul scored a bunch of points on his opponent and shut him down offensively. After the game his stock went up including a scholarship offer from UNC. Paul decided instead to attend Wake Forest. Paul’s story makes me think of how many players give up on their dream and how many coaches end up signing players who are pipe dreams. I am amazed of just how short sighted the recruiting process is today in which coaches are asking for verbal commitments from rising sophomores in high school; please someone stop the madness!

Return to Syracuse University

2010-09-14T20:42:00.001-07:00

Here's a really old photo me covering Hobart's Mark Moore who sent me this shot. Thanks Mark! This was a Lacrosse Day of Champions game at Jim Brown's Manhasset High School on the Island. SU vs Hobart in the early spring of 1984--it was freezing! Brown was inducted in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame this year and there was a short ceremony at half time. I got a chance to me him (see the story in the blog archive for Feb 20100)

Talking about the time in my life when I spent so much time and money playing lacrosse for free. I was indeed passionate about the game and it showed on my credit card bill. I didn’t need to play that well in the club championship I returned from Mexico to play in because opponents just didn’t take me on very often. I felt terrible that day and I am glad they did not try me. After the game, which we won, I returned from the Spanish Immersion program in Guadalajara that lasted three months. I didn’t gain fluency over those three months but I was on my way. I found that a combination of work habits developed while playing competitive lacrosse along with my knowledge of scripture helped greatly. Principles are parallel; for example, I learned that as an athlete I had to train at least 5 out of 7 days a week and be mentally tough. The same thing was true with learning Spanish. I also surrounded myself with the best players and coaches over my career and that made a difference. In Mexico I made a point of getting to know students who excelled at Spanish and asked them about what worked for them. In addition, I made a point of spending more time with Mexicans who did not speak English which forced me to speak Spanish. At the end of August I returned to Syracuse University to begin work on a doctorate degree in history. I returned with lots of sermons and praise music in Spanish on cassette which I listened to daily then and now. I also audited a Spanish class and made friends with graduate students who were native speakers of Spanish. This all worked to keep me immersed in a Spanish language environment that developed my Spanish language skills. Also, once again, I went in the closet as a lacrosse player even as I prepared for the 1993 National Team tryouts a year away.

Lacrosse on the Brain: It's About the Endorphins Part 2

2010-09-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

High Fiving SU teammate Dan Pratt  from Homer, New York (who back then looked
allot likeTom Cruise) during a 1985 game. Another old photo I came across while
unpacking in my new home in Wellesley, Mass where I am now living and teaching
at Babson College.

Talking about when I was club player back in the early 1990s with lacrosse on the Brain (see earlier post). So I get off the flight from Mexico to New York sleepy as all get out and head straight to my folks house in Croton to pick up my car and equipment. I make it to the game with barely enough time to warm up before the start of the opening faceoff. I felt physically drained and I was in a fog with everything moving slowly. I did not play poorly nor did I play outstanding. One of things that I learned was that by that stage of my career (I had just turned 30), when you’re a National Team Selection (and black which made me stick out that much more), opponents gave you allot of respect. For example, offensive players, unless they were also National Team players or extremely cocky, didn’t challenge you as a defender, for fear they would get embarrassed I imagine—and they could. You see, at age 30 a world class athlete is at his or her prime athletic ability and field sense if he or she plays a team sport. You’re very strong, if you work out, which I did, and your anticipation of the next move you should make or your opponents’ next move is uncanny. In addition, if you are playing well, your confidence makes you almost unstoppable. I’ll pick it up here tomorrow.

Lacrosse on the Brain: It's About the Endorphins that Competition Produces

2010-09-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

Me covering Umass midfielder Stephen Moreland Jr. North Andover, Mass at Umass, Amherst in 1985.
The interesting thing is I found this old photo while I was unpacking in my new home in Wellesley, Mass
where I am now living and teaching at Babson College.

To show just how much I had lacrosse on the brain, I suspended my Spanish immersion program in Guadalajara, Mexico to catch a flight back to New York to play in a non-revenue club lacrosse championship for Maryland Lacrosse Club. Folks, understand we are not talking about a major league lacrosse game like today where teams fly a San Diego based player in to play for the Long Island Lizards. No, dropped what I was doing to play for free in a club championship game at Hofstra University. That was typical then and even now. I’ve seen summer tournaments in which pro-players in the off season come and play against amateurs because the love the sport but more importantly they love the competition. That was my motivation in 1992, I loved the competition it produced endorphins that made you want to come back for more even at your own expense. It’s the high every athlete who has experienced it craves for more. It’s the high that Michael Jordan tried to obtain when he came out of retirement to play for the Wizards and what keeps him on gulf greens all over the world. More tomorrow

Staying in Game Shape in Lacrosse

2010-09-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

So here I am down in Guadalajara, Mexico getting ready for a MLC vs NYAC club lacrosse championship game at Hofstra University on Long Island. I did speed work, agility drills, and lifted weights while working at Gettysburg College from 1989 until my departure in the June of 1992 for Mexico. This kept me in very good playing shape. When I went to Mexico for the immersion program I had no lacrosse equipment but I knew I had a championship game back in the states in a week. So how did I stay in shape? First I found a gym where I could both ride a life cycle and lift weights not far from where I lived in Colonia Guadalupana. I don’t play anymore, but I still try and stay at hotels with gyms so I can work out. Second I ran most evening for 30 minutes or more and it was interesting to see the looks of the people in the different neighborhoods in Guadalajara that ran through. They were shocked to see me because of my height, brown skin, shaved head, and the simple fact that I was running between 9:00 and 11:00 pm at night. I can’t say I ever saw anybody else running at that hour. Plus when I first started going to Guadalajara in 92, you hardly ever saw black folks. I remember I would run past the a corner of the transit authority office and Gigante Supermarket in Guadalajara where prostitutes would try to get clients with scanty clothing and come ons; some were aggressive in trying to gain my attention as I jogged passed them. When I told my host mother about the prostitutes on the corner in question, she laughed and told me that they were male prostitutes dressed as women; I had no clue and was shocked at the disclosure. Road and stick work are so important in lacrosse but I was not concerned about losing my stick skills because I had spent so much time doing wall ball drills over the years that my muscle memory had me functioning at the subconscious level. In kind of like driving, after a while it becomes automatic. Even though I have not played since 1993 my stick skills are still relatively sharp as I play catch with children. Here is a tip Brian Kelley, the head coach at Calvert Hall High School in Baltimore, shared with me. If you want your children to develop both hands, set a policy that you will only have catch with them if they use their off hand. I tried it with my children and the improvement in their off hand is amazing.

Return From Mexico to Play in the 1992 Club Championship

2010-09-09T03:22:00.000-07:00

Maryland Lacrosse Back in the Day was one of the premier post-college team in the country that features some of the best coaches at all levels of the game today (see earlier post on them in the blog archives)

After several days of taking the same route to and from school I began to see the same faces and develop both a routine and cordial relations with the locals. Home owners and workers alike began to smile and great me as I passed instead of just starring. I never forget one municipal street cleaner who looked old enough to be my grandfather would also speak to me saying something that it took several days from me to decipher because my Spanish was so rudimentary. He would great me with the expression “como estas?” [how are you?]. He said it so fast, that I never understood the question and just nodded and kept walking. About a week in Guadalajara I returned back to states to play in the 1992 club championship for Maryland Lacrosse Club (MLC) against the New York Athletic Club (New York AC). MLC player manager Glen Norris assured me that the club would cover my travel cost. I later learned that he made this promise in post semi-final celebration as our team upset a very good Mount Washington Lacrosse Club to make it into the finals. Mount Washington’s club that year included Butch Marino, Toddy Curry, Dave Pietralmala, Ronny Claussen, Mac Ford, and other all club players at the top of their game back then. Our team included Larry Quinn in goal, The Kelley Brothers—Frank, David, and Brian Kelley, Glen Norris, Joe Gold, Jeff Greenburg (who came out of a long retirement to play that year) Aaron Jones, Ricky Sowell, and again allot of other very talented players that I don’t remember. More tomorrow on the 1992 club championship and my return from Mexico.

Guadalajara, Mexico: Part 9 Learning a Foreign Language

2010-09-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

My two children back with they spoke allot of Spanish with grandma and grandpa Pittman

Both my children had childcare in the home of a Spanish speaking family with the childcare provider speaking almost always in Spanish out of necessity and with the permission of my wife and I or both speak Spanish. This was their world from 9am to 5pm from the ages of 16 months to two or three years old with some of their first words spoken in Spanish. As result both children became bilingual and I would often speak to them in Spanish to further their language skills. They then transitioned into an English language childcare and they stopped speaking Spanish accept on occasion with me. I am sure that they have not lost what they learned in their earlier preschool days and prolonged time spent in a Spanish language environment with their peers and adults for several months would draw out what’s in them already. In addition, interesting enough my daughter who spent more time at the day care than my son, shows greater interest in the Spanish language and regularly asks me to read the Spanish language parts of the bilingual children's devotional bible that we read to them on a daily basis to her. She also loves speaking to me on the phone when I am away on business trips in a make believe foreign language that play along with her. She will go on for a long time in this language if I role play with her. So in short, I should have started the journey to learn Spanish many years earlier than my decision to start doing so in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1992.

Guadalajara, Mexico: Part 8 How Became Passionate About Learning Spanish

2010-09-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

Ok here's part 2 of the story of why decided to study Spanish and even do an immersion program in Mexico back in the summer of 1992 (see earlier post). Yesterday I talked about going to meet an Afro Dominican sister named Pilar who was a contestant in a regional Ms. American contest in south central Pennsylvania. This happened in the early spring of 1992. After the contest, which she lost, I met her family in the lobby where the contest was held. Her mother, who looked like a very attractive older African American women, greeted my colleague, who is also a Dominican, and then turned to me and greeted me in Spanish too. Pilar’s mother assumed I was Dominican. The chance encounter began my interest in speaking Spanish. I had never considered life in other African diasporas before and I wanted to know about Afro-Latin Americans and needed Spanish to do so. In short, I ended up study Spanish because of an article I read that informed me about an attractive and intelligent Afro-Dominican sister who I never dated. Pillar and her family probably don’t remember the introduction but I will never forget them. When I went to Mexico to study Spanish I went highly motivated to learn about another world that Speaking Spanish would open up to me. I just never realized how difficult learning a foreign language would be in my late twenties.

Video on Afro-Latin American history: http://www.datzhott.com/2009/09/23/afro-latinos-the-untaught-story/

Guadalajara, Mexico: Part 7 How Became Passionate About Learning Spanish

2010-09-06T19:20:00.000-07:00

So how did I become so passionate about learning Spanish? One of my duties as interim dean of the Department of Intercultural Advancement at Gettysburg College (1991-1992) was recruiting “minority students.’ I would read all kinds of literature on the topic about schools in our consortium. I came across an article on an Afro Dominican Franklin in Marshall (F&M) alum I will call Pilar Perez who looked like any other gorgeous African American women I would see in the church I attended in metro D. C (that's where I met my wife) or on the campus of Howard University, which had some of the best and brightest women during my days in the area. I was so impressed with Pilar’s profile and captured by her beautify that I decided I would try and meet her. The article mentioned that as an undergrad she taught an aerobic class and did a special class for the men’s lacrosse team at F&M. I used my lacrosse network and quickly obtained her contact information. It required a call or two including one to her dad’s medical practice and then paging while he was on call at a hospital (yes it sounds a bit much now that I’m confessing all of this) but I finally got her on the phone. She informed me that she was seeing someone but she would be glad to meet me. She suggested that I come to her regional contest for the Miss America pageant in south central Pennsylvania that she had entered with the hopes of gaining scholarship money to pay for medical school. I said sure then recruited my Dominican professor friend and colleague (who I will call) Enrique and his wife and we went to the contest. You will have to wait until tomorrow for more.

Guadalajara, Mexico: Part 6 Language Acquisition Made Easier, Be a Child

2010-09-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

Scholars say infants are born with the capacity to make any sound with their mouths and that ability last up until about the age of puberty. That language acquisition with fluency and no accent ability remains even if the language goes unused for a long period of time and then it starts up again. But as I was experiencing in Guadalarajara in my late twenties, my mouth just did not want to learn something new without putting up a fight. Like allot of people I studied Spanish by constraint in middle school. I can remember because it was an unforgettable embarrassing experience in Mr. Harts eighth grade Spanish class. I remember him putting me on the spot with some questions in Spanish in front of some girls I wanted to impress just after I had started puberty. I felt so embarrassed by the confrontation with him that I quickly dropped the class and never consider taking Spanish again until I got to Gettysburg College. More on that tomorrow

Guadalajara, Mexico: Part 4 The Food Makes It All Worth It

2010-09-04T18:56:00.000-07:00

A typical Mexican breakfast and I love this stuff!

The first night in the house was rough I learned to sleep without the typical North American middle class trappings that we take for granted for example screens on your bedroom windows to keep out mosquitoes whose buzz sounded like a mini chain saw as they came closer and whose bits felt like a poorly trained nurse drawing blood from you. Equally problematic for a guy with ADD was no fan to cool you on a 90 ninety degree Mexican summer night and drown out the copious street sounds in an urban neighborhood in the second largest city in the Republic of Mexico. The next day I awoke to the most wonderful smell of refried beans, warm tortillas, and freshly made orange juice and salsa down stairs in the kitchen made up for the horrid night I experienced with the mosquitoes and the noise. At breakfast I met the other foreign students staying at the house (they were out on the town when I arrived the night before). There were 3 of us in all including a female co-ed from a southern school in the states I believe, a female Japanese student, and me. The others had advanced Spanish language skills and they served as my translators until I finally started to get my mind thinking in Spanish a bit and my tongue willing sounds it was not accustomed to make like the tough rr sound in Spanish.

Guadalajara, Mexico Part 3 Como Se Dice Bath Room

2010-09-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

El baño, that's one of the first words you should learn and pronounce if you plan on a trip to a Spanish place

Ok I stopped at the point where I met my host family in Guadalajara during an immersion program I did there. The owner of the house Chuy had a sister who lived several doors down named Felix who was also a single mom in her forties. Felix had three children and also hosted students for the foreign program at the Universidad de Guadalajara. I was so nervous and so was Chuy—I spoke little to no Spanish and she spoke little to no English—it was one big mess. What made things worse was I had to use the bathroom bad and I could not ask the question where is the bathroom in any kind of intelligible way. Andrea finally ran down to her Aunt Felix and got her bilingual cousin Tricia to come and translate my butt out of this increasingly serious jam. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s a great majority of Mexican in Santa Barbara came from Guadalajara. Felix and Chuy had a sister that lived there and Felix sent her two older children there Tricia and Junior to attend school there and learn English. I was so happy to meet Tricia who spoke English seasoned with some round the way home girl slang that tipped one off that this Latina was cool with black folks. She quickly pointed me to the bathroom (el baño) to which I practically sprinted. Then she made the necessary introduction to my host family; we all had a good laugh once they realized what I was frantically trying to say.

Guadalajara, Mexico Part 2

2010-09-01T18:25:00.000-07:00

Guadalajara Airport, it looks a lot nicer during the day, I arrived about 9pm

Talking about the time I went to Mexico to learn Spanish in the summer of 1992. I was still playing lacrosse, but I went there to take a Spanish immersion course which I needed for the doctoral program in history I would be starting at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University (see earlier post in the blog archive. This was the time in my life when I started the transition into academia. Foolishly I wore a suit on the plane to Guadalajara and it was hot, and the taxi (most taxis back then) did not have air conditioning. Plus I had to use the bathroom pronto (came to Guadalajara knowing that word)! I gave the driver the address and he first took me to one neighborhood that looked straight up ghetto. Again the wrong choice message played in head. Thank God he had the wrong place and we moved on a much nicer neighborhood that I would call home for the next three months and several summers thereafter. The house was located in a lower middle class neighborhood. My host was a single parent named Maria De Jesus who went by the name Chuy and lived with her twelve year old daughter Andrea. More tomorrow.

The Travel Channel's Man v. Food Special on Syracuse Eateries

2010-08-31T18:17:00.000-07:00

Photo of the Original Dinosaur Barbecue in Syracuse, started in 1983.

Syracuse Lacrosse players, despite winning their first national championship in 1983, had very little star power on campus because the sport of lacrosse then did not have any of the national exposure that it does today. ESPN televised the championship games back then, several days after it was over and the champion already crowned and quarter and semi-final games never came on national television. As one of two African Americans on the team that fall, black folks on campus didn’t know what to make of me and that strange sport I played. When attended SU, the city of Syracuse was known for its college football and basketball teams and the Dinosaur Barbecue recently started by three bikers in 1983. Today the city is known for both the barbecue joint and a hot lacrosse program with many national championships, All Americans, and Hall of Famers. This Wednesday September 1st the Travel Channel show Man v. Food with Adam Richman will about Syracuse eateries dear to my heart. Here's a sneak preview of the show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1Qm8wqW36Y

Mira, Miguel Jordan!

2010-08-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

Michael Jordan and Spike Lee, sorry folks Mike is much taller than me with bigger ears.

I will never forget seeing the shanty town built up around the international airport in Guadalajara as my plane came in for a landing. I’ve seen similar slums around airports in other parts of Latin America thereafter. But this being my first time I wondered if I had picked the wrong place to study Spanish (see yesterday's post in the blog archive). Next I negotiated my way through the baggage pickup, customs, and the taxi stand with my rudimentary Spanish and fear and insecurity crawling all over me. I managed using sign language and the address written on a card to explain where I was trying to go to the driver and we were off. I realized that I did not study enough Spanish before arriving in the middle of this now very real Spanish speaking city. I addition I noticed in the airport that locals thought I was “Miguel Jordan” and they thus starred at me incisively. This mistaken identity and starring went on for three months accompanied by the customary “Mira, Miguel Jordan [Look Michael Jordan]!” This was in the middle of the June 1992 NBA playoffs when Bulls were the team to beat and Michael Jordan was at the peak of his international celebrity status. As my taxi pulled out of the airport we headed through what seemed like some rough sections of the city—rough even by South Bronx and South East DC standards. Again, I thought, this looks like the wrong place to study Spanish. More tomorrow.

Learn Spanish in Three Months, Fat Chance

2010-08-29T14:13:00.000-07:00

While coaching at Gettysburg and going to graduate school at Shippensburg University I played for Maryland Lacrosse Club (MLC) back when it existed as a member of the United States Lacrosse Club Association (USLCA). In my last season with MLC the club made it to the championship that year against I believe the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) at Hofstra University. The game was scheduled for the same time I was scheduled to be in Mexico enrolled in a Spanish immersion program. Earning a PhD in history required that I pass foreign language translation exams. So the summer before I returned to Syracuse I started studying Spanish first with a tutor at Gettysburg College. My tutor was one of the librarians in the college library (women named Francis something?) that I got to know while studying for my master’s degree in history. I had an introduction to Spanish book I used that summer then headed to Guadalajara, Mexico for three months Spanish language immersion program (course work plus live with a family). As part of my interim dean contract with Gettysburg College I cut a deal that they would pay for my graduate studies should the following year should I stay on as the dean. Well as the spring semester came to a close, Dean Janet Ramsey called me to her office to inform me that the school would be doing search to for a permanent dean and I would not be considered for the job. I didn’t get offended, and I as part of my departing package the provost of the college agreed to pay for immersion program in Mexico where the college sent its students too. Now was really naive I had convinced myself that after some study with my book and tutor and the three month immersion program I would be close I would be close to fluency—fat chance!

We Will Be Judged By the Least in Our Community

2010-08-28T19:02:00.000-07:00

Let me explain a little more to those who you who wonder why I became a closet lacrosse player the year I entered a doctoral program in history and returned to Syracuse University where I was an undergrad and student athlete. I've seen my share of teammates at all levels who played high and or hung over on various legal and illegal substances and still played well. I often wondered just how much better they would have been if they were detoxed and in the best possible shape; I hear that Rugby has a similar culture as lacrosse. Not sure how the players coming up today are compared to my playing day in this regard. From what I’ve heard about drug use in high schools and recent heroin overdoses in my own home county, it sounds like the situation is worse. But then again, I am not sure because the college players today are much bigger, faster, and stronger and on rigorous workout routines-perhaps they realize that the abuse of booze and drugs are detrimental to how they play. When I played, I'd seen my share of guys who seemed to have serious drinking and drug problems. It seemed acceptable in the lacrosse community because that was how lacrosse culture and folks bragged about friends and teammates who played well without much sleep and too much of "a good thing the night before." As a player, I thrived on fourth quarter situations in which the partying often caught up to the guy I was covering and I would jump on them like white on rice because chose not to live my life that way and being in shape gave me an advantage. So I hid all association with the lacrosse community for about eight years starting in the fall of 1992 because I felt that the actions of some of members were a liability for me. If you’re a lacrosse person you know how you feel when someone in our community messes up and that makes it into the national news cycle. Say what you will, but we will always be judged buy the perceived negative behavior of the least in our community.

Going Further Into the Closet

2010-08-27T18:52:00.001-07:00

Before the end of my last season as a Gettysburg assistance lacrosse coach, I did something memorable for my players and emblematic of where I was spiritually at the time. I gathered almost all of the lacrosse swag that I had collected over the years, with much of it 1990 National Team stuff, and gave it away. Everyone was on the team bus headed to an away game. I knew my players rather well and I walked up the aisle of the bus dipping in a big bag of swag and handed out gear to players who I thought would appreciate it. The players were shocked and thankful at the same time. Perhaps they thought I had lost my mind or received news that I had months to live. I was following the principal of give and it shall be given unto you. I needed to sow some good seed in my mind if I was going to have the kind of harvest that would get me through what I believed would be a tough five years of graduate studies at Syracuse. I was also going deeper into the psychological closet I had entered as a lacrosse player. I was stripping away my Syracuse Lacrosse and US National Team identity because psychologically I thought those identities would not serve me well in the ivory towers I was about to enter. For the next several years I emotionally buried that part of my history never bringing it up around my classmates or professors. Lacrosse players on college campus don’t in my experience have great reputations. As ambassador of the sport, lacrosse players have developed a culture of partying and hell raising that doesn’t impress most college professors.

SAT & GRE Scores Are Not Indicators of Future Success

2010-08-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

Writing about my graduate admission process long ago (see earlier post) When I contacted history professor Otey M Scruggs at Syracuse University about the PhD program there back in the early spring of 1992, I immediately hit it off with him on the phone. Professor Scruggs was African Americans with a PhD in history from Harvard University in 1958. We had similar backgrounds in athletics with him a decathlete at Santa Barbara University in California. In fact he received an invitation to an US Olympic trial losing a spot on the team to the gold medalist Rayford Johnson. Professor Scruggs advocated for me and got the Dean’s Office at the Maxwell School to see that I gained admission to the school and tuition scholarship. This happened after the history department had already given out scholarship money to it’s in coming class of graduate students for the 1992-1993 academic year. This was a real break for me because I did not get accepted to any of other graduate programs. As I said earlier my transcript was suspect and I certainly understand why the other schools rejected me. But my current achievements also go to show that standardized test don’t tell the whole story and they are not the best indicators of student’s ability. Just imagine, I’ve taught at Morehouse and Marist Colleges and I’m starting a new job at Babson College this fall. In addition, I’ve turned down a job at a major research one institution. As a high school senior I could not have gained admission to any of these institutions based on my SAT scores, class rank, and GPA. In addition I publish with major university presses and I am talking head to the media on my area of expertise.

When You Become Successful Always Remain Approachable

2010-08-24T17:18:00.001-07:00

Princeton Professors Cornel West & Al Raboteau

Princeton University with a host of impressive faculty in the history department and African American studies was one of my top choices as place to do my doctoral studies. At the time they had Cornel West, Al Raboteau, Tony Morrison, and Neil Painter-if these profs were lacrosse players consider them 2 x first All Americans, world team players, and hall of famers. Their names typed into a good college online catalog will pull up twenty books or more between them. I sought out Painter, an historian, as a possible advisor and contacted her. She invited me to sit in on one of her graduate seminars. As I drove to Princeton I was as excited as any NCAA playoff game I played in as a Syracuse lacrosse player. I briefly met with Professor Painter who was warm and gracious. However when sat in on the seminar my rush deflated because felt like a cultural outcast among a group of elitist acting grad students trying to impress the prof. At conservation at the break in the class with a cool Latino brother in the seminar confirmed what I suspected. He could tell was not comfortable and said that his colleagues were indeed trying to impress Professor Painter. In addition he said, “Look man I hear you. I’m married so I don’t hang with these folks outside of class; I don’t have anything in common with them.” I also contacted Eric Foner at Columbia University in Harlem. Although he was and still is one of the premier historians in the world, he made time to talk to me and showed that he was an approachable unlike other profs I have met over the years with much lesser reputations. I’ve gotten to know Eric over the past couple of years and I can say he is a quality person with a wealth of knowledge about the profession. But most important I’ve learned that even when you become successful in your field always be approachable. I also contacted Ottey Scruggs at Syracuse and we hit it off; more tomorrow.