Clay Johnson’s Impact Down Under Part I

Me on the wing of a face off against the Australian National Team, Perth 1990

During the 1990 World Cup in Perth, Australia I ran into a lacrosse icon from my home town of Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County, Clay Johnson who was standout quarterback and midfielder in high school and later for Hall Fame Lacrosse coach Buddy Beardmore at the University of Maryland in the late 1970s. In the 1990 Lacrosse World Cup I also played against then Team Australia midfielder Gordon Purdie who went on to represent his country in several world cup and earned all world honors as well as having a stellar career both as club and professional indoor players in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. “Clay Johnson was a legend in the Australian lacrosse world,” says Purdie. In an interview he told me, “Clay brought American style lacrosse to Australia” as both a great midfielder and coach. “Before him we mostly played with one hand on the stick; he taught us that the best players play with two hand on the stick” so they are always a threat to score or assist on a goal. “Clay also introduced a number of man up offenses, man down defenses, and all even slide packages on defense that revolutionized lacrosse in Australia,” says Purdie who is now the Head Coach of Adelphi’s Men’s Lacrosse Team. More tomorrow from on Clay Johnson.

U. S. National Team: http://www.laxmagazine.com/teamusa/men/index

My Club and US Team Coaches: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=%22Tom%22


Croton and Yorktown Lacrosse: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/01/be-steve-mabus-in-your-lacrosse-world.html


Interesting link on the history of the game down under: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacrosse_in_Australia

Clay Johnson’s Impact Down Under Part II

Bob Henrickson, John Detomasso, Larry Quinn, at a pratice in Perth, Australia 1990

According to seven time Australian National Team Midfielder (wow, that’s got be a record!) and two time Adelphi University All American, Gordon Purdie credits allot of what he learned about lacrosse as a youth player from Croton native and University of Maryland All American midfielder Clay Johnson. I saw Clay for the first time in many years at the 1990s World Cup. During his more than twenty years as a player and coach down under, Johnson with his California cool looks, unpretentious, friendly, and caring demeanor, proved instrumental in improving the quality of lacrosse in Australia. I asked Purdie, what made Clay different from the many American lacrosse players who spent time playing and coaching in Australia at the end of their college playing days? He said “Brook Sweet also a similar impact, but Clay was different because he stayed in Australia for the rest of his life, he became one of us [an expatriate] and he got along with so many people, and the players loved him.” Purdie, who was named the best midfielder in the 1994 World Cup, goes on to say, “truly Clay was a legend and our link to American lacrosse. We learned how to play like Americans because of him.” Clay had the same impact on Westchester County lacrosse, when he showed up at game at our local summer league when I first entered high school, everybody knew who he was and took notice, and the same happened in Australia.

Croton and Yorktown Lacrosse: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/01/be-steve-mabus-in-your-lacrosse-world.html

U. S. National Team: http://www.laxmagazine.com/teamusa/men/index

Integrating the U. S. National Team Tryouts in 89: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/04/integrated-us-national-team-tryout-in.html

My College, Club, and U. S. Team Players and Coaches: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=%22Tom%22

Recruiting and High School Pedigree

Me left, covering Yorktown's Rob Hoynes in my senior year of High School. Hoynes would go on to have a great playing career at Army.

My entrance into the Syracuse University (SU) lacrosse community on campus in 1983 happened awkwardly in large part because of my own insecurity as a player void of any noted tradition. The incoming class of 1983 came in with allot of players with loftier credentials then mine. We became acquainted during shoot arounds on the old beat of turf field located next to Manley Field House on south campus peppering each other with questions about our high school programs. My school, Croton Harmon High School in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, only Yorktown players knew about being from the same league. At the time, Croton had only produced Maryland’s Clay Johnson; so what I learned then and understand the better now, is that like many other spaces, the lacrosse world has a rigid hierarchy. For a new unproven recruit, one’s high school opened or closed doors. That has changed with the emergence of club teams and the various All this and that teams. So here I was in 1983 feeling like a marginalized lacrosse player with no creditability until I could prove myself on the field. I was a stepchild and outsider among a group of players from high schools with legendary histories. 

My Syracuse Teammates: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=%22Tom%22

Croton and Yorktown Lacrosse: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/01/be-steve-mabus-in-your-lacrosse-world.html

Clay Johnson: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Clay+Johnson

Championships You Remember

Maryland's Frank Urso (left) taking a shot against Hopkins during a regular season game at Byrd Stadium in the  1970s

I saw my first live national championship game about 1978. Clay Johnson from my hometown played for Maryland and he was my hero. As a freshmen Clay had been talented enough to run second midfield for the Terps as they faced off against their across the beltway rival Johns Hopkins.  Both teams were loaded with All Americans.  Among them, Mark Greenberg on defense, Jeff Cook on attack, Dave Huntley at midfield; Dave played with day glow green Brine head, traditional pocket, and wooden shaft. I want a stick like that and later played with one.  Marilyn had Barry Mitchell on midfield, and many others that I just don’t remember. The game was played at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Maryland.  It was filled to capacity.  I remember walking into the stadium and making my way to my seats in the midst of an electric atmosphere.  I had recently started playing the game in eighth grade and watching a home town boy like Clay compete at that level made an indelible mark on my consciousness.  I think it was then that I decided that I wanted to be a Division I lacrosse player, as though that was a career; it sounds funny to me in retrospect.  What championship lacrosse game sticks out the most in your mind and why?  

Dealing With Rejection

Fred Opie (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 they 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.

My College Recruiting Series: 

 http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=recruiting

http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=College+Lacrosse+Recruiting+Series

My Summer with Steve

The Lacrosse Field at Lakeland Middle School 

The summer before I entered 9th or 10th grade Steve Mabus’ family moved on my street.  At the time Steve played college lacrosse at Kutz Town State in Pennsylvania. I don’t remember how it started, but before I knew it, Steve and I started playing catch, shooting on goal, and playing 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.

Summer League Lacrosse Stories http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=summer+league