Kevin Sheehan (Baldwinsville (Syracuse suburb), , Pat Donahue (West Genesee), and Me, in the 85 Championship game. Pat’s older brothers Kevin and Tom were SU All Americans midfielders who played with John Desko both in high school and at Cuse. Kevin Donahue is John’s first assistant at Cuse and he’s been on the SU coaching staff for more than ten years now which is another reason why the team has been so success over the years.
In Danbury, Connecticut I taught grades k-7 for two years and coached boys JV soccer and middle school boys basketball (1986-1988). The teaching and coaching experience were tremendous and I loved the experience. But Danbury had no lacrosse program back then and my goal had been a position where I would teach and coach a varsity lacrosse team in a predominately black school district. A teaching and coaching position in Hempstead, Aaron Jones,’ hometown, opened up and he and Buddy Krumenacker helped me get an interview. Buddy was the Dean of Students and Head Varsity Football coach at Hempstead at the time. He’s a Farmingdale, Long Island native and the older brother of the late Hopkins All American midfielder John Krumenacker who died in 1998. As SU player had would at times cover John and thus Buddy knew of me from the Hopkins Syracuse rivalry. With the help of Aaron, his mother (a retired Hempstead High English teacher) and Buddy I received an interview. Hempstead school district hired me and I started teaching physical education and coaching at the high school in fall of 1989. Folks, the lacrosse world is small and it doesn’t pay to do be a jerk on or off the field; everybody is so interconnected in our sport. I was familiar with Hempstead because I started playing for the Long Island Lacrosse Club in the Spring of 1987 and made the commute to Hofstra University in Hempstead every Thursday evening for practice from 8-10 pm and again on Sundays for 1pm games. I made this commute because I instinctively knew that I had play at the highest level of competition to gain an invitation to 90 US National team tryouts. Playing for the club helped my game tremendously because of head coach Tom Postel and my teammates many of which had played on one or more US National teams when I joined the club in 87 and many were outstanding college coaches at local universities. Allot of these guys and the coaching staff are now members of the National Hall of Fame. I will be mixing in reflections on Hempstead and my club experiences over the next couple of days.
My son Kennedy (left) playing in his first youth lacrosse program back in New York
Here’s an email dialogue with a parent in a
youth program that ask for advice about how to address his 4th
graders interest in playing fall lacrosse. I shared my thoughts in a previous
post and link to a related video I did on club ball and tournaments. The parent
wrote, “Fred, I share your concern that commitment to a single sport and
competitive expectations can get out of control for kids in elementary school.
My wife and I assumed our child would switch to other sport(s) this fall as he
had in the past. But he is really pushing to play lacrosse. If he is
going to play this fall, our #1 objective is to allow him to continue playing
with lots of town kids. Our youth lacrosse program here in town was so good for
him socially this spring and we'd like him to continue building those
friendships.” To that I say, I hear you on the role of sports and helping to nurture
healthy relationships among children. In particular, young boys often struggle in
this area (and so do men! This is something I began to work on last year). When we relocated to Massachusetts in 2010, life was pretty
miserable for my son, who is going into fourth grade. Playing in a very large town lacrosse program in which I his father coached
helped him establish some healthy relationship with other boys in his new community.
Because he excels on the field he has gained bit of cache among his peers which
helps his delicate self-esteem. As a coach, athletic competition is a great opportunity for me to help
nurture healthy relationships between young boys and guide them along the long and
bumpy journey to manhood. Teaching them
how to treat each other with dignity, respect, and
grace during practice and games is my goal. I could care less if the team wins
or loses, that's not my raison d'être for coaching. As I have learned from Joe Ehrmann,
I’m focusing on helping boys become men and cultivating relationship with other boys including the ones on the opposing team that just beat us 10 to 2 or 10 to 9.
A 1975 team photo courtesy of Al Hodish. Photo contains Rutgers University lacrosse All American James Ford. click to enlarge the image.
At my first public school physical education job in Danbury (86-88), I taught classes alone in my own facility. But at Hempstead in 88-89, I team taught with four other teachers all seemed to be looking for the least resistant path to retirement. Here I was trying to instill principals, respect for adults and each other, and discipline. I must have been a pain in the butt carrying on like supper teacher on steroids! It was a big mess and my contempt for them was growing each day. By the spring of 1989 I decided to leave Hempstead and get a graduate degree which was a requirement for a permitting state of New York teacher’s license. I was at a cross roads and I called Hank Janyzck at Gettysburg College (G-burg) who I met through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Lacrosse ministry. He made some calls and to try and secure a graduate assistantship (coaching in exchange for graduate tuition and a stipend) at a notable institution. I had just had a great Club lacrosse year and made the 1990 world team. At the time, I thought about a divinity degree, law school, masters in history, or a job in college coaching. I had recently taken a career exploration course at a public library that showed I should be teaching history at the college level. I had started reading allot of history books on my own and got excited about the opportunity of getting a masters in history and also trying out college coaching.
Photo of me in the spring of 1986 as an assistant varsity lacrosse coach at my high school, Croton Harmon warming up the goalies at Croton Harmon.
I've been an avid goal setter since I was in middle school. I recall in my senior year at Syracuse University (SU) in 1985, I set my sites on becoming a public school teacher and lacrosse coach in a district where I could have an impact. I was an education major at SU and needed to complete a year of student teaching which I did in my public school district, Croton Harmon district in the fall of 1985. I received mentoring as a student teacher in grades k-12 and I coached each season during my year in Croton. My education courses at SU, coaching and teaching that year in Croton, and three years of full time public school teaching helped me a great deal when I later became a college professor. Unfortunately the average prof, particularly the stars, have had little to no experience teaching before taking their first job nor courses on class management and basic pedagogy.
Hempstead varsity lacrosse team photo circa 1986: Kenny Moore, Kevin McClure, Sinclair Basnight, Donald Jones, Egon Robertson, John Williams, Derek Payne, Danny Williams, Gerald Cordova, Charles Edge, Aaron Jones, Jerry McCarter, Caesar Lara, William Humphrey, Milton Warker, Norris Taylor, Robin Taylor
I taught and coached football and lacrosse at Hempstead High School during the 1988-89 academic year. The district had failed to pass it budget and operated on an austerity budget—restricted funding for sports with funds only for coach’s salaries, insurance, buses etc. The student body had been over 95% black and remainder lower class Latinos and whites. In the 1960s the school had gained national recognition for its academic and athletic achievements. The High School began a decline with the close of Mitchel Air Force Base in 1961, an important source of jobs for the community and the beginning of capital and white flight from the school district. Regan era cut backs led to further problems along with the coming of the crack cocaine epidemic. Despite these hardships, a group of dedicated teachers and coaches insured that Hempstead grads continued to attend some of the finest schools in the country. In the team photo above one fines Metro Lacrosse CEO Aaron Jones who played collegiality at Cornel University and Army officer Dan Williams who earned All American honors at West Point. Hempstead Lacrosse History: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Hempstead Coaching Stories: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=coach
Here's an instructional video I shot at Brown University Lacrosse Camp. It features Coach Mark Miller a former Adelphi University goalie given some important tips on shooting from a goalie's point of view.
Fred Opie # 34 in a 1985 game in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse against North Carolina.
I gave up lacrosse following my senior year at Syracuse and second consecutive year of losing to John Hopkins in the National Championship game. My return to lacrosse started at the once premier summer tournament in Glastonbury Connecticut. Jamesville Dewitt alum (a school in the Suburbs of Syracuse ) who played at Cornell invited me to play with a Cornell team that had a spattering of SU players. I went back to the basics remember Coach John Desko's advice to me. I had asked him my first year at SU what I could do to improve my game, and he responded, “Stay on his gloves! [translation, stop throwing so many take away checks and square up!]." That’s a problem I see among too many even top division 1 players—they play to much defense with their stick and not enough with their feet—shuffle, drop step, catch up, and then we can talk about checks!
Perhaps the person that the Lord used the most to turn the attention of the Syracuse Lacrosse coaching staff was the big 6' 2" 200 pound attackman 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. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the Wolfpack had a great lacrosse program that included Tim’s older brother Scott. At the end of his first year, State dropped their program and Syracuse offered him a scholarship. 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. During that championship season, I visited SU and ran into Nellie. He told me about the teams need for defensemen and then lobbied the coaching staff to recruit me based on what he knew of me as a high school player and my summer league performance. That’s the story of how I became a Syracuse Lacrosse recruit when most other programs and coaches showed no interest.
Me (and physical education and coach Len Gobber left) speaking at the annual CHHS end of the year sports banquet and the Evening Dinner Theater in 1986. Wow was that allot more hair and long time ago.
As a student teacher in the Croton Harmon public school district in 1985-1986 I had a blast. I coached soccer in the fall, girls basketball in the winter, lacrosse in the spring. The toughest part was being so close in ages to aggressively flirting senior girls who I had to put in check on more than one occasion. In the spring I served as the assistant varsity boys lacrosse coach working with the defense. Back then girls lacrosse had not yet exploded across section 1. Taking a page out of the old Hobart play book, I had all the long poles on the team play with PL 77s. My mantra has been for a while there's little better than a great poke check and never allow a player to keep his bottom hand unmolested on the stick. I was very demanding but also had plenty of time to make jokes and keep things light and it was obvious I loved coaching. I also loved warming up the goalies which I would argue is the best paid gig in the world!
During my days coaching the defense at Gettysburg College (1989 to 1992), Brian McGurn from Chicago impressed me from the first day I saw him on the field during a fall ball practice. Back in the early 90s lacrosse coaches did not view Chicago as a recruiting hot bed and there were fewer recruiting camps and select team tournaments for players (who can afford them!) from Illinois to get a look from schools back east. Gettysburg Coach Hank Janzyck J (coach J) is a great recruiter but the guy puts in the time—calling players regularly and hosting them on campus. Perhaps I would have gone into college lacrosse coaching if it were not for recruiting, scouting, and breaking down film part of the job—I just could not stomach it—not that grading papers is a cake walk either. But back to Brian, this cat from the windy city had average speed but in my opinion he had perhaps one of the smoothest sticks and arsenal of checks I’ve seen in the game. Plus the guy was a vacuum on ground balls and coachable. I really enjoyed watching his game develop over my two years with him. Brian when on to earn first team All-American honors after I left which I expected. Brian stayed on to take my old position as defensive coordinator for coach J; in 2002 the team appeared in the D III title game. I remember encouraging Brian to try out for the Men’s National Team. He received a coveted invite to the 2002 tryout which is really an accomplishment but did not make the team. We actually had a nice talk before the tryout in which I tried to encourage him to play is game. He did not make the team but the odds were stacked against him. Why because back then G-burg players did not have the same cache and respect that they have today. Brian was a history major at G-burg our mutual love of history and lacrosse has helped maintain our relationship over the years.
Fred Opie coaching 1 and 2 graders in Sleepy Hollow, New York
Too many club and high school coaches cannot resist the temptation to win at all cost. They let their best players get away with poor choices instead of teaching them early on how to be a responsible women or man. Coaches need to focus on developing decision making, health relationship, empathy, loyalty, and skill development. Coaches focus on transforming boys in the men and girls into women instead of your win loss record. As a coach you are hurting your players and program when you play favorites and overlook unacceptable behavior among your players. Discipline even bench selfish and unruly standout players. In the long wrong you will do more to help that player succeed in the future.
For those, like my wife, who can’t stand typos, watch out! I have severe ADD which kept me from moving forward with this blog for too long. My friend encouraged me to start blogging and just disclose my disability the same way I do on the first day of class as a college professor. Folks I regularly make spelling mistakes because of my disability. In order to get two books and several academic journal articles published I use a professional copy editor. To blog that would take too much time and money. So if you can overlook my typos, enjoy my musings.
Fred Opie is a Professor History and Foodways at Babson College and a contributor on the radio show The Splendid Table. His latest book is Zora Neale Hurston on Florida Food. Hurston did for Florida what William Faulkner did for Mississippi—provided insights into a state’s culture. The book is an essential read for lovers of history, cooking, and eating. For more on Fred Opie visit http://www.fredopie.com
