“Stay On His Gloves!"

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! 

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