First post here; I'll go into a little background about myself. Grew up in CNY, got into lacrosse because of Casey and Ryan Powell and watching them play at Syracuse. Played high school, JUCO and Club lacrosse at a private university in WNY. I still play lacrosse year round into my mid 30s. Also born on April 7th (2003 was a great year) for those basketball fans out there.
Regarding Desko, firing him would be a mistake in my opinion. It would throw the program into disarray, more so than the consistent early exits in the NCAA tournament that we've been unfortunately accustomed to since 2009, with the 2013 season being the outlier. Take a look at Princeton's coaching situation post Bill Tierney - I think that would be the parallel to what would happen if Desko was fired. Princeton, in my opinion, still hasn't recovered or at least achieved the same level of success while Bill Tierney was there. Princeton University has had two head coaches since and hasn't made the NCAA tournament since 2012. Princeton has a significant endowment as an Ivy League institution and also has the associated Ivy League admissions process. They've managed to recruit great talents in Sowers, Zach Currier, Tommy Schreiber, Chad Weidmaier, Mike MacDonald, Tyler Fiorito, the Froccaro brothers, Kip Orban, etc, yet Chris Bates and Mike Madalon have not been able to win much of anything.
Recruiting has been a hot topic lately and rightly so - the significant amount of recruits that have flipped from Syracuse to other colleges hurts; and their alleged reasons for doing so are eye opening - from lack of contact, to money and scholarships, and playing time. Scholarships and money go hand in hand, but every D1 program has the same allotment of scholarships but not every university has the same endowment nor the same cost of attendance in going to Syracuse. Coming out of college with as little debt as possible has become important to young adults these days and rightly so - the rise in cost of attending college versus the pay of entry level jobs for graduates is not getting any better and being a non-revenue sport doesn't allow for the same types of grants prospective athletes would receive if they were playing a revenue sport like basketball or football. The most alarming revelation about recruiting has come from the Thompson brothers as well as Matt Gaudet; the lack of contact, whether initial contact or continued contact from our coaching staff is inexcusable. However, I am also a firm believer in when people give others their word, that they stick by their word. This goes for both the coaching staff and those teenagers that give their verbal commitment. This leads me into my next observation - we stopped recruiting CNY well; our own backyard. Our 2009 NC team was lead by local NYS kids; our 2013 runner up team was lead by local kids as well. To say that there haven't been quality recruits coming out of NYS is a farce. Lyle and Miles Thompson, Connor Cannizaro easily off the top of my head, Jordan Evans was the #1 recruit coming out of JD; expanding out of CNY into the rest of NYS would bring up even more kids. Finally, regarding playing time - playing time is earned and not guaranteed. Want to be on the field? Be better than those guys ahead of you; work harder, put in the extra time and extra repetitions. Our coaching staff also needs to realize that simply because you're a junior, or senior that playing time should not be guaranteed ala Matt Lane.
The best thing that Syracuse could do has already been mentioned numerous times on this board - keep Desko on the staff for as long as he wants, but we need to add youth to our coaching staff that the kids can relate to and play a style of lacrosse that kids want to play. Going back to my Tierney reference - Matt Brown is his OC and associate head coach and he's in his mid thirties. A young offensive mind would only add to our coaching staff and may help attract more offensive talent to the roster.
Food for thought - what do all these names have in common aside from winning the Tewaaraton award? Doug Shanahan, Michael Powell, Matt Danowski, Mike Leveille, Max Seibald, Rob Pannell, Lyle Thompson, Miles Thompson, Dylan Molloy and Ben Reeves?
All from NYS.
expo.syracuse.com
