Gary Gait!

[orange79]

People in this thread are questioning Brent's tweet.

 

[Bayside44]

I just saw the news and told my son. His response was, paraphrasing, ‘wait - the women’s team coach who jumped from the back of the crease and they had to change the rules? Cool, the guts team looked lost on the field this year.’ He’s 12 and has only been playing a couple years. If you don’t think Gary Gait is still relevant to kids today you aren’t paying attention.

Ha my 12 year old is all fired up and his Gaits autograph on his wall

 

[OrangeinBoston]

Not sure I like this hire. Desko deserves a farewell tour.

He's had 10 farewell tours.

 

[OrangeinBoston]

Super excited!!! Sorry, but women’s lax is JV to the men’s game. Time for Gary to move to the Varsity team.

Clueless

 

[Jake]

I’ll preface this by noting that I know very little about lacrosse. My 14 year old plays it, and a ton of the coaches in both his town and club programs are former college players, as are nearly all of the local high school coaches. I imagine to a man they all revere Gait.

I doubt any high schoolers know most any lacrosse player older than 25, given the weakness of the pro game. But like you said, all their coaches do, and I have to think precisely none of them will not take a call from Gait.

I don’t know if Gait will be good, but we had to do something. I went to the final four last weekend, and it was so damn depressing to know that SU hadn’t appeared in one in 12 years. Just not acceptable for a program like ours. Change was needed.

Recruiting the parents and the coaches are part of the process. His name won’t sign a kid, but it will get him meetings that others won’t get.

 

[MadNY3]

Not sure I like this hire. Desko deserves a farewell tour.

Farewell tours are for coaches doing WELL. Not zero playoff wins since before the 2016 election.

 

[oldpinepoint]

If true….Wildhack has aced his first test. Clever, shrewd, fan friendly turn events.

friend of mine - former d-1 lax player and huge Cuse fan- first reaction was joking “going to have more people in the dome for men’s lax than football”.

But there’s some truth to that statement. The entire lax world will be watching Gait/Petro first game.

Hard to argue with this, I’m super excited about the upcoming season and I’ve been down on lax for a long time.

 

[DoctahLexus]

The process of how this was announced should have been way more respectful to Desko. Didn’t deserve to be like this for him. Can’t he announce his retirement himself in some way?

 

[OrangeXtreme]

The process of how this was announced should have been way more respectful to Desko. Didn’t deserve to be like this for him. Can’t he announce his retirement himself in some way?

SU hasn't announced anything.

Terry Foy from IL "leaked" info from his sources. That's how this ball got rolling.

 

[Jake]

The process of how this was announced should have been way more respectful to Desko. Didn’t deserve to be like this for him. Can’t he announce his retirement himself in some way?

Reporters gonna report. School hasn’t said anything and no doubt will allow John to say goodbye as he wishes and then announce Gary.

 

[DoctahLexus]

SU hasn't announced anything.

Terry Foy from IL "leaked" info from his sources. That's how this ball got rolling.

Its all just sources that are absolutely certain. How are they so absolutely certain though.

 

[SULAXAHOLIC]

The process of how this was announced should have been way more respectful to Desko. Didn’t deserve to be like this for him. Can’t he announce his retirement himself in some way?

Agreed it just goes to show what a tabloid IL is along with Terry Foy

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Reporters gonna report. School hasn’t said anything and no doubt will allow John to say goodbye as he wishes and then announce Gary.

Would assume that Desko would get his retirement presser (probably on Monday or Tuesday now), followed by the Gait presser a day later, followed by the new WLAX coach when available.

 

[Whitey23]

Agreed it just goes to show what a tabloid IL is along with Terry Foy

What reporter in the world would sit on news like this??

 

[Shrmdougluvr]

I just saw the news and told my son. His response was, paraphrasing, ‘wait - the women’s team coach who jumped from the back of the crease and they had to change the rules? Cool, the guts team looked lost on the field this year.’ He’s 12 and has only been playing a couple years. If you don’t think Gary Gait is still relevant to kids today you aren’t paying attention.

Yup. I told my 10-year-old (almost 11). First he went, "Oh, the woman's coach." Then he rattled off #22, described the "Air Gait," and remembered his shoulder pads say "Gait" on them.

I think the kids will relate just fine. I mean, which other coach will have more name recognition. And if he brings on petro, I assume he's quite tapped-into the recruiting mind of a rising junior right now - he has two of them.

 

[DoctahLexus]

What reporter in the world would sit on news like this??

Agree that a reporter will without question break that if they have it, but how are the sources so certain and dropping details like “Desko will announce his retirement this week.” Maybe a leak is to be expected with something like this but it feels like someone with the university knowingly said something.

 

[MSOrange]

Reporters gonna report. School hasn’t said anything and no doubt will allow John to say goodbye as he wishes and then announce Gary.

Agree. Not exactly identical circumstances, but there were numerous reports of Coach K earlier this week before Duke officially announced. Almost impossible to keep news quiet these days for very long.

 

[Jake]

Its all just sources that are absolutely certain. How are they so absolutely certain though.

Would not be surprised if Petro is a source or other coaches on the Syracuse side.

 

[sholokov2]

Actually I do find me any player who has ever played for him who doesn’t adore him. He has massive ties to the native communities coaching Lafayette Six Nations and Iroquois Nationals

I think you have raised a key point. Gait might compete for Canadian and native American talent with Tierney, and the lower D1 coaches like Robert Morris and Vermont that have become competitive through their astute recruitment of Canadian talent.

But before we speculate about Gait, let's celebrate the fine work of John Desko over many years of exciting lacrosse and also for the example he set for kids as a very fine human being. I will miss his stony stare from the side line.

 

[Delmar]

Not sure I like this hire. Desko deserves a farewell tour.

I appreciate the sentiment, but the way recruiting works farewell tours are a disaster. Watch Duke basketball in the next few years. My guess is that it will be a car crash. I hope with JB there will be no farewell tour, but an announcement that catches us all off guard.

 

[Powellfan]

Overall agree with this, but I will say if there was one single player who played the college game around 1990 that current recruits would know, it would be him by a mile. He is without question at the very top of most famous players from the older era. Would not be entirely unfair to call him the Michael Jordan of lacrosse when it comes to fame. I think a high percentage of recruits are somewhat familiar. If anyone even has one conversation with an adult about good players from back in the day, they know his name.

Completely agree! The Gaits were featured in the Simpsons for crying out loud, they (Gary especially) are the most recognizable names in the sport and I don’t think it’s close. It goes without saying that this alone makes you a great coach, but it certainly helps. This sort of buzz can only help inject excitement around the program and this tends to help with recruiting.

IF the Petro rumors are true, I certainly hope the SU social media team has old clips of Petro and GGait going after each other in their college days. This development is really something - like having Magic and Bird getting together to coach Michigan State basketball. Two of the best players of all time, definitely the best at their respective positions, joining forces in the coaching ranks. I know that doesn’t automatically lead to victories but it’s still really exciting.

 

[MadNY3]

Agree that a reporter will without question break that if they have it, but how are the sources so certain and dropping details like “Desko will announce his retirement this week.” Maybe a leak is to be expected with something like this but it feels like someone with the university knowingly said something.

It still will look great for Desko.

-John is a Syracuse guy who decides he needs something new.

- The University, under such nee information(wink) immediately turned internally to ensure Syracuse head/heart/hustle remained and it was with Gary.

- John will serve as an ambassador/head of lacrosse relations/whatever

How it gets announced will be very respectful. Any issues otherwise stem from Desko 1) saying he wanted to return in 22, and 2) coached his team to an embarrassment in the tournament.

The marketing campaign for 2022 will be 22 heavy in soooooo many ways.

Onward.

 

[orangefog]

So, 22 takes over in '22? It had to happen, right?

 

[Powellfan]

Agree. Not exactly identical circumstances, but there were numerous reports of Coach K earlier this week before Duke officially announced. Almost impossible to keep news quiet these days for very long.

The exact scenario playing out right now was on this message board a few days ago, on fanlax and probably a host of other message boards. Someone somewhere probably just thought it best to get the news out sooner rather than later.

 

[oldpinepoint]

I heard about this Thursday and didn’t believe it.