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FAMILY
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on to the next generation, just as the generation before them did. Although both Gait and Thorpe acknowledge how special their situation is, they don’t give their daughters preferential treatment. If anything, they’re tougher on them. Ella Thorpe said that while she’s practicing with the offense, her dad, who is the team’s defensive assistant coach, will yell at her from the other side of the field if she misses a shot. “I want them all to feel like they’re important. And they are,” Gait said. “In that sense, it’s like having 40 young daughters instead of just one.” Simmons Jr. said he refers to himself not as a coach, but as a teacher. He talked about relating to people, helping others with struggle and making a group believe in a single goal. He taught his teams to broaden their horizons. Simmons Jr. once randomly pulled the team bus over during a road trip to stop at a museum. He told the players to look at the creativity and learn the reasons why each artist did what they did. “Although it had nothing to do with lacrosse, it had everything to do with lacrosse,” Regy Thorpe said. Simmons Jr. enabled players to look for unimaginable ways to score. Gait defied logic and created what is now known as “Air Gait.” In the 1988 national championship game, he ran directly toward the back of the cage, planted his right foot on the ground and leaped over the crease to dunk the ball in the upper-left corner of the goal. Gait’s team takes similar off-field trips to teach the same horizon-broadening lessons. This season, the women’s team has volunteered at a lacrosse camp in Maryland, toured Washington, D.C., been to beaches in Florida and walked around the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. On the road, Gait and his players ate meals at the homes of SU alumni and current teammates. “(My dad) uses a lot of the stuff he learned from Coach Simmons,” Taylor Gait said. “I’ve learned a lot from Coach Simmons and I know our team has, whether they know it or not. because a lot of the things my dad teaches are from him. “It’s not just lacrosse. You learn life lessons and how you yourself are your own boundary. You just have to be yourself. It’s all in your mind and you have to be creative and take it to the next level.” Simmons Jr. believes the closer a team is, the better the results will be on the field. He finished with a career record of 290-96 with six national championships – three of which were spearheaded by the Gaits.
WOM EN ’ S L ACROSSE “Coach Gait has a little different style, but certainly a lot of the traits are similar to Coach Simmons,” Regy Thorpe said. “We want to care about our players and get to know their families and their brothers and their sisters, and I just think that helps the chemistry with our team. At the end of the game, you wanted to make a play for Coach Simmons. You don’t want to let him down. We’re instilling that. You don’t want to let your family down.” The familiarity among players is also aided by where the girls are from. Of the 15 freshmen on this year’s roster, 12 are from Upstate New York. Four are from Syracuse and four others are from within a 30-mile radius of Syracuse. Twenty-eight players on the roster are from New York, and many have known each other and played together on high school and club teams.
“It’s not just lacrosse. You learn life lessons and how you yourself are your own boundary. You just have to be yourself. It’s all in your mind and you have to be creative and take it to the next level.”
Taylor Gait
SU FRESHMAN MIDFIELDER, GARY GAIT’S DAUGHTER
“Family means togetherness,” Gait said. “When you’re a family, you’re together, you’re a group, you respect each other, love each other and you’re truly there for each other. You don’t have to ask. You’re willing to be there and do whatever it takes to support each other. I try to preach that to my team and I’m pretty sure they’re a tight group, as tight as any team in the country.” Simmons Jr. is still present in the Carrier Dome and around Manley Field House. He watched two men’s and one women’s game last week in his box at the Dome with his family that flew in from California. He’s still as on top of the team as ever before, rattling off players, scores and potential recruits. “I look at it as a fraternity,” Simmons Jr. said. “… I think it’s important that they think alike and to realize what the target is and what the prize is and how to go about getting it. I think it takes not only one man, but everybody. The ‘S’ stands for Syracuse, not self.” jmhyber@syr.edu
sports@ da ilyor a nge.com
SU carries Big East success into final stretch of season By Josh Hyber STAFF WRITER
Syracuse hasn’t lost a regular-season matchup with a Big East opponent in exactly two years. Since its April 16, 2011, loss to Georgetown, SU has won 17 consecutive games against Big East foes. SU won its last four Big East matchups in 2011, was 8-0 in conference play last season and holds a 5-0 record Who: Cornell Where: Carrier Dome this year. With wins over Louisville and When: Today, 4 p.m. Cincinnati this past Channel: TWCS weekend, SU extended its longest conference winning streak ever. The No. 5 Orange (9-3, 5-0 Big East) has a break from its Big East schedule when it faces Cornell (7-4, 3-3 Ivy) on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the Carrier Dome. “We just want to win every game (regardless of opponent),” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “Our goal is to show up, prepare mentally and physically, and take on our opponent, get the W and move on to the next one. If that ends up, we get through the Big East, that’s great. But our approach and our goal is to win every game.” SU’s early-season slate featured a heavy load of highly ranked nonconference opponents — including current No. 1 Maryland, No. 2 Northwestern, No. 4 Florida and No. 20 Virginia — but the team’s focus now is finishing its last season in the Big East with a bang. So far, it’s doing just that. The Orange has had the last three Big East Offensive Player of the Week award winners. Kayla Treanor won the week of April 8 and
UP NEXT
NEARING THE END
Syracuse has five more games left to play this season. Here’s a look at the rest of the Orange’s schedule:
DATE April April April April April
16 19 21 26 28
OPPONENT
LOCATION
Cornell Notre Dame Marquette Loyola Georgetown
Carrier Dome Carrier Dome Carrier Dome Baltimore, Md Washington, D.C
Alyssa Murray won the weeks of March 25 and April 1. The Orange has won nearly half of the offensive awards for the conference given so far this year. SU has also picked up the last two Defensive Player of the Week awards. Defender Becca Block won the award last week and goaltender Kelsey Richardson earned it this week. Two of the most recent conference victories came against Rutgers and Louisville, two teams on the verge of cracking the deBeer Women’s Media Poll top 20. SU squeaked by a lesser Rutgers opponent 10-8, but handled a better Louisville team 19-7. Cincinnati proved to be no match for the Orange on Sunday, as SU cruised to a 21-6 victory. The Orange now enters the tough part of its Big East schedule. In its five remaining games, it faces No. 7 Notre Dame, No. 8 Georgetown and No. 17 Loyola. “It’s really important,” Murray said. “You want to keep beating the teams that you’re going to wind up playing in the Big East tournament, come out hopefully with the No. 1 seed and come into the tournament with as much confidence as we can.” The team, from top to bottom, has found that confidence. Against Cincinnati, 15 different players scored. “It’s an honor to be a part of this team and to play with so many high-level players,” SU midfielder Erica Bodt said. “It’s been a great experience so far.” The journey is far from finished. Since the Big East began sponsoring women’s lacrosse in 2001, Syracuse has an all-time record of 63-16 in regular-season play. In five of the last six years, the team has finished in first place or tied for first place. SU is poised and in good position to win the conference again this year. “I think we’re very focused, we’ve really gotten into a groove,” Murray said. “I think we beat a very good team in Louisville and again, Cincinnati came out to play today. We’ve just continued to improve and get some chemistry going and we’re going to try to continue that for the rest of the season because this is when you really want to start peaking as a team, and I think we’re hitting that at the right time.” jmhyber@syr.edu
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