Ever since I graduated from Wheeling Jesuit University in 2004, I’ve made it a habit to check scores on laxpower to see how the program was doing. Even though I graduated 10 years ago, I am still very proud of the program and the time I spent at WJU. Whenever I found myself driving cross-country, I made a stop on campus to just drive around and keep the memories fresh. It may sound corny, but attending WJU as a student and lacrosse player, shaped the course of my life; from my friends, to travels, to where I’ve lived across the US and where I find myself now.
I never pictured I would be back on campus as a lacrosse coach when I was a 20-something player. I tell the guys all the time: “I can’t believe I’m actually back here… coaching!” When you’re a player, you never see yourself being an authority figure, a coach helping to look after a bunch of crazy college kids. That’s just were I find myself, as an assistant coach at my favorite Division II institution in the world!
I made my way back here earlier this fall after the team had lost one of their closest friends, Kevin Figaniak; the program also had an entirely new coaching staff that started in September. Their world had been turned upside-down. I’ve never seen a lacrosse team face so much adversity in such a short period of time. Aside from losing their best friend and teammate, they also had to deal with 40 minute drives to and from their temporary home practice facility at Bethany College. WJU was in the process of installing an awesome new turf field, but the project had been on hold due to the poor weather. The field literally needed 4 days of work in order to be finished, but it kept snowing and raining, snowing and raining! The boys also had scrimmages cancelled or postponed, a game dropped and a slew of other road blocks thrown at them. Finally, after months of waiting, the boys returned from their spring break trip to Florida to a new, ready-to-use turf field! They could see that the new staff and administration were making good on their promises.
Aside from coming home to great news, we are coming off of an amazing week where we played 3 games in 6 days, winning all 3 games. The first, was against first-year program Lynn University. Lynn played zone the entire game, which slowed us down a bit in the first half. We expected to see zone, but could not imagine how good their keeper would be. Once we found some of their weaknesses in the zone, we were able to win comfortably 14-5. I have to hand it to Lynn though, they had the perfect game plan to try to at least keep it close.
Our second game was a nail-biter! The guys battled back from a 5-2 first quarter deficit against St. Leo (ranked #15 in the nation). The Lions seemingly scored at will against us in the first and the game looked like it could get out of hand. The guys played tremendous shut-down defense during the final 3 quarters, the offense did their part rattling off 7 goals to St. Leo’s 1 goal and the final score was 9-6 WJU. We knew St. Leo would be one of the best teams we would face all year. They are very athletic and very well coached. The guys stuck to the game plan and chipped away at the lead and never looked back!
We won the last game of trip in overtime after Florida Institute of Technology overcame a big lead we put up earlier in the first half. We battled a young and very talented FIT team which just about stole the game in regulation, going up 11-10. Luckily after a late turnover by FIT, we had the ball with 1:57 left in regulation. During that possession, we went to the goal time and time again, but couldn’t get any good looks. Finally, with 32.2 seconds remaining, senior midfielder, Tyler Johnson tied it up at 11 with a lefty rip from just inside the box. We won the ensuing face-off in regulation and had a great look at the goal as the clock almost hit zero, but we couldn’t finish and had to go to overtime. The overtime face-off was like something out of a book. The two face-off men were ready to take position, when the ref noticed that the clock hadn’t been set to four minutes. It felt like both FOGO’s were being iced like place kickers in football. Somehow, WJU sophomore Evan Hodel was able to compose himself and win the face-off forward, giving us the first possession of overtime. During the break between regulation and overtime, Tyler Johnson basically told the guys he would take the team on his back, and he did just that. He split from left to right and swept across the front of the goal and buried an eight yard high-to-low shot to win the game just 46 seconds into the overtime period, giving him a hat-trick for the day. He scored a big goal earlier in the game, had the late equalizer and eventual game winner. A heck of a game for a senior that has been through an awful lot!
In a nutshell, my experience thus far with the team has reminded me of why Wheeling Jesuit is such a special place, and why playing college lacrosse is one of the most amazing experiences a young man could have. There are so many ups and downs, so much you learn about yourself, your teammates, your coaches, and so on. We all had so many chances to give up when things were going against us, and we proved that if you just keep your head down and keep plugging away, special things can happen.
This feels like a special time to be at Wheeling Jesuit, as a student, a coach, as an athlete, as an alum. There is no greater place in the world to call home than with people who are all charging forward in the same direction!
GO CARDS!!!
Thank you for taking the time to read this article! You can follow me on twitter @lisislaxn, follow Wheeling Jesuit Lacrosse @WJUlax and check out our home page at: http://athletics.wju.edu/
