On Memorial Day, we honor, remember, and mourn U.S. military personnel that died while serving in the armed forces. For lacrosse fans, it’s also when the men’s NCAA championship game is played. It’s no surprise, then, that one of the most memorable championship games ever happened when one of the service academies was playing for a championship on Memorial Day.
This year was the 20th anniversary of the 2004 NCAA Championship game that pitted Syracuse against Navy at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
When writing my outline for my second book, which will explore the connections between lacrosse and the military, I knew I had to set aside space to write about Navy’s run to the championship game in 2004. After dominating the college lacrosse landscape in the 1960s, the 2004 season was only the second time in NCAA Tournament history that a service academy team earned a trip to the title game (Navy lost to Maryland in 1975).
It’s not just that Navy had a good season, however. For many reasons, that game is one of the best and fondly remembered NCAA lacrosse championship games of all time.
For starters, the action on the field was intense. Syracuse won, 14-13, and the game was tight throughout; it wasn’t decided until the very last possession of the game.
Navy had an incredibly talented team. Seven players earned All-American honors: goalie Matt Russell (First Team); attackmen Ian Dingman (Second Team) and Joe Bossi (Honorable Mention); midfielders Ben Bailey (Third Team), Graham Gill (Honorable Mention), and Steven Looney (Honorable Mention); and defender Mitch Hendler (Third Team).
Dom Starsia was coaching at Virginia at the time and was at the championship game that year; Gill is his nephew.
“He was a freaking maniac growing up,” Starsia said with endearment. “He’s the kid who would run into the tree full speed chasing a popup at my sisters house.
“I’m so proud of him,” he added. “It was such a joy to watch him go there and blossom. He had straight A’s his senior year.”
There’s also a certain pull or attraction when a service academy reaches that stage.
Starsia was friends with Syracuse coach John Desko. He told Desko that the only people in the world rooting for Syracuse were the people on the bench and a few rows of family directly behind it.
There were a few more fans than just the ones behind the Syracuse bench rooting for the Orange, and a big reason for that was because of attackman Michael Powell. He graduated with the program record for career points (307) and is the only player to have won the Jack Turnbull Award as the nation’s best attackman four times.
“He was just so different than any lacrosse player I’ve ever seen,” said Patrick Dunn, a fan who was at the game as an 11-year-old just getting into lacrosse. “It was such a rigid game. We didn’t have a lot of people with great stick work … so to see Mikey play like this is like next level.”
Powell grew up and was friends with Dingman, who finished the year with 62 points, the most in a single-season for a Navy player since Mike Buzzell in 1979.
While Navy lost the game, Dingman still thinks of the experience fondly.
“It was, you know, one of the most memorable, at least athletic, experiences in my entire life,” he said. “It's Memorial Day. It's one of the most important recognitions and remembrances of every soldier, sailor, Marine, airman and Coast Guard that we have for all of those who have served and sacrificed.
“All of a sudden, on the biggest stage in lacrosse, a service Academy is representing,” he added. “What was exceptionally cool, we had, obviously, not only former players but just former Academy graduates, captains of ships, warships, special operations commanders, Admirals from over from all over the entire world. Literally, people flew in to the National Championship game for one night just because it was us, to come and watch.”
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Growing up, my mom would tell me the story about how she was interviewing to attend law school at Georgetown. As she tells the story, during the interview, the phone rang, and the person talking with my mom took the call. The next day, Patrick Ewing announced he would play college basketball at Georgetown; my mom was not accepted to the school. She would joke with us and tell us that she gave up her spot at the school for Ewing, and we would always call him “Uncle Pat.”
The funny thing about being a parent is seeing the memories of your childhood rebooted.
I’ve been working on a piece for USA Lacrosse Magazine about the PLL’s fifth anniversary this year and all the monumental moments that have occurred through the years. I interviewed Mike Levine, CAA co-head of sports and a member of the PLL Board of Directors.
The way the timing worked out, the call was going to happen right after I picked up my daughter from daycare. Carrying her to the car, I told her I needed to make a phone call. Ever inquisitive, she asked me who was I going to talk to. I told her the man’s name was Mike. Now, one of my best friends growing up is named Mike, and my daughter calls him Uncle Mike; she asked if it was him who I was talking to, but I told her this was a different Mike.
After the interview, my daughter looked at me and goes, “Are we done with the call with Uncle Mike?”
So while he may be known as Vino to some, I will now always know him as “Uncle Mike.”
Speaking of my mom, my wife, kids, and I spent Memorial Day Weekend back home in New Jersey. I took my daughter to visit my mom. While there and talking, I mentioned how I had heard the team my brother coaches — the high school we all attended — made the state tournament and had a great year.
Without skipping a beat, my daughter, who had been pretty quiet up to that point, looks at my mom and says, “Not your team, Daddy.”
Growing up, the only real vacation my parents took my siblings on was to Sesame Place. We were all big Sesame Street fans, and it was much more cost-efficient to go there than Disney World. We all had a blast.
My daughter watches Sesame Street now, and last summer, we took her to Sesame Place. Not only did she love it, it was a cool experience for me to experience the park from a similar viewpoint as my parents. Maybe it’s cheesy, but it made me feel even more connected to them.
I’m a big fan of the Foo Fighters and lead singer Dave Grohl (who also used to play lacrosse, which I wrote about in my e-book Lacrosse-ing Into the Mainstream). So obviously, I was excited that he did a song on the show with Big Bird and Elmo, and I could mix my interest with my daughter’s.
My daughter joined me one morning when I took our dog for a walk this weekend, so I played some music on my phone, and the Grohl and Sesame Street collaboration came on.
My daughter asked, “Daddy, who is Elmo and Big Bird’s friend?”
“That’s Dave,” I replied. “You’re friends with Elmo and Big Bird, too. Do you remember meeting them last year?”
She put her head down and became sullen. “Yeah, but I didn’t meet Dave,” she said.
Me neither, kid. Me neither.
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