Dante Fantoni
A
s for the way the Patriot League navigates waters that do not include athletic scholarships — the majority of Division I schools are allotted up to 12.6 of them — Cassese said he is still adjusting to that challenge. “At times, it’s very frustrating. There is a lot of red tape involved in every financial aid situation. At Duke, I could just give some [player] a $1,000 or another one $50,000,” Cassese said. “Do I wish we had the full complement of scholarships? Sure. But I don’t hear the word ‘no’ very often from my administration. If it’s not ‘yes,’ it’s, ‘Let’s look into this and see what we can do.’” Hess said he could sense
A Publication of US Lacrosse
the culture shift happening when he arrived in fall 2009. “We went through growing pains. We played in front of 20 people at times when I was a freshman, and I think they were all parents. But we could see glimpses we were getting closer,” he said. “We kept getting better, and last year was unbelievable. We set a new standard.” With each passing year,
Lehigh’s talent base has gotten stronger and the Mountain Hawks have settled more consistently into their identity — a patient, pass-happy offensive team that loves to pounce on defensive mistakes in transition and in 6-on-6 settings, and a defense that slides aggressively, forces
extra passes and allows shots on its terms.
“Cassese drew me to this place. He just had that look in his eyes that he wanted to win.”
— Lehigh senior attackman Dante Fantoni
Fantoni, who chose Lehigh over Bucknell, Dartmouth and Brown, credited Cassese for swaying him. “I knew I was going to get a great education wherever I decided to go,” Fantoni said. “But [Cassese] is the one who drew me to this place. He just had that look in his eyes that he wanted to win. “Now that we’ve gotten a taste of success, we all want to win a national championship. There are still some doubters out there. As a senior class, we’ve put a lot on our backs. We want to live up to what the seniors did last year, and do it better.” LM
March 2013 >> LACROSSE MAGAZINE 33
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