[
HIS SPACE] editorial
Jen Adams’ Last Hurrah?
Lacrosse fans get one more opportunity to enjoy the wizardry of Aussie sensation
A
t the risk of sounding un- American, I’ll be a fan of the
Australian team in the 2013 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) Women’s World Cup in Canada later this summer.
That doesn’t mean I want our own U.S. women to lose. I admire Team USA coach Ricky Fried, who coaches our national team and the Georgetown University women. I never hear complaints that women should have those jobs. Ricky’s that good.
I just want the Aussies to play well, no matter who gets the gold medal when this quadrennial competition ends July 20 in Oshawa, 45 minutes from Toronto. I don’t think the ladies from Down Under will disappoint.
Why? Primarily because Australia has an excellent team that includes several players from American colleges. Only twice in World Cup history has the U.S. failed to win the
gold. Both times, in 1986 and 2005, Australia won. In 2009, Team USA defeated Australia 8-7 in the gold medal match in Prague, Czech Republic. Plus, there’s the travel thing. The U.S. squad can get to Canada by bus. The Canadians are already there. The Aussies have a 24-hour plane trip. They’re not going through that just to lose. Perhaps most of all, there is the one and only Jen Adams, still. Jen is the female version of Gary Gait. Greatest lacrosse players I’ve ever seen? Gait, the Canadian, comes immediately to mind. So does his twin, Paul, who also was great at Syracuse but sometimes gets overlooked because he went into business rather than play all those years internationally and in the pros like Gary did. Jen Adams is the greatest female player I’ve ever seen. She’s in every Hall of Fame possible, including as the only Australian in US Lacrosse’s National Hall of Fame after her October 2012 induction. Adams holds the all-time NCAA scoring record.
“At a certain point,” Adams told me recently in her office at Loyola’s handsome Ridley Complex, “you have to work twice as hard to get ‘hoff’ (Australian accent) the results.”
30 LACROSSE MAGAZINE April 2013>>
Unforgettable to me is Adams’ performance against Johns Hopkins on the night of April 14, 2001, in College Park, Md. She set the Maryland scoring record with 12 points on eight goals and four assists in a 24-5 victory. You notice I said the one and only Jen Adams “still.” Adams is 33 years old. Could this be her last hurrah? Can she still play at the highest level? I asked Janine Tucker, who coaches the Johns Hopkins women. “Jen is most definitely able to play at an incredibly high level at 33,” Tucker said. “She’s still dynamic on the field and extremely creative with her stick work. She brings a high level of confidence from her years of experience.” (Note: Gary Gait is the most creative male player with his stick work that I’ve ever seen; Gary was Jen’s assistant coach at Maryland under Cindy Timchal). Four years ago, Adams was the leading scorer in the World Cup with a tournament-high 15 goals and 26 assists for 41 points. In her current role as head coach at Loyola, she conducts every practice with a stick in her hands. She works out. She runs sprints. “At a certain point,” Adams told me recently in her office at Loyola’s handsome Ridley Complex, “you have to work twice as hard to get ‘hoff’ (Australian accent) the results.” Motivation? The Aussies have tons of it. “When you lose the final game by one goal, as we did in Prague, you have four years to think about it,” Adams said. They’re good enough to give the U.S. a run for the gold. LM
— Bill Tanton
btanton@uslacrosse.org A Publication of US Lacrosse
©JOHN STROHSACKER
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