COLLEGE PREVIEW 2014 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S PRESEASON PLAYER OF YEAR
Faith, Family and Lacrosse
Lyle Thompson might be the best of
Albany’s hypnotizing trio, but you can’t have one without the others
By Corey McLaughlin I
t seems appropriate to start this story about Lyle Thompson with him at a dinner table surrounded by family. So there was Lacrosse Magazine’s 2014 Preseason Player of the Year, on a mid-November Monday night, sitting at a circular, eight-person banquet table at a charity event in Latham, N.Y., a short drive north of Albany. In his arms, the college junior held his 7-month-old daughter, Mercy. She stood on his lap and they looked at each other face-to-face. To their right sat Thompson’s 2-year-old daughter, Layielle, eating chicken wings handed to her by Thompson’s older brother, Miles. You know Miles, the one who runs alongside Lyle on the best attack line in college lacrosse right now and maybe ever. On the far side of the group opposite
Lyle, their cousin, Ty, ate dessert after disposing wing bones on a plastic plate in the middle of the table. It was a fitting arrangement. The right side is where the lefty finisher sets up shop when Albany has the ball on offense. Some call it chemistry, the way the Thompsons riffed off one another to combine for more points (254) than most teams in 2013. They call it family. This space is about an individual honor
for Lyle Thompson, whose 50 goals and 63 assists left him two points shy of setting the NCAA Division I men’s single- season record, a mark he likely would have eclipsed had he not missed a game for Mercy’s birth. He was the first Native American finalist for the Iroquois-inspired Tewaaraton Award.
28 LACROSSE MAGAZINE February 2014 >>
But one Thompson’s success cannot exclude the others. The trio came to Albany as a package deal. Miles and Ty are seniors. Lyle, whom Ty said has always been the best of them, is a junior. They are members of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Expectations are high, both within the team and around college lacrosse, for a spectacular four months ahead.
B
ack inside the Century House, team members wore gold jerseys with purple numbers over collared shirts and posed in the corner of a crowded, wedding reception-style room for a picture with Jay Honsinger, the father of 10-year-old JP, who has been diagnosed with childhood Alzheimer’s. The disease leads to uncurable neurological problems. The event, a fundraiser for JP, had a silent auction of memorabilia from teams like the Yankees and Giants. The Honsinger family lives in nearby Clifton Park, N.Y., and Albany lacrosse is one of JP’s favorite teams. One of his wishes was to meet the Thompsons, which he did at a practice in the fall. He wants to join the Great Danes for as many home games as possible this spring. On this night, JP’s family felt the event would be too overwhelming for him. Lyle and Miles Thompson flanked the father in the middle of the photo.
When they returned to the table, someone asked Lyle, “Where’s mom?” His girlfriend, Amanda Longboat, lives with him and Miles in an off-campus house. Miles helps them with the kids as all three
Lyle Thompson (second from right) enjoys the company of his brother, Miles (far left), cousin, Ty, and 2-year- old daughter, Layielle.
balance their time and resources. Lyle and Amanda started dating four years ago. She’s originally from Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, about a four- hour drive west from the Onondaga Nation where Lyle and Miles grew up. (Ty is from the Mohawk Nation.) “She has the night off,” Lyle said with
a smile. E
arlier that day, Albany had practice. For a mid-November afternoon in Albany, the weather was divine — 61 degrees with clear blue skies. The Great Danes coaching staff, led by Scott Marr, decided to take advantage of it, playing full field for about 60 minutes. The lowering, late-afternoon sun was so bright that the goalies on the east end of the field struggled to see shots leaving sticks. The Thompsons just happened to have their backs to the light. Defending them just got more difficult. A cross-handed catch and pass by Lyle around the crease
A Publication of US Lacrosse
©GREG WALL
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