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 DIVISION I MEN Preseason Player of the Year Lyle Thompson, Albany ........28


Preseason Top 20 ..... 32-47 1. Duke


2. Syracuse


3. North Carolina 4. Denver


5. Notre Dame 6. Princeton 7. Maryland 8. Penn State 9. Virginia 10. Albany


11. Loyola 12. Yale


13. Johns Hopkins 14. Bucknell


15. Ohio State 16. Lehigh 17. Penn


18. Cornell


19. St. John’s 20. Villanova


 DIVISION I WOMEN Preseason Player of the Year Alyssa Murray, Syracuse ....48


Preseason Top 20 ..... 52-67 1. North Carolina 2. Maryland 3. Syracuse


4. Northwestern 5. Florida 6. Duke


7. Virginia


8. Penn State 9. Georgetown 10. Loyola


11. Notre Dame 12. Stony Brook 13. Penn


14. Stanford 15. Towson 16. UMass 17. Denver 18. Navy


19. Princeton 20. Boston College


 DIVISION II MEN ...........70-72  DIVISION II WOMEN ......74-76  DIVISION III MEN ..........78-81  DIVISION III WOMEN .....82-85


“I was the first one recruited by them,”


had one Albany player mimicking the maneuver on the sideline. “Did you see that?” he asked. The Thompsons’ stick skills, vision and


field sense are unmatched. “That’s a lot of the backyard game and


box lacrosse,” Lyle said, referring to 2-on- 2 contests he had with his three older brothers, Jerome, Jeremy and Miles. “If I’m going to pass to them, I have so much confidence in them to catch it. It doesn’t even have to be a good pass. If a defender’s stick is in the way, I can throw it down here and they’ll catch it. Miles and I have always done that; put it in a spot where you wouldn’t expect it. A defender is expecting you to catch up high, but a lot times he will tell me to throw it low. Same with Ty. I get credit for creating, but I just throw it there and he makes the amazing catch and puts it in the net.” Lyle and Miles’ parents — Jerome Thompson Sr., a Mohawk, and Deloris Thompson, an Onondaga — have five


A Publication of US Lacrosse


children. In addition to the four boys, there’s one girl, Crystal. Lyle and Miles spent parts of their high school career in Onondaga near Syracuse and the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation on the northern border between New York and Canada. They played two seasons at Salmon River (N.Y.) High while helping to care for an ailing grandmother before moving back to Onondaga and starring at LaFayette (N.Y) High. At the urging of their father and in following the paths of their older brothers, Lyle and Miles decided to play lacrosse in college. Jeremy and Jerome Jr. both played at junior college juggernaut Onondaga. Jeremy went on to play two seasons at Syracuse as an All-American midfielder and now plays professionally for the MLL’s Hamilton Nationals and the NLL’s Edmonton Rush. Many expected Lyle and Miles, along


with Ty, to follow suit at Syracuse. Instead, in the fall of 2009, all three chose Albany.


said Ty, who led the Great Danes with 54 goals last season. “When I committed, these guys got on board. We wanted to start something new. Instead of all young Native Americans wanting to go to Syracuse all the time, come to Albany. We wanted to make the NCAA tournament; we did that last year. This year the national championship is our goal.” “That was our dream,” Miles said. “We


decided we were going to go to college together. We looked at our older brothers. They played so well together. Their pick- and-roll game, nobody really stopped it. That’s what me and Lyle’s goal was.” The Thompsons were inseparable, their


bond as solid as concrete. Marr cited a game last season in which Miles suffered a concussion. It was a windy day, he was disoriented and while being helped off the field he repeatedly screamed, “Where’s Lyle?”


When Miles was a freshman and Lyle


was still in high school, he went home every weekend to visit him. “You would think they’re twins by the


way they interact with each other,” Marr said. “You’ve never seen brothers as close like best friends as you have with these two. I never realized how strong their bond was.”


February 2014 >> LACROSSE MAGAZINE 29


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