35-minute drive east of Vancouver and 20 minutes south of where the U19 title would be decided at Percy Perry Stadium in Coquitlam. In the last few minutes of a fi lm session in a meeting room called Green Timber 1, defensive coordinator Peter Toner reviewed a cut-up of a successful late-game clear by Canada against the Iroquois earlier in the tournament. “If we get to this point,” Toner started, and ended with, “then it’s probably game over.”
+++
But privately, on the corner of 152nd and 104th streets across from a giant Canadian fl ag above a car dealership and within walking distance of a Tim Horton’s restaurant, Myers and the coaches later in the night watched Canada’s 8-5 win over Team USA in the 2014 FIL senior men’s title game in Denver. Members of that Canadian staff, including U19 head coach Taylor Wray and assistant coach Matt Brown, would be just across the substitution box again for the U19 fi nal. In 2014, Canada built a 8-2 lead less than two minutes into the fourth quarter.
Though the U.S. scored the last three goals, a star-studded lineup — Paul Rabil, Rob Pannell, Greg Gurenlian et al. — could not get Team USA any closer. Canada had a plan, too: Its offense milked huge chunks of possession time and, after leading 4-2 fi ve minutes into the second half, scored four straight rip-your-heart-out goals. Some came after long stretches with the help of ground ball plays around the crease. On faceoffs, Geoff Snider was even with Gurenlian. “What if we’re losing?” Myers thought. Sure, the U.S. U19 men were favorites. Team USA had won each of the last seven international U19 titles. But the U.S. lost to Canada (and the Iroquois) in pool play in 2012 in Finland, not to mention the Team USA Spring Premiere exhibition in January — a wild overtime affair that foreshadowed what transpired six months later. The next day, Myers was happy he asked the question. Before a partisan Canadian standing- room-only crowd, the U.S. fell behind 6-0 at the end of the fi rst quarter despite four settled possessions. And, just like the coaches had watched the night
WATCH ONLINE
YouTube.com/USLacrosse THE JOURNEY
Watch the three-episode video series “The Journey,” and go inside the locker room, at the hotel and on the fi eld with the U.S. U19 team during its gold-medal charge.
22 LACROSSE MAGAZINE » September/october 2016
before, they were down 8-2 — except at halftime. Meanwhile, Canada scored two of their fi rst three goals in transition and the other in a two-man game led by slick Cornell-bound attackman Jeff Teat. Then it turned to a packed-in zone defense. “We knew that was coming,” Team USA offensive coordinator Pat Myers said. “Our kids were a hair tight early in the game.” At halftime, though, as the team gathered in the corner of the game fi eld and the Canadians regrouped in their locker room, the mood was calm. “You can’t score six goals in one shot,” said long-stick midfi elder Matt Borges, who was forced to sit out the medal rounds after taking a shot to the head in the U.S.’s fi nal pool play game versus England. Maybe it was everything that was included in the Team USA’s cultural blueprint to that point. Bringing in U.S. senior team members, like Ryan Boyle, Pannell and Gurenlian, to talk about what the program meant to them. Or the Casey Powell talk in January, or the one from motivational author and former Cornell player Jon Gordon, or the one from leadership consultant Tim Kight, who met with a then-30-man U.S. team on the campus of Ohio State, where Nick Myers coaches, in November. Kight works with coaches and players on the Buckeyes football team and Olympic sports. His R-factor training preaches an E+R=O formula, for “Event + Response = Outcome,” in life and work situations. “We’re doing our job, and we’ll continue to do our job,” Team USA and Johns Hopkins rising sophomore defenseman Foley said at one point during the tournament, reciting one of the phrases drilled in everyone’s mind.
A Publication of US Lacrosse
©RANDY DALY
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68