His Space // editorial
WE NEED ACE IN THE HOLE
They don’t make coaches like Jim Adams anymore
Y
ou know what we’re missing in lacrosse today? We miss Jim “Ace” Adams and all
he stood for in the 30 years he coached at the game’s top level. Adams, now 86, retired and living with his wife, Betty, in Charlottesville, Va., coached at Army, Penn and Virginia. He was such a gentleman, even on the sideline when his teams were playing for national championships. (He won three at Army.) In that spirit, the Ace Adams Sportsmanship
Award is presented to a coach annually. It must be hard these
days for the committee to find a coach like Adams. Now that lacrosse is so often available on TV, we sometimes see coaches who go the other way — who, for example, spew the worst profanity at officials. What a shame. Lacrosse used to be a game for people who could compete hard but remain good sportsmen. People like Jim Adams. He went to coach Penn in 1970 with a salary of $14,000 and was there through 1978. He left such a shining reputation that three years ago the name given to the university’s new lacrosse-soccer stadium at Penn Park is James F. “Ace” Adams Field.
Adams, who was elected to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1975, proved as player and coach you don’t have to verbally assault officials to win. Ace was a winner and he lived by the highest standards of sportsmanship. As an undergraduate at John Hopkins from 1947 to 1950, he and his teams never lost a game and won four national championships. When
laxmagazine.com
he retired at Virginia in 1992, he was the winningest active coach in lacrosse.
I remember being on the field talking with Adams at Annapolis after his final Army game in 1969. With 16,056 at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium, his Cadets had just beaten Navy, 14-4, to win the national title. Four-star Gen. William C.
Westmoreland, who had been in command of all U.S. military operations in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968, walked up to Adams and said, “Jim, I want to congratulate you and thank you for all you’ve done for West Point.”
Having known Ace Adams for so long, I’m not surprised by what he’s done. That’s the way it was at St. Paul’s School in Baltimore, where Adams was a star on the varsity at a time when I was a ninth-grader there struggling on JV. Later, when I got to varsity, we were playing at Gilman and a fight broke out. Typical lacrosse fight. Lasted maybe 15 seconds. Two guys swung, grabbed, then fell to the ground. Our coach, Robert “Pic” Fuller, blew his stack. He banished all 10 of his players to the bench for the rest of the day. “You’ve all disgraced yourselves and embarrassed the school,” Fuller said angrily. “But Coach,” pleaded our goalie, Glenn Yarbrough, “I was at the other end. I had nothing to do with it.” Fuller sermonized: “You boys will remember this lesson long after you’ve forgotten the score.” He was so right. Sportsmanship mattered. No cursing. Certainly no fighting. Ace Adams came up that way. So many of today’s coaches would be well served to follow suit.
— Bill Tanton
btanton@uslacrosse.org
Casey and Me
Kids that attended Casey
Powell’s clinics or had his poster on their walls are now playing with or against him. These Florida Launch teammates grew up idolizing the former Syracuse star.
CONNOR
BUCZEK ATTACK
I met Casey at the final four at Rutgers. I was ball- boying it and got a picture with him and Ryan. I hadn’t seen Casey play in college, other than highlights, and was a big Mikey Powell fan, so I remember being awestruck when I got a chance to talk to those guys and get a few autographs. I still have the pictures. My mom even pulled one out after my first Launch game.
CASEY IKEDA DEFENSE
Growing up, when shooting in the backyard with my brothers, we always picked players to be and I was always Casey Powell. The first time I met him at a final four, I told him my name was Casey just like him and he kind of laughed and told me that it was an awesome name. When we played together this year and I introduced myself, he said pretty much the same thing. Playing Boston, I took an ill-advised shot that ended up in a fast break the other way, and down the field I could hear him yelling at me to be smarter. Moments later, he told me to keep my head up and get the next one.
KIERAN
MCARDLE ATTACK
I watched Casey on TV from a pretty young age. I got an autographed ball at an NCAA weekend where Casey and his brothers were doing stick tricks outside the stadium. I still have that ball. I wore No. 22 and tried to emulate his game. Not too many athletes get to play with their idol. No “old man” jokes from me.
October 2015 » LACROSSE MAGAZINE 23
©JOHN STROHSACKER
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