Jacksonville Debuts with Tar Heels in Town
by Matt DaSilva | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
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Starting goalie and musician Brad Hester joins captain Jeremy Tissenbaum as Hobart transplants who have reunited with coach Matt Kerwick at upstart Jacksonville. © Sideline Sports |
The Jacksonville men’s lacrosse team makes its Division I
debut Saturday against traditional powerhouse and preseason No.
4-ranked North Carolina. The Dolphins are ready to shed their
swimmies and tread water with the big fish. That’s Matt
Kerwick’s hope, anyhow.
Faceoff at D.B. Milne Field is 2:30 p.m.
“It’s a good measuring stick for us,” said
Kerwick, who left Hobart after seven seasons to help build the new
program. “We wanted to play a team that not only will
generate a lot of excitement in the area, but a team that we can
show our guys what we’re aspiring to be.”
Game-time temperature? Sixty degrees. Sure beats the grey,
11-degree day forecasted in Geneva, N.Y.
“At the end of practice doing man-up, man-down, I thought
back to being up in the north country when you’re usually
pretty frigid,” Kerwick said. “It was kind of nice to
be out there in shorts and a t-shirt.”
That, coupled with the opportunity to be at the epicenter of the
sport’s growth in the South, helped Kerwick recruit over 50
players to join him in Florida -- including two former Statesmen he
originally recruited to play for him at Hobart.
Though the Dolphins will max out at four scholarships (four more
than Kerwick ever had at non-scholarship Hobart), it did not affect
the level of interest, Kerwick said.
Sixty also happens to be the number of teams in the gender
equity-challenged Division I ranks, thanks to Jacksonville’s
commitment. The splash page of JUDolphins.com features a flash countdown and
video cuts of both lacrosse teams, as the women also debut Saturday
at home against UMBC.
“I’d say we’re ahead of schedule in terms of our
depth and our talent,” Kerwick said. “It shows how many
great players are out there looking to play at the highest level of
Division I.”
One of those players is Brad Hester, a musician and talented
goalkeeper who got stuck behind standout Max Silberlicht at Hobart.
He was never bitter.
“You’ve got to do the math,” said Hester.
“Four goalies and only one guy can be in there. We saw it as
[Silberlicht] representing all four of us, our goalie crew, kind of
as an ambassador."
Hester, who graduated from Hobart last year after sitting out most
of the spring with a severe ankle sprain, found out over the summer
that he was awarded an extra year of eligibility. Knowing Kerwick
and that he could earn a graduate degree in Jacksonville’s
esteemed music program, he jumped at the opportunity to move
south.
Whereas UNC head coach Joe Breschi has
been tight-lipped about whom of James Petracca, Chris Madalon
or Steven Rastivo he’ll start in goal against Jacksonville --
“I don’t think we’re giving each other any
secrets,” Kerwick said -- the Dolphins know who’ll be
in their cage.
“I remember recruiting Brad four or five years ago to be the
starting goalie at Hobart, and he fought it out with a great goalie
in Max Silberlicht up there,” Kerwick said. “Now he has
the opportunity to show just how talented he is.”
Hester -- who plays guitar and harmonica and sings for the
acoustic jam band, Annie in the Water (scroll down for their
YouTube video covering an Alice in Chains song) -- won’t be
the only former Statesman starting. JU captain Jeremy Tissenbaum
started on Hobart’s first midfield line as a freshman in
2008, Kerwick’s last season in Geneva. He scored two goals in
the fourth quarter of the Statesmen’s upset win over Loyola,
which infamously precipitated the university’s brief and
controversial decision to return to Division III -- a decision
which was ultimately overturned under alumni pressure.
“It was kind of something that caught us off guard,”
Hester said, “but everyone responded to it well. We wanted to
win all that more.”
Hester is also one of 12 New Yorkers on Jacksonville’s
geographically diverse roster that includes representatives from 12
different states and Canada -- seven each from Florida and
Maryland; six from Pennsylvania; four each from North Carolina and
Virginia; three each from Ontario and Virginia; two each from
Georgia and New Jersey; and one each from Delaware, Kentucky,
Massachusetts and Tennessee.
While much offseason attention went to Hall of Famer Bill
Tierney’s move to Denver as the self-proclaimed beacon of
lacrosse in the West, Kerwick has built quite a stable in the
South.
“The diversity of the roster is what I had hoped. I saw that
opportunity as soon as I came to campus. It’s pretty easy to
recruit here,” Kerwick said. “We’ve got a
tremendous class coming in next year that’s going to
supplement a very talented first group we have now. I think we can
make strides quickly to be a top-flight program.”
