Kentucky Kid Looks to Strike Big in Denver
by Matt DaSilva | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
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Louisville native Chase Carraro, pictured here in Denver's fall-ball exhibition Oct. 24 against the hometown Outlaws, is excited about his and the Pioneers' debut Friday against No. 1 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. © Jamie Schwaberow |
Bill Tierney did not take long to assert his authority at the
University of Denver. As soon as men’s lacrosse players
arrived in the fall, they were required to lose any facial hair and
trim their shaggy lax coifs.
“No lettuce,” Pioneers captain Dillon Roy joked.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he came out to practice and
gave us bowl cuts through the helmet.”
Coaches could no longer be called by their first names -- not even
“Brownie,” assistant Matt Brown, a holdover from Jamie
Munro’s staff.
It was house-cleaning time.
Less than a year after three players were arrested and eight more
quit amongst the locker room malcontent, the once-proud Pioneers
are prepared to rebuild their image in the lacrosse landscape,
starting Friday with their season opener against No.1-ranked and
two-time defending national champion Syracuse at the Carrier
Dome.
“The thing had just fallen apart,” Tierney said.
“It wasn’t Jamie Munro’s fault. He did everything
he could to keep it together. He was a great guy who did a great
job here. But sometimes, new management is needed.”
“A lot of things happened at once, and people grew apart. It
wasn’t really a team,” said senior midfielder Charley
Dickenson. “It just unfolded in a sense that players wanted a
change.”
With a Hall of Fame coach and six-time national champion at the
helm, Denver has its fresh start.
“They’ve been flushed of controversy,” Tierney
said. “It’s a baptism, a cleansing. ‘OK, we can
be lacrosse players again.’”
One particularly excited lacrosse player, who wasn’t even
with the team a year ago, is freshman Chase Carraro. After signing
to play for Munro and seeing events unfold last spring, Carraro, a
trailblazer out of St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Ky., had
his doubts.
They vanished quickly.
“I couldn’t be walking into a better situation,”
Carraro said. “One of the best coaches of all-time is about
to take over the program with me coming in as a
freshman.”
The feeling’s mutual.
“Chase Carraro could become one of the best faceoff
guys in the country,” Tierney said.
Carraro can do more than just face off, but his compact clamp and
ability to get out of the crouch quickly will allow him to make an
immediate impact at midfield. The ECAC, the conference Denver and
other former GWLL affiliates joined this year, honored Carraro as
its preseason rookie of the year. He replaces Ben Wahler, a good
leader who won 58 percent of faceoffs last year.
“It’ll be a tough position for me as a
freshman,” Carraro said, “but I’m ready to take
it head on.”
It’s that kind of bullish attitude that made Carraro
something of a hidden treasure in Kentucky, where few players
matriculate into the Division I ranks. A strong performance at the
2008 Nike Blue Chip Lacrosse Camp helped Carraro gain national
recognition. He liked Munro’s innovative approach, but has
since warmed up to Tierney’s old-school philosophy.
“I hadn’t seen him in a coaching role until our first
meeting, when he told us what he expected out of us this year and
what he wanted us to aspire to do out on the field,” Carraro
said. “It was definitely a ‘Welcome to Coach
Tierney’ moment.”
Carraro worked diligently in the offseason on his approach to
faceoffs, utilizing his speed better and weeding out bad habits,
like shooting underhand. He wants to represent Kentucky well,
starting Friday at the Carrier Dome.
“I’ve had my ‘Welcome to Coach
Tierney’ moment. That’ll definitely be my
‘Welcome to D-I Lacrosse’ moment,” he said.
“I don’t have any reason to be nervous for any game
after this one. That’s probably the best D-I atmosphere there
is.”
