Spallina Mines LI Talent, Transforms Adelphi
by Chris Gentilviso | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
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Adelphi's Michelle Ceraso headlines a large contingent of Long Island natives who remained close to home to forge one of the most dominant teams in NCAA Division II women's lacrosse history. © Joe Rogate |
“You don’t have to go away to become a
superstar.”
Perhaps nobody knows that better than Adelphi women’s
lacrosse head coach Joe Spallina.
As the sculptor of a roster that has achieved a 40-1 record and a
national championship under his watch, Spallina’s most
substantial talent pool sits right on Long Island. The incentive
for his prospective players is a clear one.
“Why go away and be one of the girls when you can stay at
home and be a star and be known and have all of your friends and
family reading about you?” the Panthers' third-year head
coach said. “I think that's a big angle that we play from the
recruiting standpoint.”
That angle has been affirmed on the field. With 26 of his current
32 players hailing from the Island’s two-county region,
Spallina has the Panthers on track to be worthy of another read in
2010.
Fresh off a Division II national championship, No. 1 Adelphi has
roared to a 6-0 start in dominating fashion. The Panthers are
topping their opponents by an average margin of 15.5 goals per
game.
Senior defender Nicole Liebermann credits Spallina as the primary
factor behind that hunger to repeat.
“He’s made us aware that last year is last
year,” Liebermann said. “We won and can do bigger and
better things now. One shouldn't be good enough. We can do this
again.”
Staying local and staying hungry are two principles formed from
Spallina’s personal résumé. As a captain at
Rocky Point High School in the mid-1990s, he chose to make the
50-mile college move to join Adelphi’s men’s squad.
Planted at midfielder for four seasons, Spallina was a part of two
national championship teams at Adelphi. But as a coach, even his
own laurels fall short.
“We always tell the kids --'It's great that you have the one
ring,'" Spallina said. “'But that also means that you have
nine empty fingers.'"
Those motivation tactics come from years of studying hundreds of
players immersed in their quest to achieve comfort at the college
level.
Upon graduating from Adelphi in 1996, it wasn’t long before
Spallina was back on a familiar bench. He spent 10 years coaching
women’s lacrosse at Rocky Point H.S., manning some of the
best prep talent in the region. By June 2007, he was back in Garden
City, N.Y., doing the same at his alma mater.
For seniors like Liebermann, who arrived before Spallina, the
change in culture is evident -- from the first whistle in practice
to the final whistle in a game.
“It's been a totally different experience over the time from
my freshman year until now,” Liebermann said. “Year by
year, it's been a total transformation in terms of how much harder
we work and how much better our team has become.”
The roster has been aided by Spallina’s knowledge of local
gems. Several examples sit on the club’s attack -- juniors
Elizabeth Fey (Kings Park) and Michelle Ceraso
(Kellenberg/Massapequa), and sophomore Erica Devito (Shoreham
Wading River) have each scored over 16 goals in the team’s
first six games.
Those success stories were strong enough to lure seven Long Island
products away from Division I programs and back home to Adelphi.
Fey was one of them, a former Duquesne recruit who has logged 16
goals and nine assists this season.
The impetus for those girls to make that change was simple --
filling their empty fingers.
“They keep telling me, 'Well, I want that. I want to feel
how those girls feel. I want a ring like they have a ring, and I
want to win like they won,'" Spallina said. “As a coach,
honestly, when you have that kind of hunger, there's nothing
better.”
Division II News & Notes
On the men’s side, No. 1 C.W. Post and No.
2 Le Moyne are neck-and-neck for the right to the
top ranking in Division II. Both clubs remain undefeated, with the
9-0 Pioneers set for a weekend date with No. 7 NYIT. C.W. Post
(9-0, 3-0 ECC) battled Southern New Hampshire for a modest 11-7 win
last weekend, with the four-goal difference coming from the stick
of midfielder Joe Meo. Le Moyne (7-0, 3-0 Northeast-10) took care
of American International with relative ease on Monday, coasting to
a 17-6 road victory. After a Friday date with St. Michael’s,
the Dolphins will have a home date with conference rival Merrimack
(4-1, 2-0). Minus a 12-11 loss to St. Leo, the Warriors would also
be undefeated this season. Freshman attackman Corey Lunney made his
mark for the club over the weekend, posting 11 goals over two games
