Countdown to '09: Mercyhurst's Chris Ryan
by Jac Coyne | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
Unlike many in the lacrosse business, Chris Ryan didn't feel the Division II men's national championship game was necessarily required viewing. Yes, the Mercyhurst head coach ended up watching NYIT dump Le Moyne for the title, but it was tough to watch.
It was Ryan's Lakers in the championship game in 2007 against the same Le Moyne squad, but the seventh-year coach watched the Dolphins score on a pass/shot with just seconds left to secure the win. It was a excruciating defeat, but with a talented, albeit young, crew returning in 2008, the Lakers were expected to compete for the crown once again.
Unfortunately, before its season was a month old, Mercyhurst was mired at 2-3 hole - including a stunning 7-6 overtime loss to lightly regarded Wingate, a 17-1 drubbing at the hands of Le Moyne, and a 10-7 setback to East Coast Conference rival Dowling, 10-7. The Lakers did manage to win six straight games in the middle of the season, but a 9-8 overtime loss to NYIT erased any chance of Mercyhurst sneaking in the side door of the NCAA tournament.
LMO caught Ryan in between mowing his lawn and trimming his hedges to see if he was willing to take on Countdown. He was game.
You got off to a slow start, but came on strong during the end, barely missing out on the tournament. As you look back on the season, what was the difference from the year before?
Going into the season I think we were ranked No. 2 and a lot of people were talking about us because of the success we had in 2007. We went in last year with just about half the roster brand new. We had gotten into some injury problems in the fall and we think it slowed down our progression.
I knew this team had a good deal of growing to be done. I was hoping to avoid any early season pitfalls, but we got off to a slow start. The maturation process we were waiting for sort of kicked in and the kids were able to grow up and do a nice job. Another thing I think benefitted us greatly is we just have good kids on the team. Good character kids who work hard and they found a way to turn the ship around.
The East Coast Conference is a beast. There are so many great teams that you don't have a whole lot of wiggle room during the season. Do you think you'll be able to use this season as a way to show your kids you need to show up for every game?
I think we knew that coming in. We lost the ECC opener to Dowling - I think it was a 10-7 score - and that was, I believe, a 5-5 game at half. But again those young mistakes came into play. Not taking care of the ball late in the game and not winning some pretty important ground ball wars going on out there. I wasn't unhappy with the game; I still saw growth in the kids.
It's just playing in the ECC day-in and day-out is a grind. And it's a little different for us because unlike everyone else in the ECC, we have to travel nine hours three times a year to play games. I've said I think it's remarkable we've had the success in the league that we've had.
The kids know what it's all about. We have a pretty good regimen to get ready for games. The newer guys on the team had to learn and get used to the intensity level and the level of competition that exists in the East Coast Conference. We've been successful to this point in the conference and obviously we hope that it continues in the future.
As you look toward next year it must be nice to be able to start with a guy like D-II Goalie of the Year Jason LaShomb on the back line. Did he live up to all your expectations last year?
Jason is such a great kid, and I said that after the [2007] national championship game. In the interview room I knew that Jason was probably in the locker room beating himself to death over that last goal because that's the type of kid that he is.
Obviously, he is a physically talented goalie, but because of his level of maturity and his attitude and some of the personal traits he possesses, he just gets better and better. He was just a huge reason why we were able to finish strong and make this season a positive one. It's his senior season coming up and we expect great things from him this coming year. We'll just see how he does in 2009.
This year's championship game featured a team that beat Mercyhurst, 17-1 (Le Moyne), and a team the Lakers lost to in overtime (NYIT). Did you see anything different about those two teams than what you saw during the year, and were you surprised by the outcome?
Somebody asked me how the two teams matched up going into the final game and I thought it was really going to be a battle of two styles. You have a Le Moyne team that is methodical and talented - one that really grinds you down. If you make a mistake they are going to punish you for it. And then a New York Tech team that races up and down the field as much as they can, but turns the ball over at times. But for every turnover they make four great plays. I really thought it was going to come down to who was going to dictate the tempo and the style that the game was played at. I thought Tech got on a couple of runs that they are famous for and that might have changed the tide of the game and they ran with.
I think there were a number of times during that game where the game could have gone Le Moyne's way. We all know playing in the national championship game that it's a goal here and an inch there. Once the momentum got going in Tech's direction they were able to get more and more into the run-and-gun style they like and then the game sort of fell into their laps going into the fourth. I could have seen either of those teams winning. It's a game that was a battle of wills and New York Tech got the game going in their direction.
You lose six players off this year's roster. What are some names that maybe we didn't see last year that you expect to step up this year?
I think you've pretty much seen everybody at this point. We lost six character guys in the senior class from this year, great guys to have on the team who did great job for us. You have Jason LaShomb and [leading scorer] Mike Thon. I think we'll be looking to Tyler Burton - who is on the U-19 Canadian team this summer - a little more. We'll be looking for the younger defensemen to grow up a little bit.
Matt Scherer was a second string long-stick middie for us last year and did a fantastic job. We're going to have some older guys who will have some more pressure put on them. A guy like starting attackman Eric Manzer is capable of having a very good season. Trevor Rice was a starting attackman. We need more production out of our attack next year. We're deep at the midfield and we have talented attackmen, but I'll be curious to see how the kids use this year of growth and experience and how they come in the fall and the progression we have from there.
We'd all like to avoid the mistakes of last year and make sure we're progressing through fall ball and in the right direction. The team has a lot of ability and can accomplish some great things. I can't wait for the guys to get back so we can get going.
Countdown to '09:
Archive
Sept. 19,
2008 - NYIT's Keith Henderson
Sept. 5,
2008 - Northwestern's Kelly Amonte Hiller
Aug. 29, 2008
- Cabrini's Scott Reimer
Aug. 15,
2008 - Hobart's T.W. Johnson
Aug. 8,
2008 - Penn's Ali Deluca
Aug. 1, 2008
- Chapman's Mike Wood
July 25, 2008
- Southern New Hampshire's Mary Squire
July 18, 2008
- Michigan's Trevor Yealy
July 11,
2008 - Johns Hopkins' Dave Pietramala
July 4, 2008
- Hamilton's Kallie Briscoe
June 27,
2008 - North Carolina's Joe Breschi
June 20, 2008
- Colby's Jon Thompson
