July 8, 2008

This article appeared in the January 2008 edition of Lacrosse Magazine, a US Lacrosse publication available exclusively to its members. Join today to start your monthly subscription to LM.

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by Matt DaSilva, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff

Carousing with New Jersey reporters last year after a particularly grueling 11-10 victory over cross-county rival Randolph High, Chatham High boys' lacrosse coach Steve Manitta nodded towards number 40 on the opposing sideline, whose short shorts and low-top cleats barely covered his socks, and told him, "Tuck your cape in."

John Lade looks like a throwback, alright. But he plays that way, too.

FOGO? Forget it. Zone? Only if he's in it.

Lade, the 2007 New Jersey Defenseman of the Year, even scavenges the Internet for sellers looking to get rid of their old Brine Edge-Plus, a wide-walled stick head that is no longer manufactured, but is better suited for a three-sport standout with a cornerback's taste for lacrosse.

"They're easier to pick passes with, and to scoop ground balls," he says. "I get them either from eBay or friends who have old ones they don't use anymore, because they're so outdated."

"It looks like it's from the 1980s," bemoans Villanova men's lacrosse coach Mike Corrado, who recruited Lade, now a freshman defenseman with the Wildcats, for his versatility. "When he got here, I gave him a brand new stick and everything. He took it, used it one day and went back to his old head. It's as ugly as can be. It's a garbage pail."

No one ever questioned Superman's weapon of choice.

Though he is a Clark Kent-like 5-foot-11, 180 pounds, Lade's physical talents belie his size. A conference indoor track champion in high school, he impressed Villanova in the fall with a 30.2-inch vertical leap, the team's fastest top-end speed (maximum acceleration), and a 4.6-second 40-yard dash.

"And we actually have an incredibly soft, spongy turf," says Wildcats strength and conditioning coach Stephen King. "He has very good short-burst speed."

At Randolph, where his talents were often overshadowed by private-school powers, Lade raked 771 career ground balls. As a senior, he won 67 percent of faceoffs, scored five goals and dished 12 assists, all as a long pole.

"Sophomore year, they tried me with a short stick," Lade says. "That didn't last long."

Lade made an immediate impact at Villanova. He led the Wildcats with 53 ground balls and won 17 of 39 faceoffs, and was the only freshman named to the All-CAA first team in 2008.

Playing a position that increasingly stresses size over skill, Lade is an aberration. For all of his Herculean efforts on the field, he benches a pedestrian 190 pounds and squats 295, according to King, which probably hurt his standing with the traditional college lacrosse powers.

But in Lade, Corrado saw more than just a blue streak.

So did the selectors of the 2008 U.S. under-19 men's team. Lade's on-field heroics were evident enough during a four-day tryout at UMBC in July that he was the only player of 23 chosen from a non-scholarship college program. He's also the team's only defenseman who's shorter than 6-foot-2.

"I don't think he fits the mold of your traditional, 6-foot-4 big defenseman who throws these crazy hard checks, but he's very strong. He's working so hard in the weight room right now and getting stronger. I think he has a little chip on his shoulder," Corrado says. "He played at Randolph, which wasn't one of the more dominant programs in New Jersey. It's not Mountain Lakes or Delbarton or Ridgewood. I think some people missed out on that. We have a good little intra-team rivalry between public and private schools, and he embodies that."

T.J. O'Donnell, also a freshman at Villanova, grew up playing football with Lade in Randolph. O'Donnell went to the Delbarton School; Lade remained at Randolph. They were rivals in lacrosse and met as faceoff specialists.

To that end, O'Donnell can only say now, "It's a lot better playing with him."

"No matter where you put the ball, he seems to be right on you right away," O'Donnell says. "Out of nowhere, he picks off passes from across the field. He's just constant. No matter if it's the beginning of the game or the end, he's going 100 miles per hour."

Asked if Lade can get chippy, O'Donnell responds, "He can bruise some forearms."

Otherwise, it's not as if Lade is unhappy at Villanova. He takes guilty pleasure in the fried chicken on campus and the greasy cheese steaks of Philadelphia. His older brother, T.J., is an auto mechanic at a nearby car dealership.

"I look up to him a lot," Lade says. "He's such a hard worker, so determined at what he does."

"No matter where you put the ball, he seems to be right on you right away. Out of nowhere, he picks off passes from across the field. He's just constant. No matter if it's the beginning of the game or the end, he's going 100 miles per hour." Villanova midfielder TJ O'Donnell, on teammate John Lade

His two younger brothers, Michael and Matthew, his parents, Charlie and Janice, and his friends from Randolph are never far away, either.

Though undecided in his academic pursuits, Lade likes chemistry. "I like working with elements," he says.

On the lacrosse field, it appears the elements are working through him.

Villanova's upperclassmen and alumni embrace that they have a U-19 player among their ranks, Corrado says. As a close defenseman, Lade's zeal in making a 15-yard slide off the ball may lead to an occasional blown coverage, but it reaps as much as it sows.

"You're thinking he's sliding and it's a bad play, then all of a sudden he knocks the ball down and you're on a fast break -- you kind of get caught in the middle," Corrado says. "We don't want to take his aggressiveness away."

With a throwback appearance and a throw-down demeanor. Though he has been brandished with a new stick (Villanova and Team USA are sponsored by STX), Lade is no less optimistic about the prospects of 2008 and beyond.

"I played Delbarton and Mountain Lakes, but those guys are just one school, one town," Lade says. "This is a whole nation."