Awkward. That’s how the switch felt at first for Joel White, moving from short stick to long pole.

A fluid athlete like White doesn’t normally look awkward on the lacrosse field, but the change meant everything for the freshman on the Syracuse men’s team.

A new mindset: focus on defense, not the offense he was recruited for. And some new equipment to go along with it.

‘Picking up that pole, it’s a lot different,’ White said. ‘Passing, catching, playing defense, everything. It’s totally different. You’ve just got to get used to it.’

He’s learning quick.

White now starts on the first defensive midfield line for the No. 1 Orange (7-1), which faces No. 14 Princeton (4-3) Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the Carrier Dome.

The freshman ranks second on the team in groundballs – behind senior faceoff specialist Danny Brennan – and 23rd in the nation as of Sunday. Inside Lacrosse magazine currently lists him third on its freshman power rankings (John Galloway, the Orange’s starting goalie and White’s roommate, is fifth).

‘To this day, it may be one of the best moves we’ve made,’ said assistant coach Lelan Rogers. ‘He’s certainly been outstanding.’

That’s enough to please the coaching staff. The switch is a feather in a cap for them, and a testament to the team’s depth and White’s versatility.

Because when practice cranked back up in the spring, head coach John Desko, Rogers and crew noticed something.

The offensive midfield was deep, the depth chart filled to the brim with names like Brooks and Hardy and Perritt. The defensive pool was shallow, with a void at the long-stick midfielder following three-year starter Steve Panarelli’s graduation. White’s athleticism and field awareness fit the bill.

So Rogers laid it out for him. The freshman could fight for scraps of playing time as the sixth, maybe seventh guy in the offensive midfield rotation. Or he could be the marquee pole on the first defensive line.

That made things easier.

‘I was surprised at first,’ White said. ‘But, you know, it was just one of those things in which I got to do it to help the team.’

And it helped having Galloway around. The roommates were freshmen in flux through the beginning of the season.

The two would talk about it every day after practice, the goalie looking for the top spot and the midfielder looking for any spot.

‘It’s stressful, especially being a freshman at a program like this,’ Galloway said. ‘It’s really hard to figure out where you’re going to be.’

White has his place for now. The long pole might not be permanent, but for right now, for this year, it’s his spot. And he had his chance for a little offense, scoring a transition goal in a 13-8 win over Hobart last week.

It was a return to form for a freshman still picking up the nuances of Syracuse’s defensive schemes. Rogers doesn’t have a problem with that though. White only has to focus on the basics: guard his man’s hands with the pole and use his quickness to mark him. Simple, the way Rogers likes it.

‘He can cover a lot of ground in a short period of time,’ Rogers said. ‘A lot of defensemen, I don’t think, can cover the ground that he can cover.’

Maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising that White adapted well. He made three All-CNY teams his senior year in high school: basketball and soccer to go along with lacrosse.

And both Rogers and John Spallone, White’s coach at Cortland, noted how basketball helps him today. His court awareness, a sense of where he is, translates to the lacrosse field.

Spallone loves to spin stories about White, from 7-year-old Joel darting across the flag football field like Forrest Gump to 17-year-old Joel stepping into the faceoff circle when injuries and vacations had robbed Spallone of his top two faceoff guys.

It’s that versatility, the willingness to be plugged in anywhere, which makes him so useful for the Orange. The position doesn’t really matter.

‘If I could get back to short stick, I wouldn’t mind getting back there,’ White said. ‘But if they need me to stay at pole, I’ll do that too.’

ramccull@syr.edu

Published on April 3, 2008 at 12:00 pm