An hour or so before the real practice is scheduled to begin, Alex Bono gets the texts from Phil Boerger about setting up their own training sessions.

“Let’s do some handling drills,” the messages read. “Let’s get in some tape before practice.”

Bono is always ready for the extra work. Each pre-practice meeting with Boerger lets the freshman work with someone who knows exactly what head coach Ian McIntyre expects from a Syracuse goalkeeper.

In 2011, Boerger started every game in goal for McIntyre in his lone season with the Orange. But now, it’s his job as undergraduate assistant coach to help his successors — Bono and the other young Syracuse goalkeepers — develop into better players.

His advice has helped the team so far. SU (8-2) has wrapped up the nonconference portion of its schedule and will play in Cincinnati (5-4-2) on Saturday night with eight shutouts on the season.

Bono is responsible for seven of those shutouts. Boerger’s advice has helped the goalkeepers maintain a high level of play during practice and games this season, Bono said.

“He’s helped tremendously,” Bono said. “We can look at film together and he’ll be able to tell me what mistakes he’s made in the past that I can try to avoid.”

Boerger said his mistake-prone 2011 season put him in a great position to advise the Syracuse goalkeepers this season. When Boerger let an easy goal in, he said he would get “worked up” and let one error multiply. More often than not, Syracuse dropped the games he lost his composure in.

With a group of three freshman goalkeepers, Boerger and assistant coach Mike Miller work in tandem to help avoid those situations. One year removed from being a player himself, Boerger said he’s become the staff liaison between players and coaches.

“There’s a fine line that some guys don’t want to cross when it comes to coaches and players,” said Boerger. “I guess you could say I’m in between.”

Boerger is just as split when it comes to his eventual profession. The North Dakota native graduated from SU last fall and took online classes as he tried out for professional teams. He landed brief stints with two lower-level teams before visiting Syracuse and contacting McIntyre about a coaching job.

“It all worked out,” Boerger said. “I still want to play and I get to stay in shape while helping this team win.”

Behind gritty play in goal, Syracuse has won enough games to make Boerger rethink his career path. And as this season progresses, Miller said McIntyre has expanded Boerger’s coaching roles.

He started by assembling clips for game film, but now Boerger assumes Miller’s responsibilities when the assistant leaves on recruiting trips during the week.

He’s assisted Bono in curbing his aggressive tendencies in goal. In SU’s first loss of the season against Niagara, Bono left the goal open as he tried to dribble past an opposing player.

Boerger, who said he rarely left his line last season, helped Bono find a happy medium in the next game — a shutout of Colgate four days later.

“That’s something we’ve worked on,” Bono said. “I’m an aggressive keeper, but he’s helped me decide when to be aggressive and when to let my defense bail me out.”

Boerger has been just as influential with the players behind Bono. He said he worked with backup Andrew Coughlin more when Bono received a red card that kept him out of last weekend’s Big East opener against Seton Hall.

Coughlin was more than ready to handle the duties. He recorded six saves and earned his first career shutout against the Pirates.

Then, when the game was over, he joked about his performance with Boerger.

“He came over to me and said that he had the same number of shutouts this year as I did last year,” Boerger said. “But I was happy for him. And if I can help all these guys see that their hard work gets results, then I’ll be happy with my coaching job when the day is over.”

Published on September 27, 2012 at 1:25 am

Contact Nick: nctoney@syr.edu | @nicktoneytweets