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The reunion was more than a year away, but Gavin MacLachlan, Jim Morrissey and a group of their 1995 Syracuse teammates started planning the celebration during a high school lacrosse game last May.

It was simple. Syracuse’s 1995 national championship team would pile into Philadelphia bars and restaurants at the beginning of Championship Weekend. Most, if not all, of their roster would be there. And they realized a path similar to theirs, one that ended with a title game on Memorial Day, could unfold for Syracuse in 2020.

“We were talking about the chances that, that Monday not only are we gonna be honored but we might be able to stand there and high-five the ‘Cuse team as they come back out for halftime,” MacLachlan said. 

As the 2020 season opened, that scenario seemed likely. The old Syracuse lacrosse, from the era of five national championships in eight seasons, was always seen as a contender for national titles. The new Syracuse lacrosse was in the midst of a 10-year title drought, yearning for a return to the top of college lacrosse.

Over the span of 25 years, the old Syracuse lacrosse faded and the new took its place. But the 40-something year olds from 1995 had a chance to be remembered. After the coronavirus pandemic shut down sports on March 12, Syracuse’s current group never earned that opportunity.

Even if the Orange didn’t lose their 2020 season, an overlap with the 1995 team four days ago might not have happened. But, as current and former members of the Syracuse program said, their chances were good. Really good. So good that when anyone texted Morrissey about Syracuse’s current team, he typed only one response back: They’ve got the goods.

As parents and fans leaned over the railings at SUNY Cortland last fall, they watched Syracuse build two- and four-goal leads over Denver with a pair of goals from Tucker Dordevic, returning from a season-long foot injury, and Chase Scanlan, the transfer from Loyola. That was supposed to happen. The goods.

But Pioneers cut across Syracuse’s defense, weaving in and out of Nick Mellen, Brett Kennedy and Nick DiPietro. Porous coverage quickly became the Orange’s Achilles heel, a wound that only worsened when Mellen hobbled off with a leg injury in the season-opener. 

It was a stark difference from 1995, when Syracuse grouped together three All-American defenders — Ric Beardsley, Chad Smith and Hans Schmid — that made opposing midfielders hold their sticks up and stay back on transition runs. Their offensive capabilities posed threats, while still continuing to prevent goals at the other end.

After losing two of its first four games, Syracuse’s 1995 national championship team won 11-straight to close the season. Courtesy of Jim Morrissey

A loss to Virginia in the 1994 final four fueled their offseason, and before fall-ball started and Casey Powell torched local opponents at the Pumpkin Stick-Out Tournament, former SU head coach Roy Simmons Sr. passed away on Aug. 19. 

Syracuse stitched two patches on their jerseys, one to symbolize the NCAA lacrosse tournaments’ 25th anniversary and one black, oval-shaped attachment above the heart to honor Simmons Sr. They became rallying points through the back-to-back losses in the Carrier Dome against Virginia and Johns Hopkins that opened the season, as well as the 11-straight wins that closed it.

After the JHU loss, when then-head coach Roy Simmons Jr. was stuck in a hospital bed with pneumonia, Syracuse players awoke to an early-morning message: They needed to be at Coyne Field. 

“Ah shit, we’re gonna be running,” MacLachlan recalled thinking.

Instead, Simmons Jr. emerged from the fog that hovered over the Orange. He’d checked himself out of the hospital, and told his players, “Guys, I’m OK, and I’m not worried about you because you’ll be OK. You won’t lose for the rest of the year, it just will not happen.” They were all being tested, he said, but they hadn’t failed yet.

Syracuse’s 2020 team, in a way, is being tested right now. It’s a much longer test than the 1995 group or any team in Syracuse history’s dealt with, a 14-month examination questioning whether the same flair can return next February — or whenever the 2021 season happens.

Until that test is over, the current group’s message will remain hanging in midfielder Jamie Trimboli’s basement. Before the season, his father, Joe, created a sign with the Syracuse logo, the team’s “Head, Heart, Hustle” motto and a typed message across the top: “If you knew you couldn’t play tomorrow, how hard would you play today?”

It was an idea Joe had for his son’s Euclid Ave. house, one shared with the other lacrosse seniors, as a reminder for them to not look back, years later, begging for one more game. The seniors glanced at it throughout the season, glanced at it as one of them, Mellen, dealt with the injury that shortened his.

But then a global pandemic cut everyone’s season short. Practices have evaporated into Fortnite squads and Netflix binge-watching with girlfriends. When Joe helped Trimboli move out in March, he took the sign with him, redisplaying it in the basement of their Victor, New York home. 

“It was eerie when I saw that (sign) after,” Joe said. “Everything was on this year, the stars were aligned and everything was going so well, and then it gets pulled out from under us.”

Jamie Trimboli (12) was the second-leading scorer on Syracuse’s 2020 team that started 5-0 and reached No. 1 in the rankings. Will Fudge | Staff Photographer

Three weeks ago, Rob Kavovit’s wife pulled out some of his Syracuse gear for a small 45th birthday celebration in Florida. One of the items was his framed jersey from his sophomore 1995 season, the year he scored seven goals in the final four and championship games. A group chat with teammates from that year has buzzed increasingly the last few days asking when they’ll reunite again, midfielder Roy Colsey said.

The 2020 group didn’t have a chance to establish itself like the 1995 SU team did, with its winning streak that started after Simmons Jr.’s speech and continued into Championship Weekend against Virginia and Maryland. They didn’t have a chance to etch their legacy.

It wasn’t their fault, but it won’t stop the what-ifs. Not next year, not the year after and certainly not in 25 years when there’s no 2020 national champion to honor.

Andrew Crane is the sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at arcrane@syr.edu or @CraneAndrew.

Published on May 29, 2020 at 6:20 pm