Gary Gait was sitting on a beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, two months ago when Syracuse Director of Athletics Daryl Gross called him about the women’s lacrosse head coach opening. He thought it was a joke.

‘I turned to my friend who I work with at Kroenke Sports and I said, ‘I just got a call from the athletic director at Syracuse,” Gait recalled. ‘And he laughed. I said, ‘That’s pretty funny.’ We joked about it. Sure enough, I followed up and they were serious.’

It was serious enough that on Tuesday, Gross introduced Gait as the new Syracuse women’s lacrosse head coach.

‘This is a great day for Syracuse University, for the community of Syracuse, for the country, really,’ Gross said.

Gait, considered to be the greatest lacrosse player of all time, is a legend with unparalleled success in the sport. He has won every major collegiate, professional and international lacrosse championship during his career, which began as a player at Syracuse in 1988. He won three national titles with the Orangemen between 1988-1990 and still holds scoring records.

‘When you talk about greatness, you think about the best baseball player you can think of: Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron,’ Gross said. ‘You think about tennis, right now it’s (Roger) Federer. You think about Tiger. You think about all of these great players. Michael Jordan. But in lacrosse, who is it? He’s right here.’

Gait brings added credibility to a team that won its first NCAA tournament game in school history in May. In 10 seasons of competition, the women’s lacrosse team was 106-53, all under coach Lisa Miller, who resigned on June 26 to take the same position at Harvard. In July, Inside Lacrosse magazine ranked the Orange as the fourth best team in the country heading into 2008, before Gait was even hired.

A head coach for four seasons with the Major League Lacrosse’s Baltimore Bayhawks and the past two seasons as coach of the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League, Gait has substantial experience on the bench. But Gross was most impressed with Gait’s time as an assistant coach for the Maryland women’s lacrosse team in the late 90s.

‘He coached at a college program, a women’s program in Maryland, where they were OK before he got there,’ Gross said. ‘All I know is that while he was there, they won seven national championships in nine years. To me, that is such an impressive feat.’

Gait said he was enthused by Gross’ ideas for the program. That’s why he took the job.

‘I was so impressed with Daryl’s vision and the direction that the athletic department is moving in, and the facilities,’ Gait said. ‘The effort and the striving to be the best and not just satisfied with being a good athletic department, but to be the best athletic department.

‘It’s a perfect situation.’

Gait will retain assistant coach John Battaglino, who spent three years as Miller’s top assistant. The second assistant position will be filled in the coming weeks, Gait said. Battaglino, who has handled recruiting duties since Miller resigned in June, said SU may have lost out on some recruits because of the uncertainty of a coaching change, but that Gait will be a catalyst for eventually signing the nation’s top athletes.

‘Now that he’s officially announced, we can go from there (in recruiting),’ Battaglino said. ‘There were some people who weren’t sure, and they’re forced to make decisions earlier now, and we may have lost some kids early on, but this will help in the long run.’

Gross took it a step further.

‘I want to play for him,’ he quipped. ‘Who wouldn’t want to learn from the best, someone who has the most amazing skills? And it’s one thing to have the skills, but it’s another thing to teach it and really know it. It’s very rare to find someone who can do it all.’

And if Syracuse has fallen behind in recruiting this year, well, Gait’s got a few connections.

‘(Losing players is) always going to happen,’ Gait said. ‘And it happens to anyone who makes a (coaching) change. But you go out and find them somewhere else. I have some friends and contacts.’

Gait was introduced in front of a who’s who of Syracuse lacrosse lore. Former men’s head coach Roy Simmons Jr., current head coach John Desko and assistant Roy Simmons III were all in attendance, along with representatives from various lacrosse equipment sponsors.

The new women’s coach couldn’t help but thank his old coach, Simmons Jr., who offered Gait and his twin brother, Paul, scholarships without seeing them play lacrosse, and Desko, who mentored Gait as an assistant coach.

‘(He took) a chance on myself and my twin brother way back in the late ’90s and providing me with the opportunity to come to Syracuse and play lacrosse,’ Gait said. ‘It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for myself. I’ve learned so much from both of them. I use that everyday when I walked away from Syracuse, years and years ago.’

Now Gait will begin to return the favors of his former coaches and mentors as he takes the reigns of the women’s program. Gross sees the hire as a big step in the natural progression of bringing the women’s lacrosse team to the next level.

How about a national title?

‘Championships come from preparation, from having the right leadership, to having the right work ethic, to having the right attitude, the right culture, the right atmosphere,’ Gross said. ‘It takes a lot to win a championship. You have to be fortunate.

‘Nothing’s ever guaranteed, but what you do is prepare for it. And you prepare by doing all the right things, and Gary brings all the right ingredients.’

Published on August 28, 2007 at 12:00 pm