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Syracuse, NY — Gary Gait made a quick confession Thursday of how relentless time is for even the greatest of them all.
As he was introduced as the fifth head coach in the history of Syracuse’s men’s lacrosse program, the Orange legend pulled out a piece of paper with prepared commentary. Before speaking, he reached for an important accessory.
“Well, I’m getting old, so I need glasses,” says Gait, 54.
After that, and a brief reflection on the journey it brought to training, the gait answered questions like he played as an All-American and three-time national champion for Syracuse — full speed forward.
His gait, sparkling in an orange jacket, orange paisley tie and blue shirt and blue pants, speaks quietly but firmly about increasing the volume of Syracuse’s style of play while pushing harder for the championship at the same time. Air Gait, the nickname he earned for his acrobatic and revolutionary offensive style, may be a vestige of the 1980s, but Gait promises to pass on as much of his style and success as possible to today’s generations.
“That’s definitely one of the things I want to bring to this program is to raise the level of chemistry and actually make the program, take it to the next level offensively and actually create the chemistry as I remember it,” said Gait. In practice, the guys experiment, try different things so that they use them in the game. They were unique things, the kind of drama that had never been done before. I’m really excited to have that opportunity to try and bring it back into the program and create a real buzz around the way Syracuse plays again.
Her career has shifted from coaching the women’s team to replace John Desko, who has coached the men’s team since 1999 and won five national titles. Desko, who announced his retirement last week, did not attend Thursday’s event because Gait said he had previous commitments. But Gait says Desko has reached out to help with the transition and is welcome to continue providing support and feedback.
While Gait is a great player, he says he never saw himself getting a career as a coach, but rather saw it as a volunteer activity. But after her playing days at SU ended, Gait accepted an offer to work as assistant coach for the Maryland women’s team.
I took an approach using what I learned when I was 12, says Gait. I started training with the idea of teaching and explaining why you do something and creating new ways in the women’s game to develop. I use my skills to break down games and skills and teach them to young women. And luckily the young ladies were a tremendous success. So it really got me hooked on being a coach. And from there I knew I wanted to be a coach.
Gait took over the SU women’s team in 2007 and turned it into a national force, earning a place in three title matches. The Orange lost all three of those championship games, including one to Boston College this Memorial Day weekend. Gait said if he could get one do-over it would be another round with the group.
Some people ask, well, why do you think men’s positions are better than women’s positions? gait said. And to be honest, it doesn’t get any better. It’s just something I want to do. And I’ve had opportunities in the past (to coach the men’s team) and I’m sticking with the women’s game. I truly believed that my value at that time was on the women’s side. It was a dream to go back and train the women, but now having the opportunity to be on the side of men is unbelievable.
Gait said she didn’t even consider the option as a possibility as recently as a few days ago, as she finished the tournament with the women. At exactly the same time, around Memorial Day weekend, Desko was gearing up for the 2022 season and visited recruit Joey Spallina on Long Island.
But in a still rather bleak turn of events, at some point last week Desko and athletic director John Wildhack held a series of conversations about the coach’s future. The Deskos team capped a disappointing 7-6 season with a loss to Georgetown in the first round of the NCAA tournament, and the smell of potential change was in the air. Desko said he had decided to retire, Wildhack compiled a short list of replacement candidates and chose Gait.
I enjoy training young women. They’ve been amazing. So I really didn’t spend any time thinking about it (taking a guy job), says Gait. It wasn’t until it actually happened that my head started spinning and trying to figure out if this was the right move. And of course, it was instant yes for me.
Now, the pressure to land another Orange champion trophy landed on his lap. Gait ignores it, expressing confidence that it will put the product on a field that is both entertaining and successful.
I have a lot of experience with every style of play. And I think it will really help me, he said. And that’s going to be a big key, I think, to be creative and try to evaluate players and come up with a style of play that allows us to bring back 20,000 in the Dome to watch us play. It will be between style and talent but always has to have substance and success.
Every coaching job I’ve ever taken, the goal is the same, to win championships. And I’m so lucky that I’ve succeeded so many times. But it’s really easy when that’s what you’re living for and that’s what I’m focused on, is building a team to be successful. I don’t put too much pressure on it. One thing I’ve always done is I really started to believe in it and then I started convincing the team that they definitely can and I made them believe that they can do it every year.
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