D.O. Sports’ 10 best-written stories of spring 2019

Part of The Daily Orange’s coverage of Syracuse Athletics — and more — this spring is the numerous features and game coverages by our staff. With the conclusion of 2019’s spring semester, we compiled a list of our 10 best-written stories from the past five months. From a look into the lack of racial diversity in lacrosse to a Syracuse attack who struggles with dyslexia to a 5-year-old with cerebral palsy who is a part of SU women’s lacrosse, here’s some of the D.O.’s best work.

Read the whole list below. 

Emma Comtois | Senior Design Editor

Inside the lack of racial diversity in lacrosse

Only 2.8% of Division I men’s lacrosse players are black, per the NCAA. While the rate is slowly increasing, it’s moving at a pace that will bring little change to the sport.

Traditionally, the top lacrosse programs are at private schools or public schools in white affluent areas. Paired with testimonies and anecdotes from athletes of color, some minority players have experienced the effects of institutionalized racism.

Molly Gibbs | Senior Staff Photographer

Her IMPACT: Maddy Hertweck, a 5 year old with cerebral palsy, is a part of Syracuse women’s lacrosse this season

Before she was even born, Maddy Hertweck’s life has been in doubt. She’s endured countless surgeries and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and epilepsy at a young age. Her two older sisters played soccer and danced, and Maddy wanted to have her own activity as well.

One day, the 5-year-old told her mom she just wanted to dance like her sister. The Hertweck’s knew Maddy couldn’t play sports like her sisters, but through Team IMPACT, she’s become a staple of Syracuse women’s lacrosse and superstar on a team vying for a national title.

Sarah Allam | Illustration Editor

Q-BALL: Inside the creation of Syracuse’s margin-based offense

Five years ago, a system originated on women’s basketball associate head coach Vonn Read’s computer. A margin-based offensive system, it has driven SU head coach Quentin Hillsman and Read to preach that creating possession disparities, regardless of field goal percentage, will lead to wins.

“The numbers,” Read said. “That’s something we definitely emphasize.”

TJ Shaw | Staff Photographer

LEARNING HIS WAY: How Tucker Dordevic came to accept his learning differences

Men’s lacrosse sophomore Tucker Dordevic was once told he’d never learn. Diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia, he struggled to read as a child. Then, he attended Edison High School, which provided him tools to work around his learning differences.

Dordevic, who fell behind in school as a child, became a note-taker for one of his classes at Edison, and in the fall of his senior year, gave an eight-minute speech to a crowd of several hundred about his struggles at school. Now, it’s a message he spreads often.

Courtesy of Derrell Smith

How former SU football star Derrell Smith became a ‘hustler that can cook’

Since retiring from the NFL in 2012, the former Syracuse star has built a successful meatball catering service while making viral cooking videos for Tastemade. Smith, from West Philadelphia, developed his entrepreneurial instincts at Syracuse and has applied them in the culinary world.

Through the “OG Sauce” that he discovered during his graduate year at SU, Smith has perfected his specialty meatballs and has become a “hustler that can cook.”

TJ Shaw | Staff Photographer

3 knee surgeries didn’t stop Morgan Alexander from playing lacrosse

Morgan Alexander blew out her knee four days before her sophomore season, missing the entire year. Then, about a year after her first injury, she felt a pop. She couldn’t run and was again ruled out for the season after surgery. This fall, her meniscus became so swollen that the team physician told her to stop playing.

“It was basically an ultimatum,” Alexander said.

And more than two years after her initial set back, she is finally on the field for Syracuse, having never given up hope she’d make it back. 

Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer

Jim Boeheim’s legacy immortalized in Lyons, New York

Growing up in Lyons, New York, Jim Boeheim was just “a skinny kid who loved basketball.” He annoyed neighbors when he’d shoot basketballs after dark and started games of cops and robbers during elementary-school nap times.

Nowadays, his former high school teammates gather nearly every weekday for breakfast on Canal Street, two doors down from the funeral home that Boeheim’s family used to operate. Boeheim hasn’t lived in Lyons since 1962, but his name is still famous in the town.

“He’s still that same kid, that product of Lyons,” Juli, his wife of 21 years, said. “He has changed probably zero percent.

Max Freund | Staff Photographer

‘If I’m going to do this, I want to be great’: Tammi Reiss uses player-driven style to thrive as Syracuse assistant

Women’s basketball assistant coach Tammi Reiss dreamed of one day being in charge of her own program. She started her path at Virginia — a program she led to three-straight Final Fours as a player — and pursued it further at San Diego State and Syracuse. She’s molded guards, constructed the “single biggest one-year turnaround,” and built relationships with players that kept her wanting more.

“You guys see the finished product,” Reiss said. “You see these kids running up and down the court and how we play and you don’t see all the things that go in from day one.”

On April 17, Reiss was hired as the head coach at Rhode Island, fulfilling her goal.

Josh Schafer | Senior Staff Writer

Shannon Doepking wants to rebuild Syracuse as 1st-year head coach

When Shannon Doepking took the Syracuse softball coaching job in October, 2018, there was little to no team culture. The team did not spend much time together off the field, the coaching staff rarely reached out to the players, and players scheduled vacations during the NCAA tournament.

She has since built a team centered around four core values: selflessness, family, 100% effort and ownership. Derived from her time at Dartmouth and Tennessee, these have yet to catch on at Syracuse.

Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer

Syracuse walk-ons rarely play, but they dream big and cherish little moments

Walk-ons have played a key role in preparing and challenging starters for Syracuse men’s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim, originally a non-scholarship player himself. They’ll spend hours analyzing opposing players to emulate their play in practice against SU starters.

Most will play just a handful of minutes while at Syracuse, but “they’re just as important as any scholarship player,” junior forward Elijah Hughes said.