‘The ultimate player’s coach’: How Gary Gait created a powerhouse team searching for 1st title

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The blades of grass on a golf course in Scottsdale, Arizona aren’t as thick as the demanding blades on a lacrosse field. But for the four days that Gary Gait, head coach of the women’s lacrosse team, spends miles aways from Syracuse each offseason not thinking about lacrosse, the thickness of the grass isn’t important.

Instead of gripping a lacrosse stick, one that he normally has his hand wrapped around during practices and before games, Gait handles a 9-iron. He hasn’t even looked at the game tape from Syracuse’s third-ever NCAA championship game loss yet. Right now, he’s focused on improving his golf game.

“I got to practice just like anything,” Gait said. “To be really consistent you have to do the work.”

Gait’s etched consistency in his 14 seasons coaching the Orange. Under Gait’s leadership, Syracuse grew from a mediocre Big East conference champion to a perennial top-five team nationally. He and the team have consistently achieved deep NCAA Tournament runs — eight Final Four appearances and earned three NCAA championship game bids — but no title wins.

“I take it personally that we have to give ourselves a chance every year to win,” Gait said. “As a player and as a coach, that’s always been my goal.”

The first step he took after becoming Syracuse’s head coach in 2008 was to invite each player into his office. He asked them simple questions: What do you like to do outside of lacrosse? What are your goals?

Then he asked another question: Are you here to win a national championship? Gait realized that most of the players had been recruited to win conference championships and deep playoff runs, not Syracuse’s first women’s lacrosse title.

“If you want to win, you have to change the mindset and the culture right away. That’s what I did,” Gait said.

In the summer before the 2008 season, Gait brought in sports psychologists and coaches to speak to players about the mental demands of the sport, former SU goalie Liz Hogan said. After filling his coaching staff and ensuring that his players understood the final goal — winning the national championship — Gait was ready for his inaugural season.

Syracuse overachieved that year, Gait said. The Orange went undefeated in the Big East, only losing three regular season games.

Syracuse earned the fifth seed in the NCAA Tournament, and a win over Towson sent the Orange to the quarterfinals for just the second time in school history. Syracuse was set to face North Carolina, but defeating the Tar Heels was a challenge for the Orange.

Despite three second-place finishes for each of the three NCAA championship game appearances, Gait said he’s not worried about the future.Courtesy of Rich Barnes | USA TODAY Sports

UNC led by one point with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game, but SU’s preseason training prepared it for this exact situation. Katie Rowan erupted, scoring and assisting on three straight goals which gave Syracuse a 12-10 lead.

Then Hogan launched a pass over 50 yards, allowing Syracuse to score on an empty net and solidify a 13-11 win. Unlike the year before, the Orange withstood the test of the quarterfinals and advanced to their first Final Four in program history.

“There was no doubt in our mind that we were going to go to the Final Four,” Hogan said. “It was something we openly talked about, and looking back, that’s a unique culture. A lot of teams don’t do that.”

But Syracuse’s Cinderella season would end in the Final Four when the Orange were eliminated by No. 1 seed Northwestern. The following season, Maryland ended SU’s title game hopes in the quarterfinals. And a year after that, the Terrapins eliminated the Orange in the Final Four. Three seasons and three postseasons without a title.

Gait attributed Syracuse’s lack of championship wins to the Orange’s inability to bring in high-caliber talent — a result of the team’s lack of national recognition, he said. The 22 players Gait inherited weren’t enough against perennial powerhouses like Maryland and Northwestern.

In Hogan’s four years, the Orange never made it to the NCAA championship game. But those postseason performances cemented Syracuse as an up-and-coming team. The team grew the championship mentality that Gait initiated, opening SU’s window to the title.

“(Gait)’s the ultimate player’s coach,” Hogan said. “That little shift in mentality seems super small, but that’s what makes the best programs what they are. They know they’re the best. They want to be the best and that’s what ends up happening.”

Every season between 2012 and 2016, the Orange finished as a runner-up or winner of a conference tournament and as an semifinalist or finalist of the NCAA tournament. The talent gap between SU and its opponents present in Gait’s first four seasons had closed, but Syracuse still finished short because of bad luck, Gait said.

“To actually win it you need everything for you to fall in place,” Gait said. “The teams did what they needed to do and that was play at that level. And you always need a little luck, a few calls, something to go your way.”

Syracuse’s best finishes came in 2012 and 2014, when both seasons ended in championship game losses. In 2012, the Orange secured their first championship game berth after a 14-13 double-overtime upset over No. 1 Florida. Syracuse lost to No. 2 Northwestern 8-6 after a team yellow card late in the game and after losing Michelle Tumolo due to yellow cards.

That ending repeated itself this season, when Emma Tyrrell received two yellow cards early in the championship game against Boston College, altering the course of the game. Fouls created a hole for Syracuse, one that it couldn’t overcome.

In 2014, Syracuse faced No. 1 seed Maryland — which lost the championship to North Carolina the season prior — in the championship game. At the beginning of the second half, the Orange trailed 9-6, but then star attack Kayla Treanor received the ball.

Treanor’s shot from the right side of the 8-meter went high. She worked her way back into the 8-meter and ripped another attempt which went wide, but Alyssa Murray scored 15 seconds later. Syracuse worked twice as hard as the Terrapins in every attempt, falling short in the offensive battle, Treanor said.

“It’s devastating,” Treanor, now associate head coach at Boston College, said. “It’s really hard to get that far and play such a great team and then just come so close.”

In 2021, Syracuse still struggled with its offense in the championship game, faltering on key possessions. In the second half against Boston College, Bianca Chevarie, Meaghan Tyrrell and Maddy Baxter all missed the net during one possession — SU’s final attempt to close in on BC’s lead.

Gait noticed a trend in Syracuse’s championship-game losses. All three losses came against teams that made the title game the year before, and each opponent played either for the chance to redeem itself or to protect its crown.

“Once you win one, there’s a potential to make a run,” Gait said. “It’s a mindset, it’s a belief. Making the ball bounce your way when you need to. All that stuff comes your way once you’ve actually won one.”

Despite three second-place finishes for each of the three NCAA championship game appearances, Gait said he’s not worried about the future. He said he knows that everything is eventually going to fall into place for Syracuse. But for a championship formula to come to fruition, the Orange need to better utilize the transfer portal, Gait said.

Last offseason, Syracuse landed Georgetown transfer Emily Ehle, who notched two goals and six assists in its win over Northwestern in the Final Four this season. But in 2019 and 2020, the Orange targeted two other stars — Kerrigan Miller and Tewaaraton Award winner Charlotte North. Syracuse didn’t sign either.

Signing North was “one piece of the puzzle” which secured Boston College’s first national championship, Gait said.

This summer, Syracuse’s own quest for its missing puzzle piece commences. Gait said that the Orange are exhausting all options — specifically by trying to land a top transfer — in search of this difference maker.

After his four days on the golf course, Gait has picked up his lacrosse stick and stepped onto the lacrosse field once again. Now, the only thing on his mind is returning to the championship game next season.

“We’re actively working to not stay where we’re at, but to get better,” Gait said. “We want that national championship. We’re not satisfied with the status quo.”