3 takeaways from Gary Gait’s introductory press conference

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Following men’s lacrosse head coach John Desko’s retirement, former Syracuse player and women’s lacrosse head coach Gary Gait was announced as the new men’s program head coach. On Thursday, Gait addressed the media about his new role as the fifth head coach in SU men’s lacrosse history.

“He is the Michael Jordan of lacrosse,” said Director of Athletics John Wildhack, who was at the press conference along with Gait. “Gait is more than capable of leading our men’s program back to the championship level that we all covet.”

Here are three takeaways from Gait’s introductory press conference:

Return to greatness

Wildhack’s opening statement noted Gait’s ability to bring Syracuse back to Championship Weekend, a place the Orange haven’t reached since 2013. As a player from 1987 to 1990, Gait made the Final Four every season, winning three straight NCAA titles from 1988 to 1990.

Gait said his success as a player at Syracuse was because of coaches like Roy Simmons Jr. and Desko, an assistant at the time, placing an emphasis on the team’s ability to work past the Xs and Os. Athletes would experiment with plays that have never been done before, including the “Air Gait” which Gait popularized in 1988, Gait said.

“One of the things I want to bring to this program is to heighten the level of chemistry and take the program to the next level like I remember it being,” Gait said. “I’m thrilled to try and bring those plays back to the program and create a buzz around how Syracuse plays again.”

Gait has experience coaching men’s teams at the international level with Team Canada and at the professional level in the National Lacrosse League. The variety of styles is something that he can utilize in his “dream job” with the men’s program in order to come up with a system that best suits all of its players, Gait said.

“That’s going to be a big key with being creative,” Gait said. “(We’re) trying to evaluate the players and come up with a style of play that will allow us to hopefully bring back 20,000 in the Carrier Dome to watch us play.”

Recruiting

Focused on the upcoming season, Gait said a key for the team’s future success is recruiting.

The change of the recruiting timeline — restraining the recruiting process to begin in September of a player’s junior year of high school rather than earlier — will allow the Orange to make more calculated recruiting decisions and ensure they don’t rely on “guesswork,” Gait said.

“It’s much easier to identify a top player as they’ve matured a little bit,” Gait said.

Gait plans on reducing the size of recruiting classes in the coming years, with an emphasis on landing players based on positional need instead of trying to capture the best talent. He is also working on recruiting the staff for next season, including a defensive coordinator.

“We should have some staff named in the next couple days,” Gait said. “We’re working very quickly.”

Why the switch?

When Gait took over the women’s program, Syracuse was a mediocre Big East conference winner with only 22 players on its roster. In 12 seasons, Gait transformed the team into a top-5 powerhouse team, which climbed to the national championship game this season but fell short of the title in a 16-10 loss to Boston College.

Coaching wasn’t something that he was drawn towards at first, Gait said. But he found success with the women’s program through his ability to “create new ways to improve.”

“Whether it was stick work or dodging, I used my ability to break down the game and teach it to the young ladies,” Gait said. “Fortunately, they had amazing success. That got me hooked into being a coach.”

Gait plans on working with the men’s team on all-around skills so that the team has “a wide array of options” rather than focusing on one skill such as dodging. He was able to improve the broad skills of the women’s team through a motion offense, which allowed many players to score every game.

“I’ve found over the years that most players tend to do the same things over and over again,” Gait said. “But the truly great players are the ones that change it in situations.”

Moving from the women’s team to the men’s team was a hard decision, Gait said, but he still plans on continuing to contribute to the women’s team.

“I look forward to the day when we can both raise the national championship,” Gait said at the end of his opening statement. “Hopefully that will be very soon.”