The Daily OrangeDesko and lacrosse: perfect together
By Jeff Passan
Posted: 4/24/02, 2:46 AM EST Section: Sports
Sanctity. His hands had never touched anything like what they touched that fall afternoon, what they clenched and haven't let go of for 35 years.
Pure, unadulterated bliss. Thirty or so inches of beaten-up wood, a lacrosse stick with shoelace strings handed to him, John, the new kid on the block, by Kevin, a neighborhood staple. Take a try, kid. You're in Syracuse now. You play lacrosse. Here's a stick. Let's go.
Ecstasy. Rapture. Love. And so began the obsession.
Lacrosse — she is good to John Desko. And John Desko — he is good to her, too. Their marriage is rife with mutual admiration. Desko is in his fourth year as head coach of the Syracuse men's lacrosse team, which has booked 19 consecutive Final Four appearances. He brings the same vigor and vitriol he did as a young-buck assistant coach who would strike fear into his underlings with the tilt of his baseball cap, then charm them with a whip-crack one-liner. He learned those during his All-American tenure playing for the Orangemen. He played for the Orangemen because that kid, Kevin, handed him that junker of a stick and told him to go. And he did.
Actually, there's more than that, much more. It all lies within the unspoken vows between John Terry Desko and lacrosse.
We are gathered here today to witness the coming together of two, whose hearts and spirits are entwined as one
What a huge head.
Mike Messere couldn't stop staring. It was just ... there. Exploding with blonde hair. Holding in place those sweet baby blues. Framing that crooked smile. Topping a 5-foot-10 frame that certainly didn't look like it belonged to a seventh-grader.
Messere coached the West Genesee Middle School lacrosse team in 1970 and Desko, after excelling at football during the fall and basketball during the winter, needed his lacrosse fix. So he lugged his gear — and cranium — off to his first organized practice.
Yeah, he had played plenty in his back yard at 114 Ivy Lane, with Kevin and Billy and the other guys in the neighborhood. The Deskos moved to Syracuse when John, the patriarch, followed his phone-company job from the Binghamton area. They didn't play much lacrosse down there.
Pure, unadulterated bliss. Thirty or so inches of beaten-up wood, a lacrosse stick with shoelace strings handed to him, John, the new kid on the block, by Kevin, a neighborhood staple. Take a try, kid. You're in Syracuse now. You play lacrosse. Here's a stick. Let's go.
Ecstasy. Rapture. Love. And so began the obsession.
Lacrosse — she is good to John Desko. And John Desko — he is good to her, too. Their marriage is rife with mutual admiration. Desko is in his fourth year as head coach of the Syracuse men's lacrosse team, which has booked 19 consecutive Final Four appearances. He brings the same vigor and vitriol he did as a young-buck assistant coach who would strike fear into his underlings with the tilt of his baseball cap, then charm them with a whip-crack one-liner. He learned those during his All-American tenure playing for the Orangemen. He played for the Orangemen because that kid, Kevin, handed him that junker of a stick and told him to go. And he did.
Actually, there's more than that, much more. It all lies within the unspoken vows between John Terry Desko and lacrosse.
We are gathered here today to witness the coming together of two, whose hearts and spirits are entwined as one
What a huge head.
Mike Messere couldn't stop staring. It was just ... there. Exploding with blonde hair. Holding in place those sweet baby blues. Framing that crooked smile. Topping a 5-foot-10 frame that certainly didn't look like it belonged to a seventh-grader.
Messere coached the West Genesee Middle School lacrosse team in 1970 and Desko, after excelling at football during the fall and basketball during the winter, needed his lacrosse fix. So he lugged his gear — and cranium — off to his first organized practice.
Yeah, he had played plenty in his back yard at 114 Ivy Lane, with Kevin and Billy and the other guys in the neighborhood. The Deskos moved to Syracuse when John, the patriarch, followed his phone-company job from the Binghamton area. They didn't play much lacrosse down there.
