Le Moyne Athletics : Cranium Command - Travis Tarr feature (by Dave Rahme) Syracuse Post-Standard

May 25, 2006

Cranium Command
Thursday, May 25, 2006
By Dave Rahme
Staff writer, Syracuse Post-Standard

Direct link to story:

A visit into the mind of Travis Tarr is a fascinating experience. It should be a mandatory field trip for any young lacrosse player who dreams of taking his game beyond the limitations of his physical gifts.

Tarr is a senior close defender on the Le Moyne College men's lacrosse team, which will face Dowling at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia for the Division II national title. At 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, he will scare few opponents who size him up before a game.

"Not very intimidating," said sophomore attackman Mike McDonald, Tarr's teammate and the Dolphins' leading scorer. "Yep."

McDonald shakes his head, looks at the ground and allows a small chuckle to escape. He faces Tarr every day in practice. He knows all too well that Tarr's assets lie beneath the surface, in a brain that holds a dossier on every foe he has ever faced, in a mind that is forever moving one step ahead of the other players on the field and in a heart that will be satisfied with nothing less than perfection.

He knows that Travis Tarr's physical appearance is part of the act, part of the reason his teammate is a magician. He knows Tarr can make a great offensive player disappear.

"He's almost unbeatable one-on-one," McDonald said. "He's not necessarily going to take the ball away from you, but there's no way you're going to get in a position to pass the ball or take a shot. He's got great feet, and he knows the game better than anybody on the field. I think that's one of the biggest things. He's just smarter . . . he outsmarts you."

"Travis is not the fastest and not the most athletic," Le Moyne coach Dan Sheehan said, "but he is one of the most intelligent players I have ever known."

That intelligence, combined with a mastery of the fundamentals and a drive to excel, has carried the Auburn High School product to the pinnacle of the sport. First-team All-American. National player of the year in Division II. National defenseman of the year in D-II. Northeast-10 Conference player of the year.

Yet, fans who jam "the Linc" Sunday during championship weekend may have trouble picking Tarr out of the crowd of Dolphins on the field. They likely will have trouble distinguishing Dowling's best offensive player, too, because it is likely that Tarr will have made him disappear. It will be accomplished with little fanfare, but it will be accomplished nonetheless.

"Most of the time when you picture the best defender on your team and the best defender in Division II you think of a kid who has the ability to take the ball away whenever he wants to with flashy checks," Sheehan said. "That's not Travis."

Who, then, is Travis, and how did he get to the top?

Basically, he is a lacrosse geek or freak, depending on your perspective, an extra coach on the field who acts like a coach off it, spending hours in the film room gleaning insights on foes he will use to his advantage. He fills personal notebooks with his observations, then studies them until he knows a foe inside-out.

He opened one of those books for examination recently, revealing pages of neatly printed observations on Merrimack's potent one-two scoring punch of freshman Greg Rogowski and sophomore Chris Elia. Written in a code only he can understand and complete with complex diagrams of lacrosse plays, to the untrained eye it looked like calculus homework.

"I just wrote down every dodge Elia had, every dodge Rogowski had and what he tried to do with me the first time we played them," Tarr said. "He was trying to get up on me on the right side. He was just trying to get top side. And he would kind of bring his stick back like he was going to inside roll, waiting for me to try to bring it over, and then come up hard righty."

Translation: Tarr analyzed what the young star was trying to do and was prepared for it when the teams met again in the Northeast-10 title game. Rogowski, who resembles former Syracuse University superstar Mike Powell in appearance and playing style, burst onto the scene this season with 71 goals and 108 points. The first time he faced Tarr, a 16-5 Le Moyne victory, he scored one goal and assisted on another. In the rematch, a 10-3 Dolphins victory, he was scoreless.

Against the rest of the nation the freshman flash and conference rookie of the year scored 7.5 points a game. Against Tarr he averaged 1.0. Tarr, the magician, made him disappear.

"We keyed on Rogowski and Elia," Tarr said. "Depending on where they were, we knew what play they were going to run. We were well-prepared."

Tarr said such preparation can be traced to his days as a freshman at Auburn High School, where junior-varsity coach Matt Smith - now the head coach at Cayuga Community College and the man Tarr credits with having the biggest influence on his lacrosse life - sat down with the young player and broke down an instructional tape of Princeton's defense that had been sent to Smith by Tigers coach Bill Tierney.

Fascinated by the strategy employed by one of the sport's great defensive innovators, Tarr dedicated himself to mastering the fundamentals of playing close defense while becoming a student of the nuances of the game. With Smith serving as his mentor and his competitive nature providing the fuel, Tarr became proficient enough at Auburn to make Central New York's Empire State Games team and thus attract attention from Division I recruiters.

In the end, though, the desire to play right away - something Sheehan pledged was a possibility at Le Moyne and D-I recruiters hinted was a long shot at their schools - led Tarr to become a Dolphin. Sheehan's projection was confirmed as soon as Tarr hit the field.

"I felt I had a leg up on everybody because I knew the game inside-out," Tarr said. "I knew the fundamentals, what they were trying to do in terms of team defense, when to slide, how to take angles."

Sheehan recognized the maturity and inserted Tarr into the starting lineup as a true freshman. The Dolphins are 61-2 since then, have won one national title and will play for a second Sunday. They led the nation in defense last season, allowing an NCAA-record 3.27 goals per game, and have nearly matched that incredible statistic this season (3.60).

Despite his long list of individual accomplishments during the run, Tarr is quick to deflect praise to fellow All-America close defender Chris Doran (East Syracuse-Minoa) and All-America goalie Jared Corcoran, to solid junior Matt Juriga at the third close position and the defensive midfielders.

Yet, there is no question that Tarr is the man, the player capable of neutralizing an opponent's best scorer with one hand and orchestrating the team defense with the other.

"We're known for our team defense," McDonald said, "and one of the reasons it is so good is because of him. He makes every defender on the field better. Off ball he might not be guarding the ball, but he'll be watching. He'll send slide guys or tell them not to go, tell them to show. He's really thinking so the other guys on the field don't have to think. He thinks for everybody on the field. He's like the coach on the field."

One step ahead of everybody else. It is the integral element that separates Tarr from the pack. And because it lies under the surface it is a stealth weapon that often goes unrecognized.

"I'm not so sure that the first time a team plays Travis it shies away from him," Sheehan said. "It's not like a Steve Panarelli (SU's superb longstick midfielder) where you know he is going to put the ball on the ground. Yet, the second time around that player who needs to face Travis again is remembering he wasn't able to get to the goal, wasn't able to get his hands free. Travis just wears you down."

He simply knows the game, knows the angles he needs to take to head off a faster player like Rogowski at the pass, to "close the gate on him."

"He's great at making you do what you don't want to do," senior attackman Jason Longo (Cazenovia) said. "If you're strong right-handed, he'll make you go left. He always has a game plan of how to beat his opponent."

"To be honest,it's his intensity," senior Ryan Lewis (ES-M) said. "It's his drive, his competitiveness. He's very intense. And you can feel that as an attackman, you know what I mean?"

Those who have faced Tarr over the years know exactly what Lewis means. And despite his understated style, the coaches who have to game-plan against him know it, too, hence all the individual honors.

Tarr swears the awards are stuffed in a locker somewhere, under a pile of dirty laundry. He says Le Moyne's fate Sunday will supercede all the awards combined.

"That's how I think careers are judged," he said. "I feel that Peyton Manning is the best quarterback in the NFL, but Tom Brady is because he's got all the Super Bowl rings. When I look back I don't want people to see these individual awards. I want them to see two national championships. That's the most important thing."

Rest assured that Travis Tarr will do his part to make it happen. He has been in the film room, has added pages of code and diagrams to his notebook. He never has faced Dowling before, but chances are he is about to make its best offensive player disappear.

He will do it with his mind as much as his body. It will be a fascinating trip.



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May 25, 2006 Cranium Command Thursday, May 25, 2006 By Dave Rahme Staff writer, Syracuse Post-Standard Direct link to story: A visit into the mind of Travis Tarr is a fascinating experience. It should be a mandatory field trip for any young lacrosse player who dreams of taking his game beyond the limitations of his physical gifts. Tarr is a senior close defender on the Le Moyne College men's lacrosse team, which will face Dowling at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia for the Division II national title. At 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, he will scare few opponents who size him up before a game. "Not very intimidating," said sophomore attackman Mike McDonald, Tarr's teammate and the Dolphins' leading scorer. "Yep." McDonald shakes his head, looks at the ground and allows a small chuckle to escape. He faces Tarr every day in practice. He knows all too well that Tarr's assets lie beneath the surface, in a brain that holds a dossier on every foe he has ever faced, in a mind that is forever moving one step ahead of the other players on the field and in a heart that will be satisfied with nothing less than perfection. He knows that Travis Tarr's physical appearance is part of the act, part of the reason his teammate is a magician. He knows Tarr can make a great offensive player disappear. "He's almost unbeatable one-on-one," McDonald said. "He's not necessarily going to take the ball away from you, but there's no way you're going to get in a position to pass the ball or take a shot. He's got great feet, and he knows the game better than anybody on the field. I think that's one of the biggest things. He's just smarter . . . he outsmarts you." "Travis is not the fastest and not the most athletic," Le Moyne coach Dan Sheehan said, "but he is one of the most intelligent players I have ever known." That intelligence, combined with a mastery of the fundamentals and a drive to excel, has carried the Auburn High School product to the pinnacle of the sport. First-team All-American. National player of the year in Division II. National defenseman of the year in D-II. Northeast-10 Conference player of the year. Yet, fans who jam "the Linc" Sunday during championship weekend may have trouble picking Tarr out of the crowd of Dolphins on the field. They likely will have trouble distinguishing Dowling's best offensive player, too, because it is likely that Tarr will have made him disappear. It will be accomplished with little fanfare, but it will be accomplished nonetheless. "Most of the time when you picture the best defender on your team and the best defender in Division II you think of a kid who has the ability to take the ball away whenever he wants to with flashy checks," Sheehan said. "That's not Travis." Who, then, is Travis, and how did he get to the top? Basically, he is a lacrosse geek or freak, depending on your perspective, an extra coach on the field who acts like a coach off it, spending hours in the film room gleaning insights on foes he will use to his advantage. He fills personal notebooks with his observations, then studies them until he knows a foe inside-out. He opened one of those books for examination recently, revealing pages of neatly printed observations on Merrimack's potent one-two scoring punch of freshman Greg Rogowski and sophomore Chris Elia. Written in a code only he can understand and complete with complex diagrams of lacrosse plays, to the untrained eye it looked like calculus homework. "I just wrote down every dodge Elia had, every dodge Rogowski had and what he tried to do with me the first time we played them," Tarr said. "He was trying to get up on me on the right side. He was just trying to get top side. And he would kind of bring his stick back like he was going to inside roll, waiting for me to try to bring it over, and then come up hard righty." Translation: Tarr analyzed what the young star was trying to do and was prepared for it when the teams met again in the Northeast-10 title game. Rogowski, who resembles former Syracuse University superstar Mike Powell in appearance and playing style, burst onto the scene this season with 71 goals and 108 points. The first time he faced Tarr, a 16-5 Le Moyne victory, he scored one goal and assisted on another. In the rematch, a 10-3 Dolphins victory, he was scoreless. Against the rest of the nation the freshman flash and conference rookie of the year scored 7.5 points a game. Against Tarr he averaged 1.0. Tarr, the magician, made him disappear. "We keyed on Rogowski and Elia," Tarr said. "Depending on where they were, we knew what play they were going to run. We were well-prepared." Tarr said such preparation can be traced to his days as a freshman at Auburn High School, where junior-varsity coach Matt Smith - now the head coach at Cayuga Community College and the man Tarr credits with having the biggest influence on his lacrosse life - sat down with the young player and broke down an instructional tape of Princeton's defense that had been sent to Smith by Tigers coach Bill Tierney. Fascinated by the strategy employed by one of the sport's great defensive innovators, Tarr dedicated himself to mastering the fundamentals of playing close defense while becoming a student of the nuances of the game. With Smith serving as his mentor and his competitive nature providing the fuel, Tarr became proficient enough at Auburn to make Central New York's Empire State Games team and thus attract attention from Division I recruiters. In the end, though, the desire to play right away - something Sheehan pledged was a possibility at Le Moyne and D-I recruiters hinted was a long shot at their schools - led Tarr to become a Dolphin. Sheehan's projection was confirmed as soon as Tarr hit the field. "I felt I had a leg up on everybody because I knew the game inside-out," Tarr said. "I knew the fundamentals, what they were trying to do in terms of team defense, when to slide, how to take angles." Sheehan recognized the maturity and inserted Tarr into the starting lineup as a true freshman. The Dolphins are 61-2 since then, have won one national title and will play for a second Sunday. They led the nation in defense last season, allowing an NCAA-record 3.27 goals per game, and have nearly matched that incredible statistic this season (3.60). Despite his long list of individual accomplishments during the run, Tarr is quick to deflect praise to fellow All-America close defender Chris Doran (East Syracuse-Minoa) and All-America goalie Jared Corcoran, to solid junior Matt Juriga at the third close position and the defensive midfielders. Yet, there is no question that Tarr is the man, the player capable of neutralizing an opponent's best scorer with one hand and orchestrating the team defense with the other. "We're known for our team defense," McDonald said, "and one of the reasons it is so good is because of him. He makes every defender on the field better. Off ball he might not be guarding the ball, but he'll be watching. He'll send slide guys or tell them not to go, tell them to show. He's really thinking so the other guys on the field don't have to think. He thinks for everybody on the field. He's like the coach on the field." One step ahead of everybody else. It is the integral element that separates Tarr from the pack. And because it lies under the surface it is a stealth weapon that often goes unrecognized. "I'm not so sure that the first time a team plays Travis it shies away from him," Sheehan said. "It's not like a Steve Panarelli (SU's superb longstick midfielder) where you know he is going to put the ball on the ground. Yet, the second time around that player who needs to face Travis again is remembering he wasn't able to get to the goal, wasn't able to get his hands free. Travis just wears you down." He simply knows the game, knows the angles he needs to take to head off a faster player like Rogowski at the pass, to "close the gate on him." "He's great at making you do what you don't want to do," senior attackman Jason Longo (Cazenovia) said. "If you're strong right-handed, he'll make you go left. He always has a game plan of how to beat his opponent." "To be honest,it's his intensity," senior Ryan Lewis (ES-M) said. "It's his drive, his competitiveness. He's very intense. And you can feel that as an attackman, you know what I mean?" Those who have faced Tarr over the years know exactly what Lewis means. And despite his understated style, the coaches who have to game-plan against him know it, too, hence all the individual honors. Tarr swears the awards are stuffed in a locker somewhere, under a pile of dirty laundry. He says Le Moyne's fate Sunday will supercede all the awards combined. "That's how I think careers are judged," he said. "I feel that Peyton Manning is the best quarterback in the NFL, but Tom Brady is because he's got all the Super Bowl rings. When I look back I don't want people to see these individual awards. I want them to see two national championships. That's the most important thing." Rest assured that Travis Tarr will do his part to make it happen. He has been in the film room, has added pages of code and diagrams to his notebook. He never has faced Dowling before, but chances are he is about to make its best offensive player disappear. He will do it with his mind as much as his body. It will be a fascinating trip.