There’s a hint of his heavy breath as Gary Gait sprints toward the net.

It’s there during water breaks, when the Syracuse women’s lacrosse team has time to be awed by its head coach’s playing days – Gait grabs his stick and twirls it before shooting behind his head to an empty net. It was there when he performed lacrosse tricks to ‘oohs’ for a crowd of children at Laxapalooza at the Carrier Dome Saturday afternoon. It’ll be there when he suits up for the Rochester Knighthawks.

At age 41, Gait wants to play. He heaves, at times, to play.

So Gait splits time between coaching Syracuse and playing in the National Lacrosse League this season. A head coach by day, as the No. 2 Orange that starts its season Sunday at noon against Le Moyne at the Carrier Dome. A Rochester forward by night.

‘Maybe, it’s a midlife crisis,’ Gait said.

He knows now why athletes return from retirement. It’s like an itch. How Gait, who retired in April 22, 2005, had to come back when Knighthawks’ general manager Regy Thorpe gave him an offer.

‘I had the urge to go out and compete again,’ Gait recalled. ‘There’s just nothing else like it.’

He practices constantly now. Learning fitness. Shooting at every opportunity at the Carrier Dome with a grip on his women’s lacrosse sticks. He shoots tricks shots. He sprints. This is Gait’s equivalent of comfort at 41.

It’s like he’s done it before.

Like in 2005, when Gait took home the Major Lacrosse League national title as a player-coach on the then-Baltimore Bayhawks. He’s proven to himself that he could play and coach.

‘It isn’t a distraction,’ Gait said. ‘It’s easy’

And his priorities are set.

Syracuse comes first – the women’s team practices in the morning, the Knighthawks practice and play at night. When the season’s over, Gait will have missed three professional games and only a handful of practices.

Sophomore goalkeeper Liz Hogan knows it can only help her team, because now they can relate. Both are playing the game.

‘When you’re actually playing the game, you can learn more,’ Hogan said.

But odds are against Gait.

Rochester forward and teammate Joe Walters has played alongside middle-aged men who have tried to coach and play at once.

‘They usually quit,’ Walters said.

When it becomes too much, the player will leave the team to coach. It’s happened times before.

Perhaps, Walters reasons, Gait will be different. Because Gait is different.

Walter remembers standing by then-Syracuse NCAA Player of the Year as an 8-year-old boy growing in Rochester. The photo of Walter standing beside him at the Final Four is a reminder that Gait is different – an icon.

‘He’s still one of the best player’s in the league,’ Walters said. ‘Here you have a guy that’s been playing since he was a kid and he’s 41 years old, so he’s got a lot of years to pass on.’

Gait bent his knees before his sprint last Saturday at his own Laxapalooza. Then began to jog, prepping his 235-pound frame, before final stepping in strides.

He ran behind the net, and called his shot, before lifting his stick before the crossbar behind the goalie-in-net.

‘Old school,’ Gait said, between breaths.

edpaik@syr.edu

Published on February 9, 2009 at 12:00 pm