Every so often, a rookie class arrives on the scene and blows away the competition. There was the 1983 NFL rookie class with Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, and John Elway; the 2003 NBA rookie class with LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwayne Wade. And then, there was the class that took the Great Western Lacrosse League by storm immediately upon arriving at Fairfield: a class, now in its junior season, led by super-scorers Greg Downing and Mike Bocklet, and rock-solid goaltender Michael Kruger.
When the trio arrived on campus, joined by a supporting cast that includes, among others, the 17th best player in the country in the face-off circle (Charles Keinath), it didn’t take long for the results to start coming.
By the end of their freshman season, Downing and Bocklet had finished first and second, respectively, on the team in scoring, and Kruger had done what freshmen seldom do in college lacrosse: win the starting job full-time, and perform well after winning it.
“Charlie Keinath, Mike Bocklet, and Greg Downing who were sophomores and now juniors who already established themselves as premier players in our program,” says Stags Head Coach Ted Spencer, the 2005 GWLL Coach of the Year. “Michael Kruger had an exceptional sophomore year and is now a junior, which is where kids typically turn it on.”
Their success in the GWLL behind them, the Stags will compete this year in the nationally prominant Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC), a league that features two teams in the Inside Lacrosse Magazine pre-season top 20 and one that put three teams in the NCAA tournament a year ago.
So this class carries with it a burden no previous class has carried. The thing is though, by every measurable standard, this class has performed better than any other class in school history – a performance highlighted specifically by the play of Downinig, who could be, when all is said and done, the best player to put on a Fairfield uniform.
The midfielder was named to the preseason All-ECAC Lacrosse League team after leading the Stags in scoring last season with 32 goals and 14 assists for 46 points. He also won Geico/STX All-America Honorable Mention and GWLL Offensive Player of the Year. Despite the accolades, Downing remains humble, but determined to be an on the field presence for his team.
“I am a pretty shy kid so I am not going to be to guy in the locker room standing up and giving speeches to try and pump up the team,” he says. “I try to lead through hard work on the field and personally I think that a nice goal or play pumps up the team just as well, if not better, than any speech.”Downing adds these honors to an already long list since his freshmen year including 2004 GWLL Newcomer of the Year and GWLL Player of the Week for April 20, 2005.
“Winning those awards is quite an honor but I honestly feel like without the help of my teamates I would not recieve as much recognition as I get. They are a major part of my success.”
With many new faces on the Stags’ offense, Downing will need the offensive support from captain Josh Thornton ’06 and fellow juniors Bocklet, Jake Olson, Jarrad Wilson, Keinath, Brian Gorman, and Chris Manley.
“One of the reasons we were so successful last year was because we worked hard in practice,” says Bocklet. “This year I am trying to lead the team by working even harder because the higher the level we play in practice, the higher the level we will play in our games.”
Bocklet finds himself in an imensely unusual position: he isn’t the best player in his graduating class, but he would be the best player on almost any team. In 2004, he almost certainly would have been the GWLL Rookie of the Year if it wasn’t for Downing’s presence in the same rookie class.
Last season, he joined Downing and Werney on the All-New England squad and was named second team All-GWLL. He scored 40 points, 26 goals and 14 assists, all second to Downing.
“I was very pleased with the honors and numbers that I achieved last year,” he says. “This year my goal is to keep improving these attributes while at the same time helping others improve their own.”
While Downing and Bocklet enter their junior seasons as bona fide superstars, Kruger had a 2005 season that, like that of most young starting goaltenders, was one of ups and downs.
His 20 saves on March 19 against Harvard rank tenth best in NCAA history, and on April 4 he was named GWLL Player of the Week. But when the Stags season came to a crashing halt in a 23-4 loss to Duke in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Kruger took it personally.
“I was dissapointed with the way I ended last season, not making all-league and playing the way I did against Duke,” he says. “I think I need to imrpove my consistency and become more of a leader on the field.”
Still though, Kruger’s sophomore campaign, in which he started 14 of the team’s 16 games and led it to its first NCAA appearence in three years, is, Spencer says, soemthing to build on, to say the least.
“Kruger has to play well in the net for us to be successful,” Spencer says. “If he continues on the same path I am confident in our defense.”
Though all three players had an immediate impact on the field, they now have to adjust to newly fitted leadership roles.
“I think the key to our success relies on the veterans. Our team is still young and most our veterans are juniors not seniors,” says Bocklet. “Although our senior captains have been doing an outstanding job, the juniors such as Kruger, Downing, Keinath, and I have to use our experience on the field to maintain team composure and lead the underclassman by example.”
In pre-season practices and in the Stags’ 19-4 thumping of Holy Cross in their Feb 28 season opener, freshmen say the veterans have been as advertised in their leadership roles.
“The veteran players from the start made all the rookies feel like they were part of the team, which made it easier for the freshman to adjust to the division I level of playing,” says freshman defender Billy Honovich. “The team’s chemistry has been great; we all have a close bond between one another.”
Adds freshman midfielder Chris Ajemian, “all the veterans have been great. Everyone is out to help each other, it’s been real helpful for me entering my first year in college lacrosse.”
Leave a Reply