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anny Varello raced to midfield from the Syracuse sidelines, leading a charge of nearly the entire team. Those on the field tackled freshman midfielder Jamie Trimboli, whose acrobatic goal captured a 12-11 overtime win against Duke in the Carrier Dome.

Varello reached the dog pile mobbing Trimboli, and leapt on top. Trimboli’s game-winning goal made him the hero in SU’s fourth-straight one-goal victory.

But it was Varello that won the possession for the Orange that led to the victory.

“You’re as good as your last faceoff,” Varello’s father Joe constantly preached. “Very few people in a lifetime will be in a moment like that.”

Varello was just a freshman, and a backup to Ben Williams, Syracuse’s greatest faceoff specialist in history. But several times during the 2017 season, the SU coaches called on their freshman specialist for a lift in crunch time. Williams struggled during the middle of the season, after injuring his shoulder. When SU needed something different Varello offered it, Syracuse head coach John Desko said. Williams has since graduated, and Varello, a sophomore, is now the lead faceoff specialist for a young team searching for its first Final Four in five years, the longest drought ever for a Syracuse team since its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1979.

Varello faces a demanding challenge, replacing an All-American in Williams. The two-time Tewaaraton nominee broke the program records for faceoffs won and groundballs picked up in just three seasons. Williams was the “physical specimen” of the team, Joe said. He was the strongest and the fastest, and the player everyone wanted to transform themselves into. Varello didn’t just want that, he needed it.

“Ben’s my biggest role model,” Varello said last season. “I look at Ben, I’m like, how can I be the player he is?”

The position is perhaps the most physically demanding in lacrosse. Williams fit the mold perfectly.

“You look at Ben compared to any athlete, his muscle tone, his strength, speed,” Joe added, “you’re comparing (Danny) to an Adonis.”

• • •

Within the first year of Varello’s soccer career, Joe realized it was not the sport for his son. Rather than playing the game with touch and finesse, a young Varello would track down his opponents and knock them over.

“I always got penalties,” Varello added. “I was definitely a little too tenacious out there.”

Instead of soccer, Varello preferred football, where he could “ram his head into people.”

Around the same time, in 2010, a 12-year-old Varello continued his pursuit of physicality when he began taking lessons at the Fogolax Academy in Huntington, New York, with faceoff specialist coach Matt Schomburg.

“He was like a little round mound of rebound,” Schomburg said. “Like a little Charles Barkley.”

Varello wasn’t a natural athlete, Schomburg said. But Varello was naturally gifted as a faceoff specialist. He had incredibly quick hands, in part, due to their sheer size. At 12, Varello had bigger hands than some high schoolers, Schomburg said.

“I thought, ‘This kid can beat anyone … if (he) can get in shape,’” Schomburg said. “He’s just a naturally gifted, talented kid.”

Schomburg considers four key traits in evaluating the skills of a faceoff specialist: speed, balance, technique and power. Within just a few weeks of practicing, Varello had already tackled the first three. The one he lacked, surprisingly, was power.

In his youth, Varello had the size, just not the strength to match it.

By his sophomore year of high school, though, things were different. Varello became the starting faceoff specialist for Smithtown West (New York) High School. Despite being one of the youngest starting faceoff specialists in the county, he showed promise with his lightning-quick hands and his raw power, which came into form as he aged.

“You’re not going to push him off his spot,” Smithtown West head coach Bob Moltisanti said. “He’s a fire hydrant.”

But as the strength began to emerge that year, he still wasn’t maximizing his potential. He needed to be quicker. Between his sophomore and junior year, Moltisanti emphasized the importance of footwork and agility in becoming a successful faceoff specialist.

Varello listened, visiting the track several times per week to work on his foot speed and explosiveness. By his junior season, Varello combined the power and speed to become one of the best specialists in New York.

And he only continued to improve. By the end of his senior year, Varello was Smithtown West’s all-time leader in faceoff wins as well as a two-time All-Division and All-Suffolk County honoree.

“To see him transform from a 14-year-old kid to an 18-year-old young man,” Moltisanti said, “that was special.”

• • •

In high school Varello was the star. When he arrived at Syracuse, that dynamic changed. He wasn’t the top at his position, or even second. Williams was the best, and no one else seemed close.

Varello impressed Williams early on in fall practices, though. The two faced off over and over, with Varello winning a few, Williams said. He praised Varello’s “really fast hands,” the quickness with which he clamps his stick down on the ball.

“I realized he was going to be a guy that would make me better,” Williams said. “You want to be challenged and have someone to compete with.”

Varello earned his opportunity to compete early in the season. An injury forced Williams to miss SU’s home contest with Army. But Syracuse head coach John Desko opted to call on senior Cal Paduda to replace Williams.

Paduda won the first faceoff, which led to an SU goal. But he couldn’t do much more. Paduda finished just 3-of-13, and SU found itself down 8-4 toward the end of the second quarter. Desko turned to Varello to win at the faceoff X.

He thrived, winning 10-of-17, and leading an SU comeback. Despite the 14-13 SU loss, Varello succeeded, winning 58.8 percent of his faceoffs against Dan Grabher, the fifth-leading faceoff specialist in the country in 2017.

“I proved to everyone that not only do I play well in practice,” Varello said, “but I can play in those big games.”

Coming off five-straight one-goal games, in which SU went 4-1, the Orange hosted Duke one month after Army. During the previous three contests — all SU victories — Williams struggled after returning from injury, finishing 36-of-69.

Against Duke’s Kyle Rowe, Williams’ troubles escalated. Despite winning just four of 17 faceoffs, Syracuse held a two-goal lead entering the fourth quarter. But eight seconds into that frame, Duke scored immediately off a faceoff win.

Desko replaced his All-American with Varello. SU needed its unknown freshman to help lead then-No. 5 SU to a win against the 11th-ranked team in the nation.

Varello marched out and looked up into the stands. Seventy-three hundred people packed the Carrier Dome, the largest attendance of the year, and of Varello’s life.

From the start, Varello consistently beat Rowe. His first faceoff win led to an Orange goal. But SU turnovers handed Duke a two-goal lead.

With just more than six minutes left, Syracuse rallied. Varello won the following faceoff with ease, and sprinted directly toward the Duke goal, setting up an easy Brendan Bomberry finish.

Following another SU goal, both teams were knotted at 11. Neither side broke the tie in the final 1:30 left in regulation. Instead of going back to Williams in the overtime period, Desko trusted Varello to win the last possession.

“When I went in, I knew our coaches were really, really, really betting on this Plan B to work,” Varello said.

Varello looked up to the stands one more time before crouching down into position. He and Rowe attacked each other, trying to win the ball, but Varello gained control and gave SU the possession. Forty seconds later, Trimboli netted the game winner before the mob ensued, and Varello, the unsung hero, went unnoticed.

The following Monday in practice, Varello approached Williams, who was coming off the worst game of his career.

“‘Shake it off,’” Williams remembers Varello saying. “‘We’re going to do great going forward and we’re going to work on things together.’”

“That meant a lot to me,” Williams added. “Especially for how well he played in that game. It spoke a lot about him as a teammate.”

• • •

Syracuse’s conditioning test consists of three sprints of 440 yards, Varello said, which combined, must be completed in 214 seconds — three minutes and 34 seconds. Williams never failed his test. When Varello attempted his first test his freshman year, he finished in 215.

“It bothered him,” Joe said. “He wished he was better prepared conditioning-wise.”

After Duke, Varello struggled the remainder of the season, winning just five of his remaining 17 attempts, finishing with a season percentage of 52.2.

In the offseason, the coaches didn’t want him focusing on his faceoffs though. Instead, they wanted Varello to play lacrosse — midfield, attack and defense — and focus on getting in better shape.

“I told him I didn’t want to see him until he was 10 pounds lighter,” Schomburg said.

And Varello listened. Every day over the summer, he headed to the track at Smithtown West and did sprinting workouts.

Then he would play midfield in tournaments on Long Island to work on his stickhandling and to see the field better once he wins the faceoff. To improve on faceoffs, Varello met up with Gerard Arceri of Penn State, Austin Henningsen from Maryland and both specialists from Hofstra, all of whom live in the area.

The five would meet at a small indoor facility, and spend the entire day facing off against each other. It was almost a “top-secret exclusive cub,” Varello joked.

“You get five guys in a room and a couple of whistles,” Varello said. “That’s really all you need.”

He changed his diet to cut carbs, even though it’s almost impossible coming from an Italian household, Varello said. He quickly shed those 10 pounds and continued working on his technique with Schomburg.

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Now, entering his sophomore season, Varello has improved his all-around game. He has gotten stronger and faster, improved his off-ball skills and his quickness at the faceoff X.

“He even may be a hair quicker than Ben,” Desko said.

And he passed the fitness test that haunted him since last year.

“Danny looks at himself and to a (former) senior like Ben,” Joe said, “‘I’ve got to be in that shape. That’s my goal. I’ve got to eat right, I’ve got to be lean. I have to condition right. My position demands it and my teammates are counting on it.’”

Williams finished his career at Syracuse with a faceoff percentage of 61.4 percent.

Heading into this season, Schomburg gave Varello a prediction for his season mark: 62 percent. Varello thought the number was too low.

“Prove me wrong,” Schomburg said to Varello. “Let me see how good you are.”

Banner photo by Paul Schlesinger | Staff Photographer

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Published on February 4, 2018 at 8:59 pm

Contact Matt: mdliberm@syr.edu