Syracuse head coach John Desko remembers it as ‘truly fantastic.’ Midfielder Jarett Park refers to it as one of the best freshman seasons he’s ever seen.

To everyone, Brain Crockett’s first season at Syracuse – 20 goals, 10 assists and a handful of clutch goals – proved a jaw-dropping success.

To everyone, that is, except for Crockett.

‘I thought it was a little disappointing,’ Crockett said. ‘I never really got comfortable. I know I’m capable of a lot more.’

Crockett – who played midfield last season – will move back to his natural attack position this year. He feels more at ease with his teammates, more at ease with the Syracuse offense and more at ease with himself.

‘Everything’s in place for him to have a breakout year,’ Desko said. ‘He’s such a versatile player that you’re not going to find one way to stop him. He can pass, score and juke. He’s a pretty big guy who can still move. He can do everything.’

John Nicol, Crockett’s coach at Yorktown High School, saw flashes of such potential before Crockett turned 10. Crockett’s older brother played on the high school team, so Crockett would spend his afternoons twirling a stick on the sideline.

Thanks to long hours spent improving his stick skills against a concrete wall with his dad, Crockett already looked advanced.

‘We’d joke ‘Can’t wait until we get that young Crockett kid,” Nicol said. ‘He looked better than some kids we had on the team. You could tell he loved lacrosse. I knew he had a chance to be special.’

Crockett derailed before he got that chance, though. Early in high school, he started drinking, and quickly morphed from a weekend drinker to an admitted alcoholic.

He missed so many classes at the end of his sophomore year at Yorktown that his parents decided to send him to Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia for the first semester of his junior year.

There, Crocket woke up at 5:30 every morning, lined up for roll calls and surrendered his freedom. He had problems with authority and often talked back to instructors. He was asked to leave after one semester.

Just a few weeks after his return to Yorktown, Crockett lost his chance to play lacrosse his junior season. Because of general misbehavior and alcohol problems, Nicol kicked him off the team.

‘That’s when it hit me that I needed to do something,’ Crockett said. ‘I went to AA, got better and got my life together. It was lacrosse that pulled me back. I missed it and I wanted to get back again.’

By spring of his senior year, Crockett had earned his way back on the lacrosse team. By season’s end, he’d also earned legendary status in Yorktown, having amassed 59 goals and 38 assists during his senior year.

Crockett’s signature moments still echo through Yorktown. In a game against rival Ward-Melville High School, Crockett scored the tying goal with 15 seconds left. The catch? Since three defenders were draped all over him, Crockett had to fire the shot from behind his back.

‘You had a kid that had made some mistakes, and that year he turned into one of the nicest kids we ever had,’ Nicol said. ‘On the lacrosse field, nobody could stop him. He was as dominant a high school player as I’d seen.’

That’s why Nicol watched with jaw agape as Crocket shunned major college scholarship offers and enrolled in Gordon College, a small Christian school outside of Boston, where alcohol would not tempt him.

He spent an uneventful semester there before returning home and inking with Syracuse, where coaches and soon-to-be-teammates promised that Crockett’s alcohol aversion would be fully supported.

‘I just felt ready,’ Crockett said, ‘to give myself a chance.’

Said Bill Crockett, Brian’s dad: ‘He’d gotten better to the point where it was safe for him to move on.’

Safe, but not easy. At times last year, Crockett struggled. He spent his weekends at home playing cards or video games while teammates disappeared to the bars. He felt lost on the field, playing a foreign position with teammates he didn’t know.

Still, he thrived, refusing to drink and scoring at least one goal in each of Syracuse’s first six games

‘He’s great,’ Park said then. ‘He’s a laid back kid. I’ve heard stuff about the problems he’s had, but he’s obviously gotten over them. He’s been perfect here. He’s just a good kid.’

Said Crockett: ‘There were parts of last year that were really frustrating. It takes a year to adjust to a lot of things: the offense, the players, the team. I feel like I’m a lot closer with the guys this year. I feel good with where I am.’

How couldn’t he? On the field, Crockett will be mashed between SU attackmen Michael Powell and Brian Nee – elite, experienced players whom Crockett already feels comfortable playing with.

‘Having Brian is going to do a lot of things,’ Powell said. ‘Last year, we kind of lacked a dodger. He really fills that gap for us.’

Crockett looks to be in the best shape of his life. He swears his goal-scoring arsenal is stronger than ever, thanks to a few tricks he learned from legendary Syracuse attackman Ryan Powell, who joined Syracuse as a volunteer assistant coach this season.

Desko expects Crockett’s numbers to soar, and Nicol suggests that his former player will soon become nearly as dominant in college as he was in high school.

‘He’s got it all going in the right direction,’ Nicol said. ‘I can’t see him going anywhere but up.’

Said Crockett: ‘I’m much, much better at attack than I am at midfield. I’m hungry this year. I’m just ready to go out there and make things happen.’

Published on March 2, 2004 at 12:00 pm