May 1, 2006

NOTE: The following article appeared in the May/June issue of Lacrosse magazine. To join the more than 185,000 US Lacrosse members that receive Lacrosse magazine, please visit our membership page.

He had just spent four grueling days -- three games per day on the steamy artificial turf at UMBC -- battling 120 of the world's best players for a spot on the 2006 U.S. men's lacrosse team. The four days capped a whirlwind two weeks that included winning a NCAA championship, playing in the Warrior Major League Lacrosse Challenge, getting drafted with the No. 1 pick in the MLL and picking up some hardware -- the Tewaaraton Trophy and the Lt. Ray Enners Award -- as the nation's best lacrosse player.

So where was Kyle Harrison four hours after completing his tryouts for the national team? Home, relaxing? Hanging out with friends? Hardly. He was at the Lacrosse Museum to welcome a group of kids that had come from around the country to compete under the US Lacrosse BRIDGE (Building Relationships to Initiate Diversity, Growth and Enrichment) umbrella at a US Lacrosse Youth Festival.

He met the players, watched them scrimmage a local team and hung out with them afterwards during a spaghetti dinner.

Why?

"I think Kyle greatly appreciates the opportunities he's had because of the sport," said his college coach, Johns Hopkins' Dave Pietramala. "He's more than willing to say thank you and give back."

"His status in our sport is at the very highest level," said Virginia men's lacrosse coach Dom Starsia. "I look at him from afar as a competitor and a rival and I see the kind of young man you want representing our sport. He happens to be African-American."

Harrison and Virginia's John Christmas burst onto the college lacrosse scene right away. They were featured in Sports Illustrated and their presence signaled a door opening for more minority involvement in the sport -- an opening that is being met.

"Over the last two years alone the Baltimore inner city programs have exploded because kids saw Kyle on TV and wanted to play just because of him," said Donnie Brown, whose Blax Lax program was a charter BRIDGE program. "I know what it means to play a sport that no one else around you plays. Our kids need their own heroes; Kyle is their hero."

"I look at our stands now and it's so much more diversified, with young African-American kids coming to games, and a lot of that is because of Kyle," said Pietramala.

Harrison has made inroads for the sport in the African-American community, but his contribution to the sport goes well beyond one community.

"Kyle is opening up the lacrosse world for many kids of all color because he shows that skill, talent, hard work and determination makes a good player -- no matter what race, color or background you come from," said Brown.

"The thing you have to understand with Kyle, it doesn't matter if it's a black kid or a white kid, any kid," said Pietramala. "A kid's a kid to Kyle."

"He broke all the boundaries for any of those simple descriptions -- a black lacrosse player, a Johns Hopkins lacrosse player, a good lacrosse player," said Starsia. "He was all of those things, but Kyle Harrison is not so easily defined by any simple statement."

* * *

Kyle Harrison has come a long way on the lacrosse field over the last five years. In the very first college game he ever played, he won the opening faceoff and immediately scored a goal against defending national champion Princeton. In the last college game he ever played, he helped Johns Hopkins erase 18 years of frustration by winning the national championship over Duke.

But this is hardly an instant success story. Lacrosse was in his blood -- his father, Miles, played on Morgan State's fabled teams of the 1970s -- but it wasn't in his heart.

Basketball was his first love, and playing for Friends School in Baltimore, he got recruiting interest from several Division I colleges for that sport. He opted to go to Johns Hopkins to play lacrosse because he thought it would create more opportunities for him after college.

Ironically, it was basketball that earned him his ticket to Hopkins. "I was convinced he was for us after I watched him play basketball," said Pietramala. "Kyle did things on the basketball court that he didn't do on the lacrosse field. He was more comfortable with a basketball attached to his hand than a stick. But you looked at him and said, `Gosh if we could just get this kid to concentrate on lacrosse.' He was a soccer, basketball, lacrosse guy and basketball was his love."

"I felt like in lacrosse I had a chance with all my athletic background and the potential that Coach Petro saw," said Harrison. "I felt like I had a chance to be pretty good at it."

He finished his freshman year winning 63 percent of his 190 faceoffs and added 13 points. The potential was evident, but the lacrosse skills had a ways to go. He got tagged with the "athlete" label, something that burned him early on. He shed the label by countless hours working on his game. He was on Homewood Field all the time.

"He has all this God-given ability," said Pietramala. "He's fast, he's quick, he's competitive. But I don't think people realize how hard he works. One year (Hopkins assistant) Seth (Tierney) was all over him, telling him that everyone was going to force him left. That summer, all he did was shoot the ball lefty."

From his freshman to sophomore year, the leap was quantum. He became a second team All-American and the progression never slowed. He was the nation's best midfielder as a junior and the nation's best player as a senior.

He was at his best in 2005, guiding Johns Hopkins to its first national championship in 18 years. Hopkins had a perfect 16-0 season with Harrison providing many of the highlights. His goal forced overtime in an eventual win over Duke. He scored with less than a minute in regulation to force overtime against Navy and then scored the game-winner, his fifth goal of the game, in Hopkins' 9-8 victory. In the NCAA semifinals, his goal just 20 seconds after a lightning delay tied Hopkins with Virginia in a game the Blue Jays would eventually win.

"He's not only a great player, but a great clutch player," said Starsia. "That's the best thing you can say about a player. He made play after play after play."

For everything he did on the field, his leadership off the field was even more important.

Following Hopkins' semifinal loss to Syracuse in 2004, Harrison fired off a well-publicized e-mail, challenging his team to take the extra step in 2005.

"There was no more motivated kid than that young man," said Pietramala. "But he was motivated in the right way. He was angry, he was hurt, he was embarrassed, and he was humbled. Through all that he kept his poise. He never lost his edge."

The result was a championship that he'll hold dearly for a long time. "Every single player on that team had a role," said Harrison. He points to back-up goalie James Maimone-Medwick, who busted up his fingers playing the role of the left-handed goalie in practices. "His fingers were all taped up, but he'd put the gloves on top of all that. He's the reason we did pretty well against left-handed goalies."

It was a Hopkins team where Harrison didn't have to make every play. On the biggest faceoff of the season -- down one to Virginia in the NCAA semifinals with 12.9 seconds remaining -- junior Greg Peyser said, "I've got this one." Harrison didn't object.

"He'd done it before," said Harrison, referring to the Duke regular-season game when Peyser won a key faceoff to set up Harrison's game-tying goal. Peyser won the faceoff against Virginia, setting up Jake Byrnes' dramatic game-tying goal with 1.9 seconds remaining. Harrison's best friend, defensive middie Benson Erwin, scored the game-winner in overtime. Sophomore goalie Jesse Schwartzmann, who held Duke to one second-half goal as the Blue Jays rallied for the championship, was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

As great as the championship was for Hopkins' senior class, Harrison still thinks about what it could have done. Hopkins reached the final four as the No. 1 seed in the tournament all four seasons.

"We were so close to three or four (championships)," said Harrison. That competitive spirit is what will push Harrison into the professional game and this summer, when he competes on the U.S. team in the International Lacrosse Federation World Championship July 13-22 in London, Canada.

Harrison's life completely revolves around lacrosse these days. He signed an endorsement deal with STX and is working full-time for the company, developing his own product line in addition to making appearances at schools and events around the country. He's meeting and greeting Miss USA contestants. He's writing a regular column for the E-Lacrosse Web site and is getting ready for his second season with the MLL's New Jersey Pride. The ILF championship looms.

"I just didn't expect all this and still every day I'm like, `Wow, I can't believe this,'" said Harrison. "Sitting in my bed waking up, looking across the room there's all this STX stuff. I've got the USA poster with A.J. Haugen and a bunch of guys on it. I'm just like, `What am I doing, how did this happen?'"

Harrison doesn't have the typical personality of a superstar. Competitive and confident? Yes. Egotistical? Not on your life. When Harrison walks into a room, he doesn't have to own it.

"I've always been one of those people who doesn't like the guy in the party who comes in and starts schmoozing with everybody and makes small talk with everybody," said Harrison. "I've never liked that guy and I feel like with all these things I'm thrown into, like, I'm that guy. I have to go to talk to everybody."

"He's been chased by equipment companies and shoe companies and drinks and energy bars and clothing -- you wouldn't expect a guy like that to be so humble, so grounded, so giving of himself," said Pietramala. "That's where Kyle Harrison is great for the game."

"You can't let that go to your head," said Harrison. "At any moment, this could all be taken away -- especially in lacrosse with how guys come and go and how your name can drop so quickly."

Don't expect Harrison's name to drop anytime soon. Pietramala and others think Harrison has only begun to scratch the surface of what he can do on the lacrosse field. Harrison has been playing the sport for 18 years, but admits that it's only been in the last few years that it became his passion.

His rookie year in the MLL featured a 15-point season in nine games. The team had three coaches during his time there and he took a bit of a back seat.

"He kind of balked to the older guys because he was the rookie," said Pietramala. "He could've made a bigger difference. It's a battle we've always had with Kyle. He finally took over at times in his senior year. What Kyle didn't, and probably doesn't, realize, is that he could take over start-to-finish. He's just too nice and he's too unselfish. He wants to get guys involved and he doesn't want people to call him a ball hog or a selfish player."

Taking on more of a leadership role is something that Harrison did each year at Hopkins and it's a role that he'll grow into in the MLL and the U.S. team.

His initial taste of the league wasn't the best, but that's not uncommon for guys coming right out of college. Starsia tells how 2003 Tewaaraton Trophy winner Chris Rotelli hated playing in the league his first year. Last year, Rotelli was an all-star and topped the 30-point mark for Boston. Starsia thinks Harrison will have a similar experience.

"He's going to have a blast in the MLL," said Starsia. "He's just going to explode. The style of play is well-suited to him." Harrison is far from flashy -- he took great delight in feeding Jesse Hubbard for a goal with a behind-the-back pass last year in an MLL game, because it was the first time he had ever done it. What he does have is great speed. Matching him with a short-stick is simply "just not fair," says Starsia.

After being away from any real competitive outlet for the longest period of his life, Harrison is chomping at the bit to get back on the lacrosse field. Playing pick-up basketball is no substitute for testing himself and pushing himself. And if he needs an extra push, he doesn't have to worry. His college coach is more than willing to continue coaching and pushing him.

"We learned not to measure him by other people's standards," said Pietramala. "I guess it's ironic that I can sit here after he was the player of the year, the Tewaaraton award winner, made the world team and was the No. 1 pick in the draft, and still look you in the eye and tell you that Kyle Harrison can do more."