Legendary Rutgers coach would have loved this Final Four lacrosse team | Politi

Fans celebrate with Rutgers goalie Colin Kirst (23) he led the Scarlet Knights to a 19-9 win over Harvard on Sunday, May 15, 2022 in Piscataway, N.J.
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Tom Hayes would have loved this Rutgers men’s lacrosse team. He would have loved it for what it accomplished, of course, in taking this program to unprecedented heights. He would have loved it for proving that lacrosse can flourish anywhere in the world as a sport, with players on its roster from 18 states and Canada.

Most of all, he would have loved these Scarlet Knights for the way they’ve brought the alumni from this program together. Hundreds of Rutgers fans, many of them former players, gathered to watch the team defeat Penn, 11-9, last weekend to reach its first Final Four. Hundreds more are expected in East Hartford on Saturday to see if it can keep its magical season alive against another Ivy League power, Cornell, in the national semifinals.

“Tom wasn’t just a lacrosse coach,” said Rick Mercurio, who played on Hayes’ first team in 1975. “When you were on his team, you became family. You were more than a player. You were in his inner circle — and you stayed there for life.”

That circle was plenty big for Hayes, who died on March 7 at the age of 82, after a quarter century coaching in Piscataway. His impact in lacrosse didn’t end in 2000, when he retired from Rutgers with 194 career victories. He remained active in his lifelong pursuit of growing the sport in other parts of the country and the world.

That this Rutgers team reflects those efforts at globalization, with a top defenseman, Jaryd Jean-Felix, from Cummings, Ga., and leading scorer, Ross Scott, from West Linn, Oregon, is fitting. These aren’t exactly lacrosse hotbeds, and they prove that Hayes was correct in believing that this sport could thrive in places beyond its East Coast roots.

“Tom was all about the growth of lacrosse,” Mercurio said. “He always said, ‘Give back to lacrosse. You’ve got enough out of it. You’ve got to give back to it.’ He spread lacrosse throughout the world. He would have loved to see this team, with kids from Utah, Georgia, Oregon, all over the place.”

But he was more than an ambassador. Reid Jackson, a Rutgers Hall of Famer who played for Hayes in the early ‘90s, joked he was a “sobbing mess” when he eulogized Hayes at an April 23 memorial service. More than 200 people gathered in the SHI Stadium recruiting pavilion to honor Hayes, and when it was over, Jackson was struck at how many of his former teammates or players from different eras had the same kinds of stories.

In this April 29, 2000, file photo, former Rutgers' head coach Tom Hayes is embraced by his wife Gretchen at half time of the final home game of his 25-year tenure with the Scarlet Knights. Hayes died on March 7 at the age of 82.

He heard from men who said they called Hayes to talk through a pending divorce, or lean on him for advice about changing jobs. Hayes, who Jackson said had “this superpower” to remember the details about their families and high school careers, always made himself available long after his players had used up their college eligibility.

“Coach was like a dad to me, while I was playing and after I was playing,” said Jackson, arguably Hayes’ best player at Rutgers. “Some people don’t talk to their college coach when they’re done playing. Well, mine was at my wedding.”

That, former player Keith Norton said, was the bigger legacy than anything Hayes accomplished in growing the sport or on the field.

“Coach would often talk about Rutgers Lacrosse being a proud tradition,” Norton said. “A huge part of that tradition was his blending together the generations of yesterday with the current players. “While many programs cherish their alumni, we all know each other at Rutgers.

“He built his teams with the sons of cops, firefighters, and teachers — salt of the earth Long Island and Jersey guys who never had anything handed to them. Some of this was due to the fact that we were so severely underfunded during his tenure. Those kids and their family’s lives would be changed dramatically by getting a little bit of financial aid and a pathway to a Rutgers education.”

The national semifinal is a bittersweet moment for the Scarlet Knights’ opponent, too. Cornell lost its legendary coach, Richie Moran, a month after Hayes died. That both men played at Sewanhaka High on Long Island before embarking on Hall of Fame careers is a remarkable connection that stayed with them their entire lives.

The Rutgers-Cornell winner likely will face unbeaten Maryland, which is trying to stake its claim as the best college team ever. Rutgers hasn’t played in an NCAA title game in any sport since the 2007 women’s basketball team advanced to the championship game, and the Scarlet Knights haven’t won a team trophy in the modern history of the athletic department.

But this run is more about a chance for a program founded in 1887 to make history. It is also an opportunity to honor the man who helped build this team and sport, because anyone who tunes in to watch this weekend will see one name — TOM HAYES — on the back of every Rutgers jersey.

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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com.

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