Friday, April 21, 2006
By Neil Kerr
Staff writer
With a big assist from Onondaga Nation athletes, the LaFayette High School and Syracuse University lacrosse teams have enjoyed winning ways for many years. Both highly ranked squads are getting help from one or more players who grew up playing their native sport. Currently, senior attacker Brett Bucktooth is the second-leading scorer (17 goals, 11 assists) and a co-captain for No. 9 Syracuse University (5-4), which has built a modest four-game win streak.
At the same time, Brett’s younger brother, junior attackman Wade, is among the four top scorers for defending state Class C champion LaFayette (5-1). Besides Wade, the other three top scorers for No. 1 state-ranked LaFayette – brothers Jerome and Jeremy Thompson, plus Derek Printup – also grew up playing lacrosse on the Onondaga Nation.
“The players here have almost all been playing lacrosse on the reservation for about a decade before they reach high school,” said Freeman Bucktooth, father of Brett and Wade. “All of my children played the sport for many years before they played for LaFayette.”
The success of Onondaga Nation players at SU and LaFayette is nothing new. For the past 45 years or so, Onondaga Nation athletes have made their mark at both schools and on other college teams as well. At SU, players such as Marshall Abrams, Solomon Bliss, Travis Solomon, Greg Tarbell, Barry Powless, Larry Storrier, Sid Hill, Oliver Hill, Ron Doctor and Verne Doctor all excelled after leaving LaFayette.
Other former LaFayette players, Gewas Schindler (Loyola College) and Neal Powless (Nazareth College) earned All-American status.
Freeman Bucktooth, who briefly coached LaFayette during the late 1990s, points to age-group lacrosse play on the reservation as a big reason for the steady flow of talent.
“We play from April to late fall,” Bucktooth said. “There were about 180 kids in the program last year, from age 3 up to age 21.”
Bucktooth has had five children – Drew, Tyler, Grant, Brett and Wade – involved in the age-group program, all of whom played for LaFayette.
LaFayette was one of the early high schools to start the sport, in 1961 joining Baldwinsville, North Syracuse, West Genesee, Geneva, Watertown and Irondequoit in the old Upstate League. The Lancers, led by the scoring of Sherwin Hill that spring, won their first game 8-3 over Watertown on April 22, 1961 – 45 years ago Saturday.
LaFayette quickly became a power in the sport, building a 41-game win streak from 1967 to 1969 – a school mark that still stands. The streak ended in April 1969 when the Lancers suffered a 6-5 loss to Fayetteville-Manlius. The late Gordon Ohstrom coached those powerful LaFayette teams in the era before state tournaments and Section III playoffs.
“Those LaFayette teams of the late 1960s were very talented. Their 1967 team was among the best I’ve ever seen,” said former F-M coach Tom Hall.
Last spring, LaFayette finished with the best record (24-0) in school history, winning its second state Class C title in three years. Helping the Lancers to a perfect season were Onondaga Nation players such as Lee Nanticoke, Tyler Hill, and Jeremy and Jerome Thompson.
Says Irving Powless, an Onondaga Nation historian who grew up playing the sport in the 1940s and 1950s:
“Lacrosse was being played hereabouts in the 1600s when the French settlers arrived. The sport was founded and developed by our people long ago, but the French gave it the name it’s known by today after seeing the game being played. My grandfather, Malcolm, played the sport, my father, Irving Sr., also played competing mainly for the Onondaga Athletic Club. So did I – we played exhibition games against Syracuse University, Cortland and Colgate in the late 1940s.”