#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 30 Teams: Matt and Salisbury Seagulls Championship Lacrosse

 

My son Matt was always a good athlete.  Growing up in Crofton MD, he played baseball, soccer and

lacrosse from the time he was old enough to be on a team at about age 6.  By the time he graduated from Arundel High School and was ready for college, he was most interested in playing lacrosse and was actually recruited by some out-of-state schools.  He ended up at Salisbury State University on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where he played for five years (including one year as a red-shirt), earning two NCAA Division III championship rings. It made for a very exciting few years as we made regular trips to Salisbury to watch the team.

Although we did not realize it at the time, we were actually watching the building of a lacrosse dynasty.  Coach Jim Berkman came to Salisbury in 1989 and made the NCAA playoffs his first year and every year thereafter.  Matt was lucky enough to come to Salisbury in 1991, as Berkman was building a powerhouse team that would win 47 straight games between 1994 and 1996, including two Division III championships.  

As Inside Lacrosse described those years in 2020:

A quarter-century removed from that run, those teams represent a golden era of run-and-gun lacrosse for a sport on the cusp of the mainstream. The footage of those two championship games on YouTube is a time capsule, a look at a sport that’s bursting with optimism and potential, but is still raw. With porthole mesh uniforms, bucket helmets, non-offset heads and traditional pockets, the Sea Gulls played a loose and fast-paced game. 

Matt played defense and mid-field for the Seagulls and while he was not an attack player, he did manage to score a few goals in his career.  Salisbury just had that kind of team.  And, as Coach Berkman acknowledged, games were won by good defense as well as good offense.  Salisbury's defenders usually kept the opposing team to under 10 goals. "The heart and soul of everything we do starts with defense."

The teams from those years were practically unstoppable. As Inside Lacrosse described the '95 team in particular:

There was simply no weakness, from top to bottom.  Jason Coffman (79, 55) [Note: he was 1994's National Lacrosse Player of the Year] was a force, as was Sean Radebaugh (62, 42) and Paul Smith (41, 46). Jake Bergey (50, 25) was the best scoring midfielder in the country. Rich Betcher (123 saves, .654) backstopped a defense that flat-out abused opposing teams. Chris McQueeney, the Defensive Player of the Year, had five goals and had 118 groundballs. If caused turnovers were an official stat then, he would have the record.

“Back then, you could still take the ball away. The sticks weren’t that developed. Good defensemen could get the ball on the ground,” Berkman says. “We were stripping guys. We put [McQueeney] on the weakest guy because we had two other guys who were really good, so as soon as his guy got the ball, we’d close the doors on the adjacent and he’d get the ball on the ground almost instantly. That’s how we played every game that year.”  But the talent just went from the first player to the last player, and the Gulls' fast-paced style wore down opponents as Berkman put out a barrage of midfielders one after the other.

It was quite a heady experience for the fans as well, and of course the family turned out enmasse to cheer the team for the Championship games.  Matt's teammates were impressed that Matt had his own cheering section. And of course, we are convinced that all those good vibes from the crowd were instrumental in the championship wins.

After knocking on the door for four years and racking up an undefeated season, Salisbury won its first championship in 1994, beating Hobart 15-9 in front of a record-setting crowd at Byrd Stadium in College Park. That first championship was especially thrilling because Hobart had won 13 of the previous 15 Division III titles and was playing its last Division III game before moving up to Division I.  Dethroning the team that had twice before kept them from the top spot was definitely icing on the cake for the Sea Gulls. The Sea Gulls were also the first undefeated national champs in Division III history. 

Somewhere in that scrum is Matthew.

In 1995, Salisbury became the only school in history to win two titles with perfect records. After a 17-0 season, they defeated Nazareth (NY) College 22-13 before another record-breaking crowd (despite the rain.)  Of course the Agees and the Scriveners were on hand to cheer on Matt and his team. The Gulls won 24 out of 39 face-offs in that game.  As their opponents commented: "This is definitely the deepest team I've ever seen.  It didn't matter who they threw out there; it seemed like they had 80 guys playing against us at once." Matt got his 30 seconds of fame when he made a shot and the ESPN announcers identified him by name. 

There's Matt in the middle

Sadly, the Sea Gulls missed a third straight title in 1996.  Their 47-game winning streak came to a tragic end in the NCAA semi-finals, losing to their War on the Shore rival, Washington College, by one goal, 11-10.  But they won again in 1999 and have a total of 12 Division III titles, having made the playoffs every year since 1989.

Matt showing off his ring with proud Mom. Don't know where that tie came from!

There's Matt over on the right.

Matt had his son Henry wielding a lacrosse stick just as soon as the child could walk.  In fact, even before he could walk. 

Ten years later, Matt is coaching Henry's lacrosse team and Henry shows every sign of being a champion player.

So perhaps I'll get to attend another title game and cheer for Henry some day. 

Update: Henry's team just won its first national championship (Ocean State Showdown July 2022). Note: That's Matt in the back, one of the coaches.