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P

at March was the only offensive player Jon Weston saw at his youth goalie clinics in Glen Burnie, Maryland. In middle school, March would sit on the sidelines and watch Weston — who was known as “The Goalieman” — to try and piece together how to beat goalies.

March asked plenty of questions, too: What was the hardest shot to save? Which side was optimal for him to be shooting from? 

“He’s been a student of the game, but I think it came from it was always fun for him,” March’s father Patrick said. “I think it still is.”

Ten years into his coaching career, March is still constantly learning. Former Princeton midfielder Austin Sims, who played two years under the SU assistant coach, called him a “lax rat.” And that, in part, fueled a meteoric rise from coaching at the Division III level to becoming the offensive coordinator at his childhood-favorite school, Syracuse, all in under 10 years. 

After moving to Syracuse from Princeton before the shortened 2020 season, March’s offense ranked sixth in the nation for goals per game, up from 15th the year prior. All six offensive starters were on pace to set career-highs in production with a system utilizing more wing and alley dodges. He also helped secure commitments of two offensive five-stars for the class of 2022, including Joey Spallina, the class’s No. 1 player.

“He brought in some new schemes for us, and he still lets us definitely play our game, but he puts us in some great spots to find success,” redshirt fifth-year attack Stephen Rehfuss said. “He’s been great for us.” 

March received his first stick at 2 years old, and soon, everything revolved around lacrosse. His grandmother, who is Cherokee, shared the Native American lacrosse connection with him from an early age. 

When playing at recruiting tournaments, March attended adjoining player clinics and even went with Patrick, now the lacrosse head coach at Old Mill (Maryland) Senior High School, to coaching conventions while in high school. 

In 1998, when March was in elementary school, he and Patrick attended every game of the World Lacrosse Championship at Johns Hopkins. At one game, Patrick asked March, “Where have you been the last 20 minutes?” 

“Oh, I was playing catch with Casey Powell,” March replied. 

A few years later, the Baltimore Bayhawks were founded as part of Major League Lacrosse, and March would watch the team’s practices with friends. 

“He was meeting people around the sport and everything,” Patrick said. “And that was the thing. Lacrosse is so different than any other sport where … a little kid can just walk up to them, and they’ll play catch with them, you know, they’ll talk to them and everything.” 

During the all-star game of a recruiting tournament March’s senior year, he caught the ball off a ride and stormed in on a breakaway. He tucked his stick between his legs and rolled forward, shooting as he popped back up from the ground. From the sidelines, D-III Roanoke College assistant coach Carl Haas couldn’t believe March even tried the move, let alone scored with it. March learned the trick from former Princeton midfielder Josh White at a day camp, Patrick said, and it packaged March’s confidence and creativity on the field.

“I was like, that’s pretty, you know, you got a lot of gumption to do something like that,” Haas said. 

March filled the final offensive spot in the Maroons’ recruiting class late in his senior year, Roanoke head coach Bill Pilat said. They needed a left-handed player at the time, and March fit the bill. Pilat remembered initially saying that March looked “too small” when seeing tape of him. But Haas pushed for the Maroons to sign March.

“Carl really liked Pat, really said he thought he could be a great player,” Pilat said. “And Carl was right.”

March played four years at Roanoke, finishing with the fifth-most points (243) and fourth-most goals (152) in program history. He still shares the record for most assists (6) in a single game with the school and earned honorable mention All-American honors twice. 

“We were really, really lucky to get him at Roanoke,” Haas said. “And he helped the team get to achieve some of those heights that I think will probably live on in a lot of the memories of some of those guys who played during that time.”

March stayed with the Maroons in 2011 to help coach, something March’s dad knew he’d end up doing in some capacity. March always had a strong understanding of offenses and what weaknesses the defense presented, Pilat said. 

March worked primarily with the offense and the man-up unit, providing input on personnel and playcalling. He didn’t travel much for recruiting but led campus visits for recruits and helped ease transitioning freshmen. 

“I didn’t hold him back,” Pilat said. “We let him do whatever he wanted to do.”

After a year at Roanoke, March moved to D-III Dickinson. He spent two seasons there working under head coach Dave Webster. At the time, Webster wanted to shift to a higher speed of play. March was “a great hire” after having played in a high-octane system at Roanoke, he said. 

“He was the kind of guy where, every day, I’d come to the office, and he was already in and drawing things up and asking, ‘What do you think about this, coach?’” Webster said. 

March’s time coincided with Dickinson’s all-time leading point-getter, Brian Cannon. Like he’d do years later at Princeton with Michael Sowers, March helped Cannon develop his game around the goal-line extended, where the majority of Cannon’s goals came from. 

Before working with March, Webster said he would have discouraged the tight-angle shot, as it’s traditionally a low-quality shot. But Webster eventually became a “big fan,” he said.

“It’s less about where your feet are and more importantly where the head of your stick is,” Webster said. “While it looks like a low angle because of your feet kind of behind the goal, with the stickhead forward and momentum and whatnot, you know, it works if you practice it.” 

Working at the D-III level taught March to “grind,” Haas said. There is no set recruiting calendar or athletic scholarships to offer. There’s a larger pool of players to draw from, which makes finding the right recruit more difficult. March had a keen eye for talent, though, Haas said. 

March stepped up to the D-I level in 2014 at Vermont. In three years at Vermont, March worked with many Canadian players coming from box lacrosse backgrounds. He ran a “pairs” offense, similar to what Princeton used at the time. The offense utilizes two-man games around the field without much cross-field ball movement. 

Prior to hiring March at Princeton in 2017, Tigers head coach Matt Madalon spoke with him about switching back to a traditional system, Madalon told The Daily Orange last year. Sims, who was a junior at Princeton when March entered, remembers March instituting more alley-dodges, which current Syracuse players also noted. In a system called “400,” Princeton placed three midfielders at the top of the offensive zone and a player in the middle and attacked from the high wings, Sims said.

Shooting became more of a focus for the team, both Sowers and Sims recalled. March stressed changing levels when shooting, like going from high to low, Sims said. Attacking the middle of the field became a priority so players had the full cage to shoot at instead of tighter angles, Sowers said. 

At the beginning of every January at Princeton, when captains ran practice sessions, March showed the players shooting drills that he pulled from from an Atlantic Coast Conference program in North Carolina. The players ran those drills for an hour to an hour-and-a-half every day. 

His offense succeeded. Princeton’s scoring offense remained in the top-10 nationally all three years March worked there. In his first two years with the Tigers, they posted top-five shooting percentages in Division I lacrosse.

“Coach March was great at motivating players because he didn’t do too much,” Sims said. “He really let us play in practice and be creative and work things out for ourselves.” 

Since moving to Syracuse before the 2020 season, March implemented many of the same principles that made him successful elsewhere. His offense flowed in No. 1 Syracuse’s five games last year.

Above all, March remains a “player’s coach,” Sims said. In practices at Princeton, March chirped the defense, joking that they couldn’t stop the offense. March always had the offense’s back, Sims said. And when his high school players watch March on the sidelines, Patrick said they notice how much fun his son is having. Patrick replies that it’s because March’s players are having so much fun on the field. 

“He makes it easy to love playing lacrosse,” Sims said. “He makes it easy to become good by following the plan that he puts in place. And yeah, I mean, I would play for him 10 times out of 10.”

Banner photos courtesy of SU Athletics. Design by Nabeeha Anwar | Illustration Editor and Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor