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While his Syracuse teammates were sitting in classes, getting ready for exams, or even hitting the snooze button, 2,700 miles away, Kyle Hall was preparing for one of the toughest tests he's ever had to take.
Last March, Hall played on Canada's national soccer team, which was attempting to qualify for a trip to the Olympics.
Canada finished third in the Olympic qualifying tournament, just missing a trip to Beijing. He didn't return to Syracuse with gold or even Chinese mementos, but he didn't return entirely empty handed.
"I think it really opened my eyes how I really need to change my game," Hall said. "After that I started playing a lot quicker and a lot simpler, because I realized playing at that level where I'm facing a lot of pros, everyone plays really quick and simple."
Hall will take what he learned from the qualifying tournament and use it when the Orange kicks off its season against Canisius tonight at 7 p.m. at SU Soccer Stadium.
After squaring off against some of North America's elite, quicker play should come easily for Hall. The experience also made the senior a more mature player, having dealt with the pressure of qualifying for the Olympics.
At SU, Hall represents 19,084 students. In March, he was representing the 33,390,141 citizens of Canada. When Hall trots onto the field at the Syracuse Soccer Stadium, about 1,500 eyes are watching him. In Carson, Calif., at the Olympic qualifiers, 18,000 eyes watched his every move, and he felt every one of them.
Not to mention, he entered the game during the 80th minute against Mexico with the score tied at one.
"As I went in I was like damn," Hall said. "I was like this is it. We're against Mexico. This is our chance to tie them (in the standings). I was like, 'Don't mess up.'"
The butterflies soon flew away. They were diverted by the head coach of Team Canada, Nick Dasovic. After signaling Hall to get in the game, Dasovic saw Hall had a little too much energy off the bench.
"I just stressed, like I do with most of the players, even if we are playing a great team, you have to just take it as a normal game," Dasovic said. "Listen, you're playing for Syracuse right now, just take it for an NCAA game, whatever you want it to be."
Whatever Hall visualized, it worked. He played significant minutes after finding his way onto the field and capped the tournament off scoring a goal against Guatemala that advanced Canada to the next round of play against Guatemala.
Hall tacked on a fifth goal against Guatemala, which might seem insignificant, but after tiebreakers, the goal allowed Canada to leapfrog Mexico for a spot in the third place game.
"He came in, and the whole staff every single day, we analyzed who did what," Dasovic said. "And every day we had him he got better and better. He went from who's this kid, to 'Hey he might be starting against Mexico.'"
Opportunities like that don't come around too often, so Hall wanted to take full advantage of the situation. Dasovic said Hall was the only player to ask him what he specifically needed to work on to get better. From Syracuse head coach Dean Foti's perspective, mission accomplished.
"When he came back from the Olympic team, he was as sharp and a better player than I've ever seen him," Foti said.
Hall's numbers fell off at the end of last year. The forward had seven points in six games to start the season, but he only scored two points in the final 12. Down the stretch, Hall battled mental and physical fatigue. Even with that in mind, Hall still wanted a chance to go to Beijing and went full tilt, full time.
Foti didn't mind. He said the team will need the priceless experience Hall gained playing Olympic-talent teams.
After facing pro-type players, Hall learned the days of trying to dribble through opponents are finished, and he is now much happier making the highlights due to a pass.
"You don't want to be dribbling. You just want to play quick," Hall said. "I kept that in my head so when I went to play I just played quick and played fast because I didn't want to be the one on ESPN who's getting schooled or getting taken out because I was holding the ball too long."
mibonner@syr.edu
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