The Daily Orange

Ask around and Mike Leveille's Syracuse lacrosse teammates will all tell you - he doesn't look like a freshman, he doesn't act like a freshman and he certainly doesn't play like one.

Ask his brother Kevin, and his father, George, and they'll tell you they're not surprised.

Leveille has always been a step ahead, playing with guys five and six years older. So expect him to be one of Syracuse's top players when he opens the season starting at attack. In his first collegiate scrimmage against Navy, he netted a team-high four goals.

"It's really been a dream of mine to play here," Leveille said. "(Syracuse) has been all that I've expected it to be."

Ever since he was 7 years old, Leveille would button his chin strap and nestle up alongside older kids for a groundball, never once complaining when he was thrown to the ground by bigger opponents, never once getting discouraged by the sport he loves.

It's a relationship Leveille has fostered since he was in first grade. George, who became acquainted with lacrosse when he was an undergrad at Niagara University, introduced Mike and Kevin to the sport in 1990. Before then, hockey was the game of choice for Albany kids. There were no youth lacrosse leagues and the only time the Leveille boys were able to play was when they were in their backyard or when they could convince the neighborhood kids to pick up a stick.

So George met with some friends who played in a local 30-plus league and they decided to start a league for kids. They talked to some hockey parents and took whoever was interested, all ages from 7 to 13. The first year, the Albany Capitals Lacrosse League didn't have any real teams, just 35 kids who would get together and scrimmage.

"He was just a helmet with feet," George said of the first time Mike played. "It was hard the first couple of years, but it was a good program."

The league wasn't the hard-hitting action Leveille is used to now. It was mostly focused on skills, stick work and learning the fundamentals of the game.

"Mike was always playing up," Kevin said. "At first because of lack of any other team to play with. We all just started playing at the same time. It's been an advantage to him because he started with kids four years older."

Still, Leveille surrendered 50 pounds and half a foot to many of his opponents.

Over the next few years the league grew, though. The appeal of lacrosse spread through suburban Albany youth like beanie babies. This year, 1,600 kids are in the league. (Currently, George, who retired from playing due to a hip injury, is trying to set up an inner-city Albany team.)

Continued...

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