Jay Pfeifer didn’t hesitate.

The television reporters came up to Pfeifer and asked for an interview prior to Syracuse’s national championship win over Navy in May.

Pfeifer emphatically declined.

The Syracuse men’s lacrosse goalie had never done an interview prior to a game before, so the superstitious side of him declined. He has a specific routine he follows before each game and a television crew wasn’t about to stop it.

‘He was afraid it would interrupt his mojo,’ said Jerry Pfeifer, Jay’s father. ‘A lot of goalies are superstitious. He doesn’t like to change his habits.’

When the station interviewed Dan DiPietro, though, the departed defenseman didn’t hesitate in complimenting his tongue-tied teammate.

‘Jay is the heart and soul of this team,’ DiPietro said sternly.

It shouldn’t have surprised anyone that the easy-natured Pfeifer went out and recorded 15 saves in the game, including five huge stops in the third quarter.

But it probably did.

Syracuse’s offense has rightfully gained the spotlight each of the three seasons Pfeifer has started. Michael Powell and Brian Nee were the offensive sparkplugs.

Jay Pfeifer stood in the background, playing the same part he always has. He’s the quiet but vital cog of the SU defense. He’s started all 50 games Syracuse has played the past three years.

But for all of Pfeifer’s accolades (and they’re hard to miss), he’s often overlooked. He’s the most experienced goaltender in the country and in his fifth year at Syracuse, is poised to lead the Orange once again.

Yet all people see is Jay Pfeifer, the technically sound and run-of-the-mill goalie.

Nothing stands out about Pfeifer. He looks like anybody else. He sounds like anybody else. Even his play is the perfect mix of solid play in cage and constrained play outside of it.

Jerry, a three-time All American attackman at Johns Hopkins and former goalie coach for the Blue Jays, says that people often misconstrue Jay’s laid-back demeanor with someone who isn’t competitive.

That, Jerry says, couldn’t be more wrong.

‘Jay really doesn’t get frustrated on the field or in life,’ Jerry says. ‘He’s really calm about things. He’s not yelling on the field but he can be competitive without that. But he’s very competitive. It definitely means a lot to him that he wins.’

Jerry Pfeifer or Jay’s mother, Mary Pat, can’t remember a single time when Jay has gotten frustrated. One time in high school, Mary Pat recalled, Jay saw a field player on an opposing team slam his stick to the ground in frustration.

‘That just doesn’t look good,’ Jay said.

And it doesn’t for him today, either.

Don’t expect Pfeifer to change his demeanor during his final year at Syracuse. The player all of his teammates refer to as the ‘old guy’ stands to garner more attention than he’s used to in his senior season. In his fifth year (second season as a captain), he’s the leader a coach dreams of having.

‘A lot of the older guys, the veterans and leaders, are on the defensive end of the field,’ senior middie Jake Plunket says. ‘We have Jay in the goal. It seems like he’s been here six or seven years.’

But Pfiefer never expected to spend even one year in Syracuse

Jerry figured one day his son would follow in his footsteps and attend Hopkins.

The recreation team practiced around Jerry’s responsibilities with Hopkins so Jay just had one voice coaching him. The techniques Jerry used to teach Blue Jay goalies, he instilled in his son.

As a junior at Gilman, an all boys private high school in Baltimore, Jay received his first interest from colleges. Georgetown called. Syracuse called.

The phone call from Hopkins never came. The Blue Jays already had two goalies and weren’t interested in a third.

‘That was kind of a disappointment,’ Jerry says. ‘Goalies are a kind of a hit or miss thing, though. You play just one. It’s where you fit in.’

With the Blue Jays out of the mix, Jay decided quickly to follow the same strategy he used in picking a high school: Play for the best.

By the beginning of his senior season, he was sold on Syracuse.

Syracuse wasn’t a second choice, Jerry insists, but the right one.

‘It was a pretty clear-cut decision for Jay,’ Jerry says. ‘Jay thought it was a great opportunity to go to Syracuse and go for the best.’

Pfeifer hasn’t looked back and is poised to lead one of the nation’s top defenses. With early season games against Virginia, Hopkins, Georgetown and Princeton, Syracuse will need to rely on Pfeifer and the defense to carry the load while the inexperienced offense slowly comes along. Gone is 82 percent of SU’s offense from last year (261 of 317 goals).

‘It’s going to be a lot of concentration on defense,’ Pfeifer said. ‘We’re going to start to get some recognition.’

Inside Lacrosse magazine tabbed Pfeifer as a third-team preseason All-American in its recent Face-Off

Yearbook publication. Navy’s Matt Russel, whom Pfeifer and the Orange defeated in May, grabbed the first-team selection. Pfeifer was on the cover.

Make no mistake about it: As much as anyone on Syracuse, Pfeifer is the new face of the Orange and will be thrust into the spotlight.

‘We’ve got a leader like Jay Pfeifer, who’s a captain, a fifth-year goaltender for us,’ Syracuse head coach John Desko said. ‘He’s had a lot of game experience, a couple of national championship rings on his fingers, so we’ll look for him to lead us. He’s seen a lot of lacrosse.’

Is there pressure for Pfeifer?

Resoundingly no, he says.

Not after he led his Gilman high school team to two state titles, including one in his first year starting on the varsity level as a sophomore. In the title game that year, Pfeifer defeated Tillman Johnson. Johnson went on to Virginia where he starred as a two-time first-team All-American and graduated last spring.

There’s no pressure for Pfeifer when he’s already led the Orange to two national championships, including one as a freshman.

If there ever was any pressure, it’s long gone. And if there’s one player on Syracuse who would be unaffected by it, it’s Pfeifer.

‘I have a much bigger role this year as captain,’ Jay says. ‘Last year we had four seniors as captains and a lot closer team. This year, half the team is brand new to Syracuse and half the team is returnees, so it’s kind of hard to mesh everyone together. I’ve just got to take on the role to help everybody get along and work as a team.’

Quietly and confidently, Pfeifer figures to do exactly that.

Published on March 7, 2005 at 12:00 pm