May 3, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

Exeter’s Gardner delivers on defense

by Kevin Henkin/

Phillips Exeter defender Sam Gardner will take his talents to Tufts, to play lacrosse and football.

Phillips Exeter defender Sam Gardner will take his talents to Tufts, to play lacrosse and football.

According to ancient Japanese warrior code, “You win battles by knowing the enemy’s timing, and using a timing which the enemy does not expect.” As a former attackman, Phillips Exeter defenseman Sam Gardner knows the ememy’s timing better than most.

“When Sam first came to Exeter, we liked him a lot as an attackman,” Phillips Exeter coach Eric Bergofsky said. “He certainly had some skills there. But the more we worked with him, the more we realized how devastating he would be as a defenseman.

“With his knowledge of the game from having played attack and understanding what offensive players want to do and also having the kind of stick work that he had as an attackman that he could immediately transfer over to the defensive side, when we moved him over to long pole, it was like a duck taking to water. We never looked back.”

Gardner is presently playing in his final year for prep school powerhouse Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H. In his junior season last year, he was awarded All-America honors for his stellar play and was instrumental in leading his team to an impressive 13-4 record. After graduation this spring, Gardner will head to Tufts University, where he plans to play lacrosse and football for the Jumbos.

Tufts lacrosse coach Mike Daly considers Gardner one of his most prized incoming recruits.

“Sam’s toughness and athleticism will be a great asset to our program,” Daly said. “We feel strongly in his competitiveness that will allow him an opportunity to play right away. As a two-sport athlete, he will already have gone through a football season as a freshman, so we feel strongly he will be confident and ready to go next spring for us.

“Sam was very interested in NESCAC schools, and Tufts became the right fit in terms of size, location and right fit of academics and athletics,” Daly added. “When speaking to the people who know Sam, his character and his work ethic were things we were most impressed with.”

Said Gardner: “I’m just really excited about the chance to play at the next level. The speed and the knowledge of the game that the players have is so much faster and higher, and I’m just really excited to move on to that.”

Perhaps no one appreciates Gardner’s contributions more than Tyler Page, the goalie who has played behind Gardner at Phillips Exeter for the past four years and will join him at Tufts.

“He’s a guy that I don’t even have to worry about,” Page said. “He almost never gets beat. He’s playing against the top guy on the other team every time. As a goalie, I get to rest a bit when Sam’s out there.”

Looking back on how his game has progressed since he first arrived at Phillips Exeter, Gardner attributes much of his improvement to the significant weight that he shed in the summer following his sophomore year.

“I was probably a soft 235 or 240 pounds in my freshman and sophomore years, and I was an OK player, but obviously that left me really limited,” he said. “My mom used to always tell me, ‘If you get in shape and you get this weight off, it’s going to be a whole new world.’ So I worked hard and lost the weight and cut down to where I am now, which is 215 or 210. It’s made the biggest difference to me in terms of being able to run.”

Looking ahead, Bergofsky anticipates that Gardner will face some adjustments when he straps on the equipment for Tufts.

“At this level of play, Sam doesn’t face a top, top attackman every single day and every single game,” Bergofsky said. “At the college level, he’s going to face much more sophisticated offenses and much more skilled and athletic attackmen. There’s no question that Sam is up to the task, but he’s going to have to adjust his game to become more of a neutralizer and understand that his job is strictly to neutralize the opponent, prevent them from scoring or assisting and not necessarily try to take the ball away.

“Sam is a natural leader, a unanimous pick as a captain for our team,” Bergofsky added. “He brings a lot to the table that doesn’t even happen on the field in terms of just his great collegiality with his teammates and his great attitude about competing. There’s no question in my mind that whether he turns out to be the star defenseman that I think he can be or just becomes a very good defenseman at the college level, it’s going to be a great four-year ride."

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