June 18, 2009
Q&A with former Blazer Bruce Chanenchuk
by Jack Piatelli/
Bruce Chanenchuk starred at Johns Hopkins in the mid-1980s, winning three NCAA championships. He went on to play eight years for the New England Blazers indoor team. He now lives in Natick, Mass., and is involved with the local youth lacrosse program. He was honored at halftime of the NCAA championship game in Foxboro last month as part of festivities recognizing the 25th anniversary of Hopkins' 1984 championship team.
1. The championship weekend was a very special weekend for you and your family. Why?
The greatest thing about the weekend was seeing the team all together. I had reconnected and played with various teammates throughout the years, but this was probably the first time a majority of us had gathered. We reminisced and laughed at some of our misadventures. We also watched films of our championship game — we were amazed at how fast and accurate we once were. One of our team captains was ready to suit up and take on Syracuse!
2. Do you still follow the college game?
I do. Of course I always follow Hopkins, but many of my former teammates, friends, and even coaches (I’m not that old yet) are still coaching, so I’m always interested in how they are doing. My nephew is at Princeton next year, so our family will be following the college game even more closely.
3. Would you have called a timeout with 27 seconds left in the championship game if you were the Cornell coach?
I would never venture to play "Monday morning quarterback.” Players and coaches make the best decisions they can under the circumstances. However, there were many lessons to be learned from the final minutes of this year's championship … even for youth players: controlling/possessing the ball, breaking the momentum, and even just getting the ball down the field when in trouble in certain situations. That’s why you can’t discount experience. Time and again, you see the experienced teams like Hopkins and Syracuse pull it out over higher-ranked teams. When I was a freshman the seniors had been to the finals four times, and when I was a senior we had been to the finals three times. We knew what to expect and we weren’t easily rattled. That kind of focus gives the “experienced” teams an edge going into championship weekend.
4. What town do you live in, and are you involved with coaching lacrosse at any level?
I live in Natick, Mass. Lacrosse is fairly new to Natick. I was one of the founding board members for the youth program and coached the youth boys for many years. I’m still on the board but no longer coach in the town. I am an assistant coach on my son’s summer league lacrosse team.
5. What do you do for full-time work?
I work for Fidelity Investments in capital markets, specifically the securities finance area.
6. Did your experience playing lacrosse prepare you for life after Johns Hopkins?
Definitely. Playing team sports teaches kids so many valuable lessons in life: the value of each contributor on a team, the benefits of hard work and practice, how to cope with a loss and disappointment, how to set goals and expectations and then meet them. I could go on and on. On Monday mornings at Hopkins, the captains would go in and review the game with the coach and strategize the upcoming week and future games. That experience was very much like being called into your boss’s office. Sometimes you dreaded it and sometimes you were energized by it. Also, being in finance, I have been able to make a lot of business connections through lacrosse. Lacrosse has a big presence on Wall Street. For example, three of my former Hopkins teammates evacuated the World Trade Center together on 9/11.
7. Did you grow up playing just lacrosse or a number of sports? Where did you grow up?
I played three sports in high school: soccer, wrestling and lacrosse. I think each sport contributed to my success in lacrosse. From soccer I got speed and endurance, and from wrestling I got strength and agility. Many of my soccer teammates were on my lacrosse team, and after soccer practice in the fall, we’d all pull out our sticks and play lacrosse … I’m not sure the soccer coach appreciated that, but it contributed to our success as a team.
I grew up in Long Island, Massapequa Park, and went to Farmingdale High School. Farmingdale was a hotbed for lacrosse. Back then, Hopkins recruited at least one player each year from Farmingdale. I was at Hopkins with five other Dalers: John Krumenacker, John and James Detommaso, Joe Rzempoluch and Jeff Ihm.
8. Who introduced you to the game of lacrosse?
My older brother played lacrosse in high school and then played at Navy. I got his hand-me-down equipment. My neighborhood was full of boys around my age, so we were always playing some type of pick-up game, often lacrosse. However, my dad is probably the person who made me good. We would play catch and he used to throw the ball so hard at me that I would get mad because I was afraid he was going to break my stick or ruin my pocket. That was back in the days when most of us used traditional leather pockets … and getting your pocket just right was an art.
9. Anyone else in your family play lacrosse?
I have four kids, and three play lacrosse. My son who is in high school plays for Noble and Greenough. My oldest daughter plays for the town team and on summer club teams. My youngest daughter just started playing lacrosse this year. I’m still learning about lacrosse watching the girl’s game … that’s a game of expertise.
A lot of my nieces and nephews play lacrosse as well. As a family, we use summer tournaments as reunion time. One year, we were at a tournament in Princeton where seven of my father’s grandchildren were playing lacrosse. For the entire weekend, we just went from one game to another. It was fun watching the different levels, from youth through high school … but boy did my father get in trouble when there was a conflict and he was at the wrong game!
We’ve always loved the summer tournaments. When my kids were small, I would play at Lake Placid or Vail. In addition to meeting up with old friends, there were so many things to do and families with kids all about the same age. You would see toddlers on the sidelines carrying mini-sticks and rubber balls. As I’ve gotten older, it’s funny to see my kids playing with or against those very same kids at the high school level. Now as my kids are playing in the summer tournaments, I run into former teammates, also there watching their kids play.
10. Were you named to the All-America team or any other all-star teams?
I was an All-American my senior year of high school and played in the North-South All-Star Game. I was fortunate to hold some high school scoring records for about 20 years. Several years ago, my high school teammates who still lived on Long Island started e-mailing me that my records were in jeopardy. I think Matt Danowski may have broken all of them … I’m not sure.
11. What years did you play at Johns Hopkins?
I played on the ’84, ’85, ’86 and ’87 teams.
12. How many championship games did you play in at Hopkins and how many did you win?
I was three for three. We played in the championship game in ’84, ’85 and ’87 and won all three. We were knocked out in the semifinals my junior year (’86). Our freshman year and senior year were pretty pivotal. My freshman year, the seniors had been to the finals the past three years and had lost each time. If they graduated without winning, they would be the first Hopkins class to never win a championship. Needless to say, we went into the ’84 final knowing that we had to win. Then, my junior year we had gone undefeated only to be upset in the semifinals … upset does not even begin to explain how we felt as a team. So, the pressure was on for my senior year, '87.
Again, you have to know a little of the history to understand our desire to win. The ’84 team had all been recruited by Henry Ciccarone, a phenomenal coach, who had assembled an incredible group of lacrosse talent. After the fall of my freshman year, Coach Ciccarone retired and turned over the reins to his young assistant, Don Zimmerman. As Coach Zimmerman said at this year’s reunion, he had inherited a very gifted team. But as we all know, even a talented team needs a supreme leader to keep everyone focused on the ultimate goal. We felt if we did not win the championship our senior year that Zim’s success in ’84 and ’85 would have been attributed to his inherited situation rather than his hard work and tremendous leadership.
13. Who was the best player you played with at Hopkins?
Are you trying to get me thrown out of next year’s reunion!?!
Probably the one person who we could all agree on was an incredible player and person was John Krumenacker. I played with him both in high school and college, and unfortunately he died prematurely in his early 30s. He was the captain of the ’85 team. Many people asked me after this year’s championship game why the children of the reunion team were all wearing No. 32. That was John’s number — we all had infinite respect for him both on and off the field.
When I was being recruited to Hopkins, one of the drawing factors was that every day in practice you got to play with and against the greatest players in the country. In practice, I was trying to score against a two-time Player of the Year (Larry Quinn, goalie), or beat on defense somebody who would become Defenseman of the Year, Player of the Year, and ultimately Coach of the year (Dave Pietramala). But even with all the individual greats, it would be impossible to define the “best” player, because we played “best” as a cohesive unit, as a team. I think when a team starts relying on “all-stars” is when a team falls apart.
14. How has the college game changed since you played?
The transition game has changed incredibly. I think the increase in substitutions has slowed the game down considerably and made it a bit less entertaining as a spectator sport. In fact, in my senior year we were one of the first teams to run one offensive midfield and one defensive midfield. I am not sure that the specialization of the game has bettered the sport.
15. Who other than Johns Hopkins did you get recruited by, and how has the recruiting process changed since you were in college?
Another landmine question! I looked seriously at Brown, Navy, Maryland, Cornell, Penn, Princeton and Virginia.
The recruiting pressure has increased, and the cycle is much longer. The college coaches are looking at kids a lot younger, and there’s a much bigger emphasis on club teams. I only played for my high school team and was recruited out of high school. Today you can pack your summer with college showcase tournaments. At some point, that may be to the detriment of the kids. I played lacrosse for the love of the sport. You don’t want to take the passion away from these young athletes by putting too much pressure on them when they are still young. That brings you to the parents. For my parents, having both their sons receive scholarships to college was a gift. Neither had been to college, and they felt blessed that we could have access to great schools. Many parents today are almost professional scholarship seekers. They have made it their goal to get an athletic scholarship for their kids. Some of these parents need to set realistic expectations and also make sure that their goals are aligned with their kids’ goals.
16. Why did you choose Hopkins?
That’s probably one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make. Many factors went into the decision. The biggest question was the classic decision between “little fish in a big pond or big fish in a little pond.” Going to a school where everybody was a high school all-star can be a double-edged sword, but for me, playing at a higher level of play was an immediate draw. I also wanted to win a national championship, and Hopkins had been to the finals the three previous years, so I thought my chances were good. Two of my former high school teammates, John DeTommaso and John Krumenacker were also already there, so that gave me additional comfort. The advice I would give to young athletes is to find a school that “fits” you and where you can be happy on and off the field, because you never know what might happen once you get there (i.e. injury, sickness).
17. Are there high expectations from outside sources on your children because of where their dad played lacrosse?
Sometimes I think people do expect your children to be just like you, but we’ve tried to deliberately mitigate this. We want our children to find what makes them happy, not what makes their dad happy. Our kids have found success in many other sports and activities such as music, wrestling, basketball and gymnastics.
18. How far behind is Massachusetts youth lacrosse from Long Island youth lacrosse?
I’m amazed in the amount and rate of change in lacrosse in Massachusetts over the past 15-20 years. Youth programs are growing exponentially and kids are playing at younger ages. I am really impressed with how far the game has advanced. But, it’s just not like Long Island, where kids are practically born with a stick in their hands. You really see the difference at the high school level. In Maryland and Long Island, the best players play an entire season against kids of comparable skill level. In Massachusetts, the best players may only be challenged once or twice a season by an adversary of similar skill. I think that makes for a difficult transition for New England players at the collegiate level.
19. How did you end up in Massachusetts, and how long have you lived here?
We moved here straight out of college, so I’ve been here about 25 years. My wife went to school here and I found a job in the financial services industry.
20. Did you play lacrosse after college?
Yes, I love the sport and even age hasn’t kept me off the field. Right after college I played some professional lacrosse and I played for the Brine Lacrosse Club. Today, I play in recreational leagues for “old guys” and I enjoy playing in some summer tournaments when I can fit them in.
21. What professional lacrosse did you play?
Right after college, I played for an outdoor league on the Boston Militia team. Unfortunately, the league folded after just one season. I then played on the Boston Blazers for eight years. We played our first few seasons at the Worcester Centrum and then we moved to the Boston Garden. They closed down our franchise for several years, but I am so glad to see that they have expanded back into the Boston market. It was good to see Tommy Ryan, Randy Fraser and Todd Francis (former Blazer teammates) coaching a new generation of Blazers at the Garden.
