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August 2, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

Ready, willing and Gabel

by Kevin Henkin/

When Mike Gabel was 7 years old, the last place on earth he wanted to be was on a baseball diamond. He begged his mother, Marylynne, to allow him to quit. She eventually gave in, but then drove him straight to the nearest lacrosse field and signed him up to play there instead.

Twenty-one years later, Gabel is recognized as one of the best lacrosse goalies in the country. After an illustrious career at the University of Vermont, Gabel was drafted by the Chicago Machine of Major League Lacrosse in 2006 and recently finished his fourth season with the team. Although the Machine has struggled over the course of its four-year history, Gabel was named as a participant in the MLL All-Star Game in July for the second straight season. This year, Gabel even picked up the win in the Old School squad’s 22-21 overtime victory over the Young Guns.

Although the Machine have spent much of this season in last place, the 6-foot-4 Gabel has been a presence in goal.

“He’s tall and lanky, which bothers shooters a lot because he gets the high ball but he’s also long enough to get down to the low shots,” Cannons star Matt Poskay observed. “He takes up a big part of the cage, so when you go to wind up, you don’t see much net. As a shooter, that’s what you look for first is a quick shot at the net, but with a big goalie like Mike, it’s hard to see it.”

Added Cannons coach Bill Daye: “Mike is one of my favorite players. When he came into this league, some people felt like he didn’t belong, but he worked his tail off to get where he is today. I think he’s one of the best goalies in our league right now and that’s just from dedication and hard work.”

Gabel grew up in the Chicago area until he reached the fifth grade, when his family moved to Falmouth, Mass. In his junior season at Falmouth High School, he emerged to become a standout goalie, frequently using a gardening shovel during practices to increase his speed with the stick. By the end of his senior season, Gabel was considered a top prospect. Even so, most of the major college lacrosse programs remained cool on him because it was unclear if he was more interested in playing hockey or lacrosse.

Gabel made the decision to focus on lacrosse and spent another year at New Hampton Prep in New Hampshire, honing his skills and reestablishing interest among Division 1 lacrosse coaches. At UVM, he immediately became a fixture in the net. In his sophomore season, he posted a .655 save percentage, which ranked tops in the nation. He went on to break the school record with a career goals-against average of 7.96.

Gabel considers his coach at Vermont, Steve Beville, as one of his primary mentors. Beville, who left UVM in 2006 and coached Cortland State to the Division 3 national title this past spring, recalls Gabel as a player who fully realized his athletic promise.

“We saw the potential in him, and that’s why we recruited him,” Beville said. “We thought he was going to be a pretty good goalie, but he ended up setting numerous goaltending records at Vermont, which is a school that’s had some pretty good goalies. He surprised us a little bit, but we knew that from an athletic perspective he was going to be a good one.”

This season in Chicago, Gabel’s numbers have been down a bit. Through nine games — which included just two Machine victories — he had a 15.40 GAA and a .485 save percentage as he struggled to hold down the fort as part of a team in transition.

“We’ve got some new players on our team and everybody’s still trying to jell together,” he explained. “We’ve had a couple of games where everybody connected and we came out on top, and then there were more games where a lot of our guys made mental mistakes playing as a team.”

Regardless, Gabel still considers playing for the Machine to be a dream come true. “I love it,” he said. “It’s a great fan base. The owners really enjoy the team and I just wish we could give back to the city a little bit more with some wins.”

Early in his tenure with the machine, Gabel found a more direct way to give back to Chicago and its surrounding communities. Specifically, along with teammate Jake Deane (UMass ’06), he founded an organization called True Lacrosse to address the repeated requests of local parents to help improve Illinois youth lacrosse.

Said Gabel: “We saw that there was a major void in Illinois with good education for lacrosse. There were a lot of people coming to the Chicago players and asking them to develop some type of camp and clinic, so we started doing that. It really just took off. It’s like the new cool thing to do in Illinois and we’re having a lot of fun with it.”

True Lacrosse operates as a year-round program and boasts a staff of 12 coaches, most of whom are professional players.

Although Gabel has no plans to retire from goaltending anytime soon, he intends to transition to coaching full-time when his playing days are over. His college coach believes Gabel has all the right tools to succeed on the sidelines.

Said Beville: “Mike doesn’t lack intensity, that’s for sure. And I think he’s got that mentality. He’s got a very competitive nature, which I think will help him become a good coach down the road. He’s got a great work ethic and gets along real well with kids so I think he could be a fine coach when that time comes.”

Added Beville: “I know a lot of people close to him are real happy for him and real proud that he’s been such a steady guy at the professional level. I don’t think any of us are real surprised [at his success]. We knew the kid was outstanding when we recruited him and we’re really happy and proud for him for how it’s all turned out.”