July 14, 2010
McClay gets another shot at World Cup title
by Scott Souza/
After being left off the U.S. World Cup team in 2006, Boston Cannons defenseman Ryan McClay worked hard to make the 2010 squad.
Ryan McClay might not be where he is today if not for where he was told he couldn’t be four years ago.
In 2002, the Boston Cannons defenseman was the youngest member of the World Cup men’s lacrosse team that won the gold medal in Australia. Following three strong years in Major League Lacrosse, after being a two-time All-American at CornellUniversity, McClay intended to be there again in 2006 when the team defended its title in Canada.
To McClay’s shock, when the final 2006 roster was announced, his name was not on it.
“When I got cut,” he said, “I made up my mind that ‘I’m playing another four years.’ I decided right then and there.”
McClay was 24 at the time and already thinking about his life beyond lacrosse. He lives in Fairfield, Conn., has a family, and now works for a commercial real estate company for which he is in charge of managing 650,000 square feet of office space. But while it may have made his life easier to walk away from the sport, the power or redemption wouldn’t let him.
He built up his muscle. He returned to the MLL each summer, first with the New Jersey Pride franchise before it disbanded, and then with the Cannons after he was reassigned for the 2009 season.
When tryouts for this month’s 2010 World Cup came along last year, he was ready. He was ready to show why he belonged on the team in 2006. He was ready to prove he still belonged among the world’s elite longpoles.
When the 2010 U.S.roster was revealed last November, McClay was back on it.
“Not making it last time was my motivation to keep myself in shape and continue to play,” he said. “Had I made it in ’06, I probably wouldn’t still be playing right now.
“I felt like I should have been on that team. I feel like I am still a good player. I went to this year’s tryouts feeling confident. The coaches could have selected five other defensemen and probably had a good team as well. I feel fortunate to have made it, but I feel like I earned it.”
For U.S.coach Mike Pressler there was never any doubt this time around. Pressler recruited McClay out of Mahopac, N.Y. when he was the head coach at Duke University, and was an assistant coach on the 2002 U.S.team.
He says he doesn’t know why McClay was left off the 2006 squad, but sure is happy the 28-year-old is back on it for 2010.
“He made this team hands down,” said Pressler, who now coaches at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I. “We’re going to lean on him to be a defensive leader. We haven’t talked about it, but I know he was deeply disappointed he didn’t make it in 2006, and you could see he channeled that motivation to make it in 2010.”
McClay is a different player in many ways these days as one of the MLL’s elder statesmen compared to the feisty, fresh-faced defenseman still attending Cornell University in 2002. But while he used his energy and aggressiveness to make up for his lack of size – he’s 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds - early in his career, he now calls on his strength and experience to fuel his game.
“He is just sort of the anchor back there,” Cannons coach Bill Daye said. “We have one of the most experienced defenses in the league and Ryan’s sort of that unsung hero. He doesn’t get much of the accolades. He doesn’t get much of the credit with (Kyle) Sweeney, and (Chris) Passavia, and (Jack) Reid. But he does a lot of the dirty work. He picks up the ground balls. He’s great on the clears. We have talked about getting him on the field more in those situations so we can take advantage of that.”
Pressler hopes to take advantage of that in Manchester, England this summer as the U.S. team looks for some revenge of its own after settling for the silver in 2006.
“He’s a big-time athlete even though he’s not the tallest guy in the world,” Pressler said. “There were a lot of knocks on him early because of his lack of size and height, but he makes up for that with his competitiveness. When he was younger in ’02, he played the pole more and stuck closer to his man. But now he is just a wily, wily veteran.”
That experience was something Pressler said he was looking for on the U.S. squad and something McClay is eager to provide. On a team of superstars, the fear is the tournament will turn into more of a showcase than a competition, and a more talented squad’s individual prowess will come up short against an opposition’s team play.
McClay said he doesn’t know whether that happened in 2006. But he learned from 2002 that it cannot happen this summer. It won’t happen under his watch if he can have anything to do with it.
“I think the more we play together, the more we’ll be in position to win,” he said.
“It’s playing as a team. It’s having guys buying into their roles. Everyone’s a good player. We don’t need everyone scoring five goals a game. We don’t need every defenseman taking the ball away from their guy five times a game.”
“That’s just Ryan,” Pressler said of the team-first mentality. “If I asked him to go grab a short pole and take a faceoff, he’d do it. Ryan is going to help us win this. He is as determined a young man out there as there is.”
McClay is already halfway through to completing his triumphant comeback. The first stage was to make the World Cup squad. The second stage is to regain the team title as lacrosse power of the universe.
After that, he will return to the Cannons the rest of the summer for what he hopes will be a second championship run in the MLL. By the end of the season, he’ll be just past his 29th birthday. While the desire to keep playing professional lacrosse will surely be there, that singular motivating force driving him to the weight room week after week, and up the highway from Connecticut to Harvard Stadium each weekend in the summer, will be gone.
“That’s what I’m leaning toward,” he said of retirement. “But I am not going to write it in stone yet. I’ll see how I’m feeling at the end of the season and during the offseason.”
One thing he knows he’ll be feeling is a deep sense of satisfaction. A sense that a mission declared four years ago was accomplished. A pride in knowing he was recognized as one of the country’s best defensemen both in the dawn of his professional career and in the twilight of it.”
