Don't expect Scott Diggs to succumb to tradition.
That's what his family quickly realized when an 11-year-old Diggs shattered his father's dreams. After two generations of successful baseball players, Diggs bucked the family line, trading in his bat for a lacrosse stick.
It's difficult to dispute the decision. Diggs, a 6-foot-1, 198-pound Duke junior, is one of the most gifted midfielders in the game.
"I know it broke my father's heart, but it was the right thing for me," said Diggs, whose grandfather Reese pitched for the Washington Senators in 1934 and whose father starred at
Western Maryland College.
"For one, I was scared to follow in the footsteps of my grandfather and father. And as an athlete, I thought I'd fit better in lacrosse. I'm a big kid who can run around a lot."
Just watch him shred a defense, using his quickness to whisk past defenders and his strength to finish the shot. That's why, in his entire three-year collegiate career, Diggs has had a long stick in his face and at times draws the opposition's top defender.
So after scoring, Diggs should be able to catch a breather on the sidelines. But wait, Duke may need him to take a critical faceoff or require a timely defensive stand. So it's back on the field again.
Call him Duke's best offensive midfielder. Say he's the Blue Devils' top short-stick defender.
Combine all that with being his team's most experienced faceoff specialist and its most tenacious player in the battle for groundballs, and he's simply the Blue Devils' most valuable player.
"Very few players have his strength, speed, size and unlimited stamina," Duke coach Mike Pressler said. "He actually gets stronger as the game goes on. I sometimes say you have to shoot him if you want to stop him."
Diggs was the primary target for recruiters three years ago coming out of Loyola High. A two-time All-Metro performer, he was also the C. Markland Kelly award winner as the top player in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association. He received offers from nearly all the major Division I schools.
Yet he refused to follow the Maryland pipelines to the established powers and selected Duke, a school short on lacrosse tradition, championships and victories. He was a major coup for the Blue Devils, whose academics and coaching staff won Diggs over in his first visit to Durham.
