The Orange repeated as conference champion this season and could advance to the final four for the first time if it gets past North Carolina in today's NCAA quarterfinal game at the Carrier Dome.
"I think he's going to have a great impact," said Towson coach Missy Doherty, who played for Gait at Maryland and whose Tigers fell to the Orange, 21-9, in the NCAA opening round last week.
"Syracuse, in general, is a great lacrosse area. It attracts great athletes. I think Gary will bring the next level of skills, just like he did with Maryland. He's always thinking of the next thing."
As Cindy Timchal's assistant at Maryland from 1994 until 2002, Gait arrived just as the women's game was poised to change. Molded-head sticks were replacing wooden sticks and Gait took advantage by getting on the field - something he still does - and teaching the Terps his style.
"The biggest thing that he brought to our team was his ability to think outside the box and to be so creative in our stickwork," said Jen Adams, a three-time National Player of the Year as a Terp and now a Maryland assistant coach. "That's something that he really instilled in us as players, to always stretch the limits and never be conventional."
While his approach ruffled a few feathers in the women's game, he never incurred the ire of the many traditionalists in the sport because he respected the game.
"He changed the game, but it wasn't like people thought we were going to be in helmets because of him," said Sheehan Stanwick Burch, CSTV women's lacrosse analyst and former Georgetown All-American.
"He didn't make people freak out that he wanted to change the rules or bring Air Gait [the lacrosse equivalent of a basketball dunk] to the women's game. He played within the realm of keeping the finesse that the traditionalists do like but also expanding the capabilities."
Gait is trying to bring that same creativity to Syracuse, but it hasn't been easy. The players aren't used to being allowed to make the mistakes necessary to hone those skills.
Mistakes come hard
"At first, it was kind of hard," said Orange midfielder Christina Dove, a Bel Air graduate. "People were like, `Does he really want us to make mistakes?' It's just a mind-set that you want to limit turnovers and mistakes, but he's making us see there's no way to get better if you're not trying anything else."
