The clean-cut photograph in the Syracuse men’s lacrosse media guide taken months ago hardly resembles the Kevin Dougherty of today. His once-amiable face is now covered in a grizzly brown beard. He’s been growing it since January. He’ll cut it, he says, when it doesn’t make him laugh when he looks in the mirror.

Everyone who knows him says Dougherty is a free spirit, his own man, eclectic. In the past three years, his hairstyle has gone from bald to bleach-blond to beard. So it surprised few that when confronted with a career-altering choice, Dougherty followed his dream. Instead of staying at Hofstra, where he played for three seasons, for his final year of eligibility, he chose to play for Syracuse, the team he grew up rooting for just miles from the Carrier Dome.

He’ll be in an orange uniform Saturday when No. 2 Syracuse plays No. 9 Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., at 1 p.m. Despite being a favorite to win the national championship in May, UVa has lost two of its three games. The Cavaliers fell to Air Force and Denver on February 28 and 29, respectively.

Dougherty calls his situation a twist of fate. He’s ecstatic to be playing at Syracuse (1-0). He grew up in the city, attending Corcoran High. But it took a little pain, some suffering and a small leap of faith from SU head coach John Desko to get him at SU.

It was the opening game of the season last year, and Dougherty was in his senior season at Hofstra. The coaches expected big things out of him. The year before, he finished fifth on the team with 15 goals. In 2001, he lit up Syracuse for two goals in the NCAA Tournament.

The season – and a game against Loyola – had just begun. Dougherty passed to a teammate and planted on his right foot. Snap. He knew something was wrong. The senior sprinted off the field thinking he bruised his foot. The trainers thought it was just that, a deep bruise. He’d be out one week at most, they thought.

Dougherty ended up missing his entire senior season with a broken right foot. A few days after the injury, a screw was inserted into his pinkie toe to set the foot back in place.

‘I stepped on the field, I cut on it and it just snapped,’ Dougherty said. ‘That’s it. I was done.’

The doctors said he would miss about two months. If he chose to play, Dougherty would have been ready for Hofstra’s last regular-season game, or at least the NCAA Tournament. Knowing that his playing time would be limited when he returned, Dougherty chose to redshirt the season.

But the pain in his foot couldn’t match the pain he felt sitting on the bench. He reluctantly attended Hofstra practices, if only to talk to his buddies. He couldn’t move around much, but Hofstra coaches would occasionally catch him throwing a lacrosse ball on the sideline.

He was supposed to be on crutches for four weeks. He ditched them after one.

‘I’ve never suffered an injury in my life that’s made me have to sit out for the rest of the game,’ Dougherty said. ‘I’ve sprained my ankle before, and they’ve just taped it up and I went back on the field. It sucked. It was real painful. But it wasn’t as bad as what I went through last spring not being able to play lacrosse. Having to sit out and watch practices got real depressing.’

Dougherty graduated from Hofstra in May, but he had one year of lacrosse eligibility remaining. After phone calls with his Hofstra head coach John Danowski and SU head coach John Desko, he decided to come to SU to pursue a graduate degree and a national championship.

‘I love Kevin,’ Danowski said. ‘So whatever move he decides to make, you have to be happy for him. He followed his heart. I would have loved to have Kevin this year, but it’s hard to stay when all of your friends graduate and leave.’

Desko said it’s rare to accept a player with only one year of eligibility. But he knew of Dougherty from high school. And he had seen him rip apart the SU defense in 2001.

Dougherty could step right in and play. So far he has. In his first game as an Orangeman last Saturday, he recorded two assists starting at midfielder against Army.

‘I wouldn’t have taken him if I knew he couldn’t contribute right away,’ Desko said. ‘He has a great attitude. He shows up for practice every day. He’s always on time. And he has fit in very quickly.’

He loves being home. Now, his friends and family can watch him play. He gets to run around in the Carrier Dome again, something he hadn’t done since high school. He gets to play jokes, wear his retro sneakers, watch Dawson’s Creek reruns and do all the quirky things that he’s known to do, including growing his beard as long as he wants – until, of course, he gets bored of it.

Now at Syracuse, Dougherty can focus on being Dougherty, a free spirit.

‘Kevin’s really a great kid, very eclectic.’ Danowski said. ‘He’s a different kind of cat.’

Published on March 4, 2004 at 12:00 pm