Before his college lacrosse trainees return home for the summer, shooting coach Torre Kasemeyer spends his Saturday nights watching game film. He calls players on Sunday with feedback and they discuss off-season goals. Through five games, Kasemeyer saw the same themes in Brendan Curry’s game. The sophomore saw himself as a facilitator, Kasemeyer said, and his speed often forced slides and opened passing lanes.

With a quick first step, Curry could always shoot on the run. But what if he modified his release motion, changed the pacing of his stride and stepped into slides?

“You can be a 20 goal scorer and stay where you are,” Kasemeyer said. “Or you can be close to a 30 and pick this up.”

When Curry left campus for the summer, SU head coach John Desko told the rising sophomore to improve his shooting. He favored a sidearm on the run shot, and still does sometimes in moving situations. Last year, Curry had played hero for Syracuse against North Carolina when he scored two goals in the final minutes of regulation and assisted the overtime winner. But Kasemeyer saw the opportunity for Curry to build on his usual sweep down the right alley. And that training — combined with an injury to midfielder Tucker Dordevic — vaulted Curry’s production to a projected second-team All-American midway through the season while leading the midfield in points (27) ahead of the Orange’s game on Saturday against North Carolina.

“My shooting’s been subpar,” Curry said after scoring on one of 12 shots against Duke. “I’m getting a lot of shots off and they’re not really falling, not all of them so I just got to keep working on that.”

Curry’s worked with Kasemeyer since his freshman of high school at Calvert Hall College (Baltimore) High School, where Kasemeyer is the team’s offensive coordinator. Kasmeyer noted Curry’s biggest improvement since he’s first met him was strength development, but this summer he coupled that with technical practices. Over the past summer, Curry worked with Kasemeyer through Gotskillz Lacrosse, where Kasemeyer trains lacrosse’s top shooters.

This year, Curry’s moved his hands further away from his body to elongate the shooting motion, therefore generating more power. Kasemeyer compared it to a rubber band: the further back you pull the band, the more velocity upon release.

Curry’s shooting motion is different, too. With time and space, Curry’s shooting more overhand. It provides more options in changing planes, Kasemeyer said, like starting with a stick high and shooting the ball low, or starting with the stick on the right and shooting to the left. Shooting overhand also limits the goalie’s ability to read the shot’s direction. When the shot comes from the side, the goalie can follow it all the way through the motion. When it’s overhand, the goalie can’t see the ball until it’s being released.

“You usually try to go far pipe,” Curry said, “change your plan, drop your shoulder a little bit.”

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Kasemeyer had Curry perform normal shooting on the run drills, but instead of traveling six or seven yards in a few strides after catching the ball, Curry stretched his steps. Stepping eight or nine yards in the same amount of paces meant a bigger step into his motion. Over the course of the off-season, Kasemeyer estimated Curry went from shots in the upper 80s to the low 90s in miles per hour.

In Syracuse’s most recent game against Cornell, Curry caught a pass about 14 yards out from the goalie. With a moment before a defender came, he switched from his left hand to his right and stomped nearly three yards forward. His stick swung through and rocketed the ball into the left corner of the net.

“He’s got a good first step,” Desko said. “He’s got good speed after the first step which gives him distance from the defender. And the bottom line then is, hit the back of the net. And I think he worked hard at that.”

And there’s more to add to his game. Kasemeyer thinks with Curry’s speed, which forces defenses to slide, and the more powerful shot he could be scoring six or seven points a game. Curry wasn’t fond of his 1-of-12 shooting performance against Duke, despite scoring the game winner.

Kasemeyer wants to work on inverting Curry, meaning he’d dodge from an attack spot though playing midfield. And he wants him to learn the step-down shot once more, this time left handed.

“I think he’s a world team guy,” Kasemeyer said. “I’ve said since his junior year of high school, his game is tailored made for it and he doesn’t do anything but get better every year.”

Published on April 10, 2019 at 11:13 pm

Contact Josh: jlschafe@syr.edu | @Schafer_44