GAMES – Avalon’s Graham Deever Leads Middle Lacrosse

Sitting at 10-1 through Sunday, Middle Township’s boys’ lacrosse team remains thirsty for stiffer competition to help prepare itself for the upcoming state playoffs.
The six-year-old Panther program has enjoyed impressive area success against lesser opponents but has yet to taste victory in the state-wide post-season tournament.
Coach Tom Griffin’s bunch is a senior-laden group led by the most prolific scorer in the short history of the squad. Avalon’s Graham Deever was four goals short of 100 career scores heading into this past Monday’s match at Oakcrest. The 18-year-old pounded a Panther single season record 46 goals in 2010.
“I started focusing on lacrosse in the fifth grade in Avalon,” said Deever. “I loved baseball but after sixth grade you had to move to a different league so I stuck with lacrosse and soccer.”
The Avalon youth lacrosse program has prepared youngsters from across the region for a sport that is still relatively new to the spring sports calendar. The exploits of Deever and his Middle teammates has brought more appreciation and respect for the developmental nature of Avalon’s lacrosse program.
“Some of our kids played the sport in Avalon before they got here,” said Griffin, who took over in the program’s second season. “Out of 10 starters on the field, three of them had played before high school and that helps the coaches immensely.”
Griffin is assisted by Eric Dechert and Matt McElroy. It is McElroy who focuses on teaching the novice underclassmen about the game so they’ll be more prepared to contribute to the varsity squad.
It also helps any team to have an aggressive, attacking speedster setting an example for the other athletes. Deever is an All Cape-Atlantic League first team performer in lacrosse and soccer. The son of James and Tracey Deever, Graham stands about 5-7 and weighs just above 150 pounds. He sees the field well and uses his impressive quickness to find the net and open teammates with equal accuracy.
“I still love soccer and I played basketball inmy freshman year, but lacrosse is a combination of different aspects of sports,” said Deever, who is headed to Penn State University to study engineering. “You need good speed and strength to compete in lacrosse. It’s a unique sport with a lot of hard hitting. Picking out the open man is very important and you learn that with experience.”
Griffin says boys’ lacrosse, especially, features “more contact all over the field” as compared to the higher scoring girls’ game. He said the sport has similarities with soccer because players have to “see the whole field” to be successful with passing and scoring.
Griffin is impressed with Deever’s status as a multi-sport athlete.
“Too many kids today chose to or are told to specialize in one sport,” said Griffin. “They should do as many sports as they can. They’ll only pass through high school once.”
Deever hopes for an opportunity as a walk-on for the Nittany Lions despite having athletic scholarship offers from smaller institutions.
“I wanted to go to a big-time school,” said Deever, who boasts a 4.2 grade point average with honors and advanced placement courses. “I was contacted by a few schools for lacrosse but I want the overall experience of a big school atmosphere.”
Middle lacks a competitive local rival, which tends to hamper the team’s preparedness for strong opponents coming from the central and northern parts of the Garden State. Lacrosse playoffs are not broken into state sections.
Griffin’s squad is a combination of 14 seniors, a couple of juniors and some contributing freshmen who have lacrosse experience prior to high school.
“Our defense is very strong,” said the coach. “And we can be tough to defend because we don’t have just one kid who is a big-time scorer. It’s more difficult for a team to mark just one of our players.”
Middle’s captains include All-CAL first teamers Tom Buchanan and Joe Sweeney on defense, along with midfielder Kevin Wheaton, face-off specialist Brian Skill and goalie Adrian Brown.
“Our goals are to get past the first round and secure a home game,” said Griffin, a special education teacher in the district. “We’ve got a great group of kids to work with.”
Reach Rossi at joerossi61@comcast.net