This article was posted by Doug Doughty on www.roanoke.com
As Virginia's players and coaches prepare for the men's lacrosse Final Four, Will Barrow is never far from their thoughts. In fact, they want to be reminded of him, hence the team T-shirts that bear the expression, "Just the boys."
It's a saying that many associate with Barrow, a co-captain for the Cavaliers' team that reached the Division I men's lacrosse semifinals in 2008.
"It's a term that morphed into a rallying cry for the team," said Max Pomper, one of UVa's co-captains this year. "When everything hit the fan, all we had was each other. When the going gets tough, it's just about us, just about the boys.
"If anyone coined the phrase, it was probably Will."
Barrow would not have been a member of this year's team. He completed his eligibility last year, but he was around the team in the fall and was living in Charlottesville when he took his life Nov. 22.
"We lost one of our best friends and we still think about him every day," said Pomper, who was on the same midfield unit as Barrow. "We loved him like a brother. We don't really have to say much to get fired up for games. We're playing for Will now."
Top-seeded Virginia (15-2) has returned to the Division I men's lacrosse final in Foxborough, Mass., where the Cavaliers will meet fifth-seeded Cornell (12-3) this afternoon at 2:30. Third-seeded Duke (15-3) and No. 2 Syracuse (14-2) will play at noon in the first semifinal.
Syracuse defeated Virginia in a 2008 semifinal that featured a breathtaking individual effort by Barrow, who absorbed multiple checks while spinning his way through the Orange defense for a second-period goal.
"I've seen the highlight plenty of times," said UVa coach Dom Starsia said, who is in his mid-50s. "It's one of the really, really remarkable plays I've ever seen made in our sport.
"When we're doing our scouting sessions, we're always referencing back to previous games with our opponents and I told our team before our first game, 'Be prepared to see Will on the screen, fellas. If we need to talk about it, let's talk about it, but we're not going to be able to avoid it.'
"It's always sort of bubbled just below the surface, not necessarily in a bad way. It's always there with us."
From the moment that the 2008 season ended, Virginia was viewed as one of the favorites for 2009, but the UVa men's lacrosse family has been through a lot.
Matt Poskay, an All-America midfielder on the UVa team that won the 2006 national championship, recently was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Chris Sanderson, goalie for the Cavaliers' 1997 national championship team, is dealing with a brain tumor.
"It's been a tumultuous year, but Will's thing is very, very real for kids this age to have to deal with," Starsia said. "Imagine if you lived next door and a friend of yours hung himself in his room. It's kind of unfathomable in a lot of ways."
The obvious question is, "Why?" But, the players don't ask.
"Not really," Pomper said. "We've moved past that. More than anything, it kind of brought us all together and told us how special this program is and how much we care for each other. Coach Starsia was a big help in keeping us together, 40 of us with all different personalities."
Barrow's first name is embroidered on the sleeves of UVa's game jerseys, but the tribute has been intentionally understated.
"I wasn't completely comfortable with having a big sign on our chests," said Starsia, who was voted into the lacrosse hall of fame this year.
"Parents have to explain these things to kids and I said, 'Hey, look, I would prefer that we low-key this the rest of the way and maybe we'll do something at the end of the year.' I don't think we're throwing it up in somebody's face."
Virginia has a tradition before each of its games in which a senior addresses the team, sometimes reading from notes that run a page or more. Invariably, said Starsia, this year's seniors mentioned Barrow.
"We're both from Long Island," said Pomper, son of former Roanoke College lacrosse standout Bruce Pomper, a member of the Maroons' 1978 national championship team. "When I was being recruited here, Will was one of the guys I stayed with on my official visit.
"We started alongside each other for three years. Basically every memory I have on the lacrosse field involves Will."
During one stretch at midseason, Virginia won three straight games by one goal, including a seven-overtime affair against Maryland, and the Cavaliers are 4-0 in one-goal games for the season. However, they were hammered in a pair of late-season losses to Duke (15-10 and 16-5) and Starsia wondered if his team had any more to give.
The Cavaliers didn't play for 16 days following a loss to Duke in the first round of the ACC tournament, then came back and blew out Villanova and Johns Hopkins in NCAA games, 18-6 and 19-8.
"We kind of felt a well of emotion here at the end that's picked us up a little bit," Starsia said.
Barrow is with them in spirit.
"That's definitely the case," Starsia said. "Not to be melodramatic, but there were so many life lessons there -- how short life is, those sort of things. It's there when you try to get kids to wake up and smell the coffee a little bit. You never know when this thing can be snatched away from you."
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