Sports of all Sorts: John Jay Grads Will Be Part of Sports History

It will make for a good trivia question years from now.

And it's one that quite a few area residents who are now members of several of the nation's top men's college lacrosse programs will undoubtedly be able to answer rather quickly.

The question: "What was the first event played at the new Meadowlands Stadium?"

The answer will be unfolding on Saturday, April 10 as the inaugural event in the nation's newest NFL venue, the new Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., will be a lacrosse tripleheader.

The Konica Minolta Big City Classic will begin at 1 p.m. with a game between the University of Delaware and Hofstra University. At 4 p.m., the University of Virginia faces the University of North Carolina. The final game of the day features a matchup between Princeton University and two-time defending NCAA Division I champion Syracuse at 6:30 p.m.

Former John Jay star Chris Daniello, a senior attackman at Syracuse, is the Orange's leading scorer. Another former John Jay all-American, Chris Bocklet, a sophomore attackman, leads Virginia in scoring. Former Horace Greeley standout Jordan Fried is a freshman attackman at Hofstra.

The local coach who will be part of the historic debut day is 1986 John Jay graduate Chris Bates, who already has set a milestone of his own.

Bates, the former head coach at Drexel, was appointed Princeton coach in June, becoming the first former player from Westchester to ever be a head coach at one of college lacrosse's so-called "Big Four" programs (Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, Virginia and Princeton).

Bates' debut as Princeton coach came on Feb. 27 in a 17-14 win against Hofstra, which is guided by Seth Tierney, who is the nephew of the legendary former Princeton coach, Bill Tierney, whom Bates replaced. Tierney, who guided Princeton to six championships in eight title-game appearances, opted to take over the budding program at the University of Denver.

John Jay off to fast start under Schurr

After a tumultuous offseason, John Jay's boys lacrosse team is off to a fast start under first-year coach Tim Schurr.

After defeating Brewster 18-8 at home in Schurr's debut as the third head coach in the 31-year history of the program, John Jay rallied to win at Yorktown 8-7 in what is regarded as the first regular season game of the year in Section 1.

John Jay, which trailed 5-1 late in the first half against Yorktown, got a balanced offensive effort in the win with Mike Daniello, Forrest Walter, Will O'Donnell and Jimmy Morris each scored two goals.

In the win against Brewster, Daniello had four goals and two assists. Morris and Evan Chen each scored three goals. Walter and Jake Weil each had two goals and two assists. O'Donnell had a goal and two assists.

John Jay, which had never beaten Yorktown, winners of 28 sectional titles the last 30 years, prior to 1999 has enjoyed a recent run of success against the 'Huskers. John Jay has now won five of the last eight meetings between the teams.