Just before the start of the 2008 season, then-freshman goalie John Galloway sent a message to the rest of his Syracuse team.

But not in the figurative sense.

During Winter Break that year, he sent the rest of the Orange a Christmas card. In the letter, he casually poked fun at some of the other players and ended it with a motivational note to get the team excited about the fast-approaching season.

Brandon Conlin, a sophomore at the time, said the move was pretty gutsy. Galloway was about to enter an open competition for the starting goalie spot. And team leaders typically take over the motivational roles. Galloway was just an inexperienced freshman.

But now, two years later, Conlin and the rest of the Orange (1-0) understand. Galloway’s confidence has become perhaps his most important attribute. The Syracuse native, now a junior, won that goalie competition his freshman year and has started every game he has been healthy for since. He is the first goalie in NCAA history to win a national championship in both his freshman and sophomore years. And yet, he has still endured plenty of challenges and criticism despite the success on the field.

‘I’ve heard a lot of different things the two years that I’ve been here, and that stuff comes up in the media all the time,’ Galloway said. ‘It’s just something you have to deal with and keep playing your game, and I think that’s what I’ve done the past couple of years.’

Entering this year, the junior had set the Syracuse single-season record for wins (16) as a freshman and led SU to a 7.38 goals-against average his sophomore year – the lowest for an Orange team since 1970. Inside Lacrosse named him a 2010 third-team preseason All-American.

All that was still not enough to stop the coaching staff from ‘being open’ to a goalie competition between Galloway and senior Al Cavalieri heading into this season. When Galloway caught the flu before Syracuse’s NCAA quarterfinal game with Maryland last May, Cavalieri stepped in and recorded 14 saves as SU won 11-6. That was enough to open the door to speculation and potentially threaten Galloway’s starting role.

But the competition did not seem to faze him. Instead, head coach John Desko thinks Galloway raised his level of play this year.

‘I think he’s handled it extremely well,’ Desko said. ‘… I think he’s elevated his game this year from what we’ve seen so far. He’s still, we think, the best clearing goalie in the country, and he’s made some tremendous saves for us in the scrimmages and in the first game.’

It’s more than just his performance, though, that has improved. His confidence has continued to grow. And as an upperclassman now, Galloway has quickly jumped into a leadership role. Senior defenseman Matt Tierney has noticed the goalie is more comfortable getting in people’s faces this season than in the past. Desko said the goalie has been a ‘defensive quarterback’ in net for the Orange.

And it’s his confidence that has allowed him to do be that type of leader. When Syracuse played Denver on Friday, Galloway started yelling at Pioneer players to shoot at him. He said he started encouraging opponents to shoot last year in the final four against Duke.

Some might see it as taunting, but Galloway says he does it to help him stay focused.

‘You just never want to lull yourself to sleep, especially in games where maybe you’re not seeing as many shots as you would like,’ he said. ‘It’s just kind of a confidence thing to know that you’re ready for any shot and know that you can save any shot.’

He added that it helps get the defensemen in front of him pumped up. And both Tierney and Conlin agreed that was true – once they moved past the initial shock of hearing their goalie tell opponents to shoot at him.

Both of those seniors also said they realize that is part of Galloway’s game. That focus and that confidence have been there since his freshman year. They’ve seen it in him ever since he sent that first Christmas card.

‘You have to have confidence if you want to perform,’ Conlin said. ‘You’ve got to think – not even think – you’ve got to know you’re the best in order to play like you are the best, to have confidence that no one can shake you. I think he’s got that.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on February 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm