Gash inspired by his father
Ualbany defenseman tries to emulate former NFL fullback’s example
Former NFL fullback Sam Gash plans to drive from his home in Michigan to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse on Thursday.
It’s a trip Gash has made before. He was a freshman at Penn State when the Nittany Lions faced the Orange in football in 1987.
“I think they had a quarterback, Mcpherson, (Heisman Trophy runner-up) Don Mcpherson,” Gash recalled on Tuesday. “Moose, (NFL fullback) Darryl Johnston was still there. Yeah, we played, and I think they beat the bricks off us, I believe. I think they got us that year pretty good.”
Indeed, Syracuse won that game in a 48-21 rout. But Gash expressed only warm feelings about returning to the Carrier Dome because he’ll get to watch his son Elijah, a sophomore defenseman, play for the University at Albany lacrosse team against ninth-ranked Syracuse. The game will be televised at 5 p.m. Thursday on ACC Network.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Sam Gash said. “I’m just beyond proud of Elijah, the road that he’s traveled, and he’s thankful and feels blessed and just wants to give everything he’s got all the time just to basically honor his ability.”
Elijah Gash said he draws that level of effort from his father, who played for the Patriots, Bills and Ravens during a 12-year career that included Pro Bowl berths with Buffalo in 1998 and 1999 and a Super Bowl ring with Baltimore in 2000.
Elijah has watched highlights of his father, a fearsome blocker who made the 1999 Pro Bowl without a single carry all season.
“The one thing I always see that I try to incorporate in my game is just effort, every single play,” Elijah Gash said. “He’s always in the face of somebody, hitting somebody. He’s like the type of athlete that I aspire to be one day.”
Sam Gash and his wife, Alicia, got Elijah into lacrosse in elementary school. He also played
football and basketball.
“My Dad and Mom had a rule that every season I had to pick a sport so we couldn’t just be sitting at the house,” Elijah said. “He picked lacrosse for me and said, ‘Yeah, you’re doing this.’ I went to that first practice, picked up the stick and just fell in love.”
Though he has scored two goals this season, Elijah Gash said he prefers defense because “I like hitting people.”
Going to high school in Green Bay, Wis., where his father was a running backs coach for the Packers, Elijah Gash didn’t attract much college interest. He instead enrolled at St. Ambrose, an NAIA school in Davenport, Iowa.
“I wasn’t really recruited out of high school because of my grades and, to be honest, I don’t think I was physically or athletically ready,” he said. “Not a knock on Wisconsin lacrosse, but it wasn’t that high caliber.”
A family friend sent video of Gash to ESPN lacrosse analyst Quint Kessenich, who texted it to Ualbany head coach Scott Marr, a former college teammate of Kessenich at Johns Hopkins.
“(Kessenich) said, ‘How is this kid not playing Division I lacrosse?’” Marr recalled. “And I said, ‘I don’t know but I’ll jump on it.’ I watched the video once and that’s all I needed. We’re excited. Elijah’s coming along. He’s getting better and better every day playing at this level in practice. Tremendous athlete, but his work ethic is unreal.”
Marr compared the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Gash’s athleticism to that of former Great Dane star attack Lyle Thompson.
His improvement extends to the classroom. He said his academic failures were “an effort thing and immaturity.” But he worked to get his associate’s degree so he could transfer to Ualbany.
“Something clicked that he really wanted to play Division I lacrosse and he really started to believe in himself because he never had a lot of confidence,” Sam Gash said.
Elijah Gash said he’s looking forward to playing at the Carrier Dome, the one place he’s always wanted to play, other than Ualbany’s Casey Stadium.
“I was kind of nervous in the fall coming in about how I’d fit in with the high-caliber Division I guys, but Coach Marr’s been the best head coach I’ve ever had,” Elijah Gash said. “He’s done everything in his power to get me ready for this opportunity. I wake up every morning thankful I’m in the position that I am.”