UALBANY’S TD IERLAN FACE-OFF SPECIALIST
Controlling possession a key to Ierlan and the Danes success
ALBANY, N.Y. » There wasn’t anyone left on the Victor High School campus on a Sunday morning in early June. The students and teachers had all left for the newly started summer vacation.
It was one day after the lacrosse team topped off its 22-0 season with a New York State championship. Perfection, it seemed, had been established. But as the head coach Jim Andre came back to his office, he saw one person on the lacrosse field.
It was TD Ierlan, his face-off specialist. Ierlan had his phone set to an application that would intermittently blow a whistle so he could work on the intricacies of his faceoffs.
In his words, being there combatted complacency. Excelling at the high school level wasn’t Ierlan’s goal. He’d watched NCAA Tournament. He’d seen things he needed to work on from the players he wanted to be like.
“The difference between TD and other kids, is that TD doesn’t just work on one move,” Andre said. “He’s got several moves. And he’s got counters to those moves.”
Ierlan isn’t far removed from idolizing and emulating the best faceoff specialists in college lacrosse. Now, though, it’s not hard to argue that he’s the game’s best. And it will be on full display as the Great Danes go for their first Championship Weekend appearance in program history when they face Maryland
in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in Newark, Delaware.
As a freshman, he is No. 2 in the country having won 72.5 percent of his face-offs. His 309 total wins are by far the most in the country. Since the postseason started, he’s gone 66-of-82 (80.5 percent).
In the past, Albany head coach Scott Marr has seriously talked of a desire to eliminate the face-off from the sport. But in more than 10 years, the Great Danes have never boasted a 50 percent faceoff specialist. That’s why Ierlan, with his ability to secure the ball, has completely changed the potential of the always-good, never-great Albany lacrosse program.
“I feel like he knows how important he is to this team,” Albany’s leading scorer Connor Fields said. “He gives us those extra possessions. And that’s what helps us get on those runs that we had. He’s winning the face-offs, and we just keep rolling. I think he knows, but at the same time, he’s not satisfied.”
Ierlan played three sports in high school. Football in the fall. Wrestling in the winter and then lacrosse in the spring. What makes Ierlan stand out at the X is his comfortability, especially in comparison to his opponent.
That’s a product of his outstanding wrestling career — one that ranks at the top of the Victor High School record books. The movements on the mat, his coaches agree, mirror his movements at the X. Having a low center of gravity, the physical movement, knowing when to drive in, knowing when to relax and bring his body backward.
“All of that stuff seems to wrap together,” said Craig Kaper, Victor’s wrestling coach.
It combines with the student-of-the-game skill he puts toward winning the face-off. He was a competitive chess player up through high school, too. His stature kept major Division I programs away, but didn’t measure the versatility of his mental or physical abilities.
He’s gotten bigger in college, no longer limited by wrestling’s weight classes — though he says he still goes home and wrestles for fun. But the two are so closely intertwined. They’re “on the ground battles” as Andre says. And that’s what Ierlan excels at.
“We feel good every time TD steps on the field that we can win the face-off,” Marr said. “That wrestling mentality of being on the mat for six minutes by yourself. You lose, and the next time you come out, it’s just you. It’s an individual game within game.”
When he’s at the X, he’s in constant communication with his wing players. Before face-offs, he’ll tell them what he thinks he can do with his opponent, which helps sets up the best spot for the wings to position. He’ll tell them that if his body is in a specific position, that means they should position themselves in a certain spot. If his hands are in a specific spot, then they should line up in a specific spot.
“It makes our job easier as the wings,” said wing player Adam Osika. “Because we just pretty much have to guard them off from contact. TD does make it a lot easier. I guess I could say it’s a group effort, but TD is leading that.”
There were a lot of teams involved in Ierlan’s recruitment. A lot of programs intrigued by his 83 percent rate at the X in an, albeit, Rochester region not known for producing great lacrosse talents.
Marr and his coaching staff entered Ierlan’s recruitment during his junior year. And once they did, they were all in. They made Ierlan feel like he was their guy. Other schools had interest, but it was waning. Towson showed genuine interest, but eventually offered a different player.
When Ierlan went in for an official visit to Albany, it ended with the entire coaching staff giving Ierlan a hug — a moment that stands out more than a year later.
“It wasn’t because they knew TD was going to work out,” said Mike Ierlan, TD’s father. “No one knows how these kids are going to work out. But I think they felt something with him.”
Ierlan still talks to his parents about his face-off opponents like a boy meeting his idol. After he picked apart UNC’s Stephen Kelly, he spoke in genuine awe of how Kelly was an All-American last year and how great he is. It’s a weekly conversation.
Even when he does well against an opponent, he’ll compliment their strength, their skill, their speed. In some ways, he’s still the same person on the empty lacrosse field as a high school junior, trying to replicate the face-off specialists he saw on TV.
“I don’t think he has any idea that he’s right in that same wheelhouse with them,” said his mom, Karen Ierlan. “He doesn’t seem himself in that same light.”
Even if he doesn’t see himself in that light, everyone who watches him doesn’t have a doubt. Marr no longer talks about getting rid of the face-/.off from the game of the lacrosse. Now, he says, for the first time, he’s actually confident that Albany will get the ball when the two players line up.
He’s hoping for a 50-50 split at the X on Sunday against Maryland. But only twice all season has he been below the 50 percent threshold. Nothing about Ierlan’s season has been 50-50.
Albany has the best offense in the nation. And that all originates with Ierlan at the X.
“It’s really cool for a whole program just to see where everyone’s come,” Ierlan said. “Not only me. It’s all really cool right now. But at the end of the year, once everything’s done, that’s when I’ll take a look back and enjoy it.”