Girard: ‘I’m staying home’
Glens Falls star, tops on state’s scoring list, decides on Syracuse
Glens Falls’ Joseph Girard III delights a packed audience and selects Syracuse University to play his Division I college basketball.
Years of work set up Joseph Girard III for the opportunity to revel in all that his college decision announcement entailed Sunday evening.
Months of thought went into ultimately deciding on which of the six schools the Glens Falls senior point guard would choose. Sitting calm and cool in front of packed room at the Queensbury Hotel, Girard’s selection at the end seemed like a layup.
Flanked by his mother and father along with Glens Falls athletic director Chip Corlew, Girard stood up after a short video presentation to proclaim the state’s all-time leading scorer would play at Syracuse University of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The 6-foot-2 sharpshooter selected the Orange over Boston College, Duke, Notre Dame, Michigan and Penn State.
Girard had a hat from each of the prospective schools on the table in front of him. He simply put on the Syracuse cap after telling the audience of his intentions.
“I think he handled that as well as he could have handled it,” Glens Falls football coach Pat Lilac said. “He is still a 17-year-old kid with pressure on him and expectations. They did a great job with the way they announced it.”
“I thought this was short, sweet and right to the point,” Corlew said. “All of Section II can be proud. Look at the quality of athletes being put out there. He is just another one.”
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim and assistant Gerry Mcnamara stepped up their
recruiting efforts dramatically once Girard whittled his wish list down to six schools. That effort landed the Orange a player who has scored 3,306 career points and an athlete who won a Class B state football title at the Carrier Dome in 2016.
“Having him around me a lot is where the comfort level came,” Girard said of Boeheim. “I have been around him for three or four years. He reminded me a lot of my grandfather and dad. Coach Boeheim is a down-to-earth guy. Once you sit down and talk with him, you understand that. A lot of things he said made me comfortable going with Syracuse.”
Joe Girard Jr., who played his college basketball for Michigan coach John Beilein at Le Moyne, said Syracuse’s persistence with his son paid off.
“Coach Boeheim was just here last Thursday, knowing this day was coming,” Girard Jr. said. “That was Gerry Mcnamara’s second time coming in a week. I really think they wanted Joe, obviously. He was the only guard they were recruiting. They showed that consistently the whole way through. What it came down to was, where he felt comfortable.”
Girard sat down Saturday with his parents and spent the afternoon and evening going over each school and program to which he might commit.
The senior settled on his final decision before going to bed.
“I think most challenging part is saying no to everyone else,” Girard said. “They are great schools.”
Girard garnered his third straight Times Union small-school Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year award as a junior when he averaged 50.0 points per game in leading the Indians to a 20-3 campaign.
The Times Union named Girard its 2017-18 Male Athlete of the Year in June.
Girard and Mcnamara, a former star guard who won a national championship with the Orange in 2003, hit it off immediately. The senior said the chance to play so close to home and be coached by Boeheim and Mcnamara was too good to pass up.
“I hope they are excited,” Girard said of the Syracuse fans.
“You have to be comfortable with passing your son off to somebody that you have been grooming for this since he could walk,” Girard Jr. said. “You want to be comfortable that those guys are going to treat him the same way. Who better to do that than Gerry Mcnamara, who is the same player as Joe, and a Hall of Famer in Jim Boeheim? And you get to do it in your backyard?
“I think it was proven tonight that he says what he means,” Girard Jr. said of his son. “He stayed home in high school, even with all the prep schools looming around because he wanted to stay home with his classmates and teammates. The same thing happened now. He is a community kid. What better way to do it than 21/2 hours away in place that has 25,000 fans?”