Georgetown simply didn’t know what to do with Scott Kahoe. A three-sport athlete at Radnor High School in Glenside, Pa., Kahoe was listed right beside former Syracuse star and Tewaaraton Trophy winner Mike Leveille near the top of 2004’s recruiting list. The potential was there, the possibilities were endless.

But the problem was, it never figured him out.

‘As one of the top recruits Georgetown’s ever had and one of the best athletes it’s ever had, ‘What do we do with a kid like this?’ was the question,’ Kahoe said.

After four years with the Hoyas – three on the field, one sidelined with an injury – Kahoe transferred and is finishing his NCAA eligibility with the Orange. Kahoe finished his undergraduate degree at Georgetown and is graduate student at Syracuse.

Kahoe will return to play the No. 11 Hoyas for the first time at DaSilva Memorial Field in Washington, D.C. at noon Saturday. After heading back from Washington, the No. 2 Orange (2-1) will return to the Carrier Dome to host No. 9 Johns Hopkins on March 14.

From his first practice with the Orange, Kahoe began to catch a glimpse of what he was looking for. It wasn’t as dreary as he described Georgetown practices. At SU, players had the game tailored to them, not the other way around.

‘The first day of practice we came out and just started playing right away,’ Kahoe said. ‘At Georgetown it was a routine, you got into a routine where you did the same thing Monday through Friday and I think it was here that it’s not routine at all.’

The midfielder flew under the radar mostly at Georgetown, tallying 11 goals in three seasons, while being stuck with a medical redshirt for a shoulder injury he suffered in a 2007 preseason scrimmage. It wasn’t what he’d expected to do at the Division I level. He wasn’t breaking out.

‘With me it was always difficult,’ said Kahoe, now a senior at Syracuse. ‘After my freshman year I thought, ‘This really isn’t the spot for me athletically.’ I think that was a lot of frustration with the style of play and how things were shaping up.’

Kahoe was confronted with both an academic and athletic decision to make last summer and obtained his release from Georgetown. He wanted to earn his master’s in business administration, something he couldn’t do there. He wanted a change of scenery and venue, but mostly he wanted to materialize into the player he should be.

Kahoe called it refreshing, as the change translated to production on the field for the Orange. Instead of a possession-valued offense like Georgetown, Kahoe is able to run wild, getting the green light to shoot when and where he wants within the Orange offense.

Against No. 1 Virginia last Friday, Kahoe drove toward the net and flicked the ball behind his back just before coming parallel with the cage, scoring to tie the game.

Attack Stephen Keogh noticed the progression and welcomed another offensive threat to an already compelling offense.

‘He’s a good skill player, big guy, real athletic and I think everybody welcomed him with open arms, he’s a good guy to have on the team,’ Keogh said.

Against then-No. 18 Army, Kahoe and Stephen Keogh combined for four points in eight minutes during a 7-1 Syracuse swing that iced a 17-6 thrashing of the Black Knights.

Add the solid game against the Cavaliers, and Kahoe brought his goal total to four on the season – just two below his season high at Georgetown.

‘Its great, we just go out and play,’ Kahoe said. ‘We let the best athletes come out and we don’t worry about the little things.’

Hoyas head coach Dave Urick has been watching his former player on film leading up to Saturday. There are no hard feelings between the two. The coach understood why he had to go.

‘He was here for four years, he worked hard when he was here,’ Urick said.

It’s the reason he gave Kahoe an outright release. Although many schools require athletes to transfer only on the grounds that they won’t play for competitors, Urick knew he had to let Kahoe go. It was for the best.

And although he’s enjoyed watching Kahoe work in an Orange uniform so far, he hopes to be able to shut him down Saturday.

‘It’ll be great to say hello for sure,’ Urick said. ‘I hope he doesn’t have a career day against us, that’s all.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on March 4, 2009 at 12:00 pm