After months of speculation, Onondaga Community College transfer Cody Jamieson will be eligible to play for the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team, head coach John Desko confirmed Thursday. The Post-Standard first reported Jamieson’s eligibility Thursday morning. Desko confirmed the report to The Daily Orange Thursday after practice.

‘We had an inkling it was going to happen last night,’ Desko said. ‘To be honest, I don’t know when it was confirmed this morning, but it was confirmed.’ A star junior college attack, Jamieson first enrolled at SU as a part-time student last fall. He joined the team in the winter and was allowed to practice. He was not allowed to play in games until the NCAA granted a waiver regarding the proper transfer of all his junior college credits.

‘I’m happy that this is behind me, and I look forward to helping the team out any way that I can,’ Jamieson said in a statement released Thursday evening. ‘I’m excited to move on.

‘Hopefully, I’ll see some minutes on the field. There’s no guarantee in that, but I’m going to keep working hard and pushing the guys in practice – just trying to make the team better as we get closer to the playoffs.’

Thursday afternoon, OCC coach Chuck Wilbur told The Daily Orange that Jamieson contacted him last night with the news that he was likely to return to the field.

‘Cody called last night and told me, ‘I haven’t heard from Coach (Roy) Simmons III or John Desko,’ but he called me last night, so I guess that’s a start,’ Wilbur said. With his clearance, Jamieson will be able to finish this season and play next season, Wilbur said. Jamieson garnered attention in his two years at OCC. He led the team to a pair of undefeated seasons and national JUCO titles, scoring 237 points in his two seasons and taking home the 2007 JUCO Male Athlete of the Year Award and the 2007 Tom Longboat Award (Aboriginal Athlete of the Year). In 2006, he played at OCC with current Syracuse starting defender Sid Smith. Jamieson, a native of Six Nations, Ontario, will look to take the field this Saturday when the No. 3 Orange plays Massachusetts. Junior Chris Daniello and redshirt freshman Tim Desko have been playing what would be Jamieson’s role as Syracuse’s left-handed attack. Daniello has scored 17 goals and Desko has scored nine. ‘He was really excited on the phone last night,’ Wilbur said of Jamieson. ‘Obviously he was a little disappointed that he missed almost the whole year except the last two games and the playoffs, but he was saying, ‘You know what? My dream’s come true. I’m going to play at Syracuse University, and whether it’s a year and a half or the full two years, at least I’m fulfilling my dream.”

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on April 24, 2009 at 12:00 pm