FORT DRUM, N.Y. — The cellphone service at Fort Drum is spotty — at best.

That was one of the first things that quarterback Terrel Hunt noted on Monday before the team departed for the military base.

“It was real tough because, you know, no phone service,” he said sheepishly. “It was fun (last year) because you get to bond with the team.”

On Syracuse’s first full day in Fort Drum on Tuesday it led to one of the most memorable moments for Scott Shafer.

Sitting at breakfast Tuesday, the head coach noticed something. Without any service his players were actually talking to each other. He decided to make a game of it.

“We took the most opposite guys that we could imagine,” Shafer said, “and made them sit right across from each other.”

The players had to go around the room telling their teammates what they learned about the player they were sitting across from.

When the exercise ended, the floor was Hernz Laguerre’s. Shafer’s wife Missy, who’s “the only one in the family that’ll read the media,” had told the head coach that his walk-on linebacker was a gifted poet.

“I heard you’re talented,” Shafer told Laguerre. “You got a poem ready?”

“I don’t have one ready,” the linebacker said, “but I will be. Give me two seconds.”

He composed himself and took the stage, reciting a poem about three minutes long.

“It ended up with an eruption by his teammates,” Shafer said. “And all of a sudden, now we know who Hernz is.”

It’s the moments like these that make the trip to Fort Drum a unique experience. There was still football — four practices during the five days spent on the base from Monday to Friday — but it’s wedged in between team-building activities, mingling with military personnel and even paintball.

The trip last year, which lasted nine days, proved critical for the 2012 Orange. It was up in Fort Drum that SU found its offense, unveiling the no-huddle approach that became the staple of the offense for the rest of the season. It was also at Fort Drum that Syracuse found its identity — the one that carried it from a 2-4 start to its second Pinstripe Bowl trophy in three years.

“I think the most impressive part of last season was when we were 2-4, we were the same team,” Shafer said. “We lose a game, we lose a tight one, things don’t go the way we wanted to, but when we came to work Sunday night and Tuesday the kids were the same people they were after a win that they were after a loss.”

What can it mean for this year’s team? One that happens to be rife with military background already?

Defensive back Darius Kelly’s father works at Fort Drum as a data core engineer. Shafer’s had multiple relatives die in the service. Running back Prince-Tyson Gulley’s mother is in the Navy and his brother Toneo Gulley plays running back for the Midshipmen.

After Thursday’s scrimmage the always passionate Shafer talked about the commander at Fort Drum and his leadership. He has the “it factor,” Shafer said, something he wishes all his quarterbacks could emulate as leaders.

On a military base “it” is the norm. In 2012, Syracuse apparently embraced that, battling through some early-season adversity to win a bowl game.

“They let us know the things that they’ve gone through,” Gulley said. “And it makes it even better that they’re the same age as us.”

But the most important part of the week in Fort Drum, and it was a sentiment that players and coaches alike echoed, is that it gives each individual an opportunity for them to learn about each other.

Shafer admitted that he didn’t know much about Laguerre before the team arrived in Fort Drum — the linebacker almost didn’t even come on the trip. A week later the goal is that a different chemistry has been fostered.

“Those are the things I love,” Shafer said. “You get away, you don’t have cell service and all of a sudden the kids look each other in the eye and they’re forced to communicate in a way that maybe they wouldn’t.”

Published on August 16, 2013 at 6:34 pm

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2