It was at midfield that Kevin Donahue was an All-American for Syracuse from 1977–79.

But Syracuse goalie Dominic Lamolinara can’t tell. The SU assistant coach knows too much about every group on the field to have played, and excelled, at just one position as a player.

“I’m not even sure what position he played in college because he has so much knowledge on everything,” Lamolinara said. “I’ve never been on a team in any sport where a coach is that knowledgeable.”

No. 4 Syracuse (8-3, 2-3 Atlantic Coast) is just hitting its stride, currently riding a four-game winning streak in which its attack is gelling, its goalies are improving and its faceoff and clearing percentages are skyrocketing. And that progress is possible because of Donahue’s guidance.

Now in his 26th year on the Orange’s coaching staff, Donahue’s versatility and high school teaching background enable him to effectively work with essentially any player on the roster.

Even Donahue himself can’t explain how he divvies up his time during practice to help coach so many different groups, working with all of the attack, goalies, faceoff specialists, wings and clearing units.

“I’ve just been doing it so long, I just kind of know how to jump from one to another,” he said. “I’ll look at what is needed. I will spend maybe a little more time doing one thing than another, but I’m pretty consistent about what I’m doing.”

However Donahue does it, his coaching routine is working.

Syracuse’s groups with which Donahue works are all on an upswing. He likes working with the offense the best, he said, and that corps has scored at least 10 goals in each of SU’s last four wins — the group’s longest streak of 10-goal games all year.

The goalie platoon of Lamolinara and Bobby Wardwell is developing into more of a formidable system with every game. The Orange still ranks fifth in the ACC in clearing percentage, but cleared all but one of its 25 attempts against a pesky North Carolina ride on Saturday, and 17-of-18 in a win over Cornell on April 8.

But arguably most pivotal of all is Syracuse’s turnaround at the faceoff X.

“We’ve been working quite a bit on technique,” SU head coach John Desko said after beating Cornell. “My hat’s off to Coach Donahue. He’s been taking it personally and he’s been working his butt off with it.”

Not even half an hour after a game ends, faceoff specialist Chris Daddio receives a flood of emails from Donahue, giving the senior clips and advice and telling him what they’ll work on in the upcoming week of practice.

And after a poor start to the season at the faceoff X, Daddio has won more than 50 percent in three of the last four games, thanks to the meticulous work that Donahue puts in on draws.

“He always just finds little things that no one would see on film,” Daddio said. “I wish I had the chance to work more with him, but obviously I understand he has to do a lot of different things.”

Last year, Donahue didn’t work with the faceoff unit as it stumbled through the season to the tune of a .420 percentage.

He was busy wrapping up his teaching career at West Genesee High School, his alma mater.

After graduating from SU, Donahue taught chemistry and physics full time at West Genesee for 34 years, balancing it with coaching at a Division I powerhouse — and barely having time for anything else.

But Donahue retired from teaching before this school year, and he and his players have noticed a similarity between the natures of the two jobs.

“I think the best thing about him is that he’s a great teacher,” long-stick midfielder Peter Macartney said. “He’s just really good at explaining things, making things really clear when he’s teaching us.”

And with the Donahue’s projects playing well, the assistant still isn’t settling for the Orange’s recent improvements.

There’s always more work to be done.

Said Donahue: “It’s a progression. Just got to keep trying to get better all the time. That’s really what we’re trying to do.”

Published on April 16, 2014 at 1:30 am

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb