UPDATED: Oct. 25, 2018 at 2:54 p.m.

Following a four-game road trip in 2014, Liz Sack and Emma Russell volunteered to clean out the Syracuse bus they had just spent 13 hours on. They stood in the dark, talking about life, field hockey and the dumpster they were emptying trash into.

Two of Sack’s former teammates called her the team mom when she played for SU from 2013-16. Sack’s first experience in coaching came as a freshman assisting a youth camp in Syracuse. Sack, now a full-time assistant coach at St. Joseph’s, will coach against her former team when No. 14 Syracuse (8-6, 1-5 Atlantic Coast) travels to Philadelphia to battle St. Joseph’s (14-2, 7-0 Atlantic 10) on Saturday afternoon to conclude its regular season.

“Some of them were my teammates so I do know them really, really well,” Sack said. “I’m trying to pull out the important things for hockey that I can use to help my team.”

As Syracuse’s lineups are announced, four of the potential starting 11 will have played with Sack during her career at SU, a program she never thought she was good enough to play for.

Sack earned all-state first team honors in Pennsylvania in 2012, but her high school coach at Merion-Mercy Academy (Pennsylvania) had to convince her to attend a summer camp at Syracuse.

“I went up thinking Syracuse was a reach for me,” Sack said. “I was hoping that maybe Ange would have a friend that coached at a different school that would want me on their team.”

After the four-day camp, Bradley wanted Sack to play for SU. And despite recruiting Sack as a midfielder, Bradley played Sack at every position but goalie.

She played defense for the 2014 team that lost in the national championship game. That year, she started 17 of SU’s 19 games at back. But once Roos Weers and Zoe Wilson arrived the next year, they started immediately. Sack needed to adapt if she wanted to play a significant role as an upperclassmen.

“The only reason why I could be there is because I did the basics really well,” Sack said. “Zoe and Roos came and they were freshman, and playing with them I realized quickly they were way better at defense than I was.”

In 2015, Sack transitioned to attack, a difficult transformation after a year and a half anchoring the defense, she said. She scored seven goals as a junior, then recorded four goals and six assists as a senior in 2016, ranking her sixth on the team in points her final season.

Her versatility made her an important asset for the Orange, Russell said, something that Sack didn’t realize until she began coaching USA field hockey camps in Syracuse. Sack spent three of her four offseasons at Syracuse assisting local high schoolers training to play at the next level. Coaching others helped hone her skills for SU and also inspired her to seek out coaching full-time.

“Liz was like my mom coming in freshman year,” senior Jamie Martin said. “She helped me and took me under her wing, we became best friends and we’re still best friends.”

In its national championship season in 2015, Syracuse had just lost the ACC Championship to North Carolina, its first loss of the season. On the road trip home, the Orange stopped at a rest stop in Pennsylvania.

“I remember thinking, this doesn’t feel like we just lost,” Sack said. “We’ve already turned the page and we were onto the next thing. I told them we have to focus on step one, two, three and four of where we want to go.”

Sack went on to assist Russell’s opening goal in the 4-2 national championship win against North Carolina exactly two weeks after the first loss.

As an upperclassman, Sack lived with Regan Spencer in an apartment on Euclid Avenue. Spencer and Sack, who didn’t get along during summer start, in advance of freshman year, became best friends.

One cold day at the end of practice, Bradley gave her team 30 seconds to pick up the balls, cones and small goals from the field, Spencer said. Running was the punishment if they didn’t clean up the whole field on time. The Orange passed the test, in part because Sack hid a cone in her pants so Bradley didn’t notice.

“She didn’t want anyone to have to run,” Spencer said. “She thought of a solution right there and we didn’t have to run. Even though it was a tough day, it was classic Liz.”

Sack drove her blue “mom van,” as multiple teammates called it, around Syracuse. From Chipotle runs to Destiny trips, they piled as many teammates as possible into her 2006 Dodge Caravan. While Sack drove, Spencer sat in the passenger seat, and oftentimes the freshmen piled into the back for rides to and from practice. The caravan lasted 12 years in the Sack family, until it was totaled in an accident last month.

“She has a great ability to lend a helping hand or listen to anyone in need,” Russell said. “She always goes out of her way to help others.”

When the time came for Sack to find a coaching job, she turned to Bradley and others for help. Then-associate head coach Tara Zollinger left SU in spring 2017 to take a new job. Sack asked Zollinger for help building a resume and finding open job opportunities.

When SU played SJU that spring in mid-April, Bradley told Lynn Farquhar, the head coach at St. Joesph’s, that Sack was looking for a coaching job. Bradley had coached with Farquhar previously, and coached then-assistant Shannon Taylor, too.

SJU offered Sack a graduate assistant position, and on Oct. 1 Sack became a full-time assistant coach.

“Liz is very honest, which makes her a great coach,” Russell said. “As well as being honest she has a great ability to lend a helping hand or listen to anyone in need.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Liz Sack’s position was misstated. Sack is an assistant coach. The Daily Orange regrets this error. 

Published on October 25, 2018 at 12:12 am

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo