Jarett Park’s had a rough summer.

Last year’s national men’s soccer Freshman of the Year had to stick around campus and struggle through a month’s worth of Calculus II. Eventually, he became so frustrated he asked Syracuse for a tutor. In the process, he lost a pair of jobs — one cutting grass at a local cemetery, the other working for Brine, a lacrosse company.

‘This summer, there was so much stuff going on,’ Park said. ‘It was the worst. It was just too much.’

Park began the summer working both jobs but soon stopped cutting grass at the cemetery. Once summer school began, his job at Brine conflicted with classes, so he quit. By the time he returned to the cemetery, someone else had been hired.

So you’ll have to forgive Park if he’s more eager for Syracuse soccer to begin and his atypical summer to end. That’s why, during last Thursday’s scrimmage against Penn State, a 4-4 draw, it was all Syracuse head coach Dean Foti could do to keep Park off the field, as the sophomore sat on the sideline recovering from a back strain.

It’s been a strange summer for the rest of the Orangemen as well. Despite failing to make the Big East tournament last season — finishing ninth in the conference — the Orangemen begin the season ranked No. 23 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America/adidas preseason poll.

‘I don’t know what they’re basing it on,’ Park said. ‘It’s kind of weird. We’re that good, but we haven’t gotten a chance to show it.’

‘The coaches do the voting, they know all we were missing last year,’ Foti said, referring to injuries that sidelined starters Chris Aloisi and Ryan Hickey all season. ‘Now, we have a bunch of guys returning, and the rest have game experience.’

Still, at the end of last season the Orangemen hardly looked like a Top-25 team. After the season finale, the players sat on the ground, their arms around their knees, witnessing what an 0-4 finish had done to a season in which they had climbed as high as No. 18.

Syracuse has made a habit of sluggish finishes the past two seasons, also dropping its last four games in 2000.

Last year, the Orangemen were lucky, ending the season with games against only two Big East adversaries, Notre Dame and St. John’s, along with Hartwick and Cornell. A similar struggle this season won’t only plummet the Orangemen’s ranking, but their conference hopes as well.

No. 6 Connecticut, No. 3 St. John’s and Virginia Tech litter the final four-game stretch of SU’s season. All three beat Syracuse in 2001.

This year, however, Foti believes his team is different. Although the Orangemen replaced four starters in each of the past two years, two of this season’s replacements have amassed plenty of experience. Syracuse will benefit most from the return of Aloisi, a two-year captain, who sprained his MCL and missed all of last year. His return at sweeper allows the Orangemen to shuffle defender Eric Chapman into one of the fullback positions.

‘I became a sweeper by default last year,’ Chapman said. ‘I don’t think it was something Dean wanted to do, and I know it certainly wasn’t something I wanted to do.’

The other replacement, Hickey, a midfielder, will fill in for former co-captain John Andrade. Hickey also redshirted due to a groin injury in 2001, but played in 15 games his freshman year.

The player SU might miss most is defender Scott Cross, who quit the team before the season. Foti said that Cross, who dominated from his defensive back position, had problems staying fit and had to work out two or three times a day this spring just to stay in shape. The Orangemen may move midfielder Ari Schneider back to defense or use Derek McGeehan or Brian Dell, each of whom saw game-action last year.

Syracuse also adds eight freshmen, a number of whom could contribute this season.

‘We’ve been in the Top 25 the past two years and hit a skid at the end,’ Foti said. ‘We’ve got an experienced group and more depth than we’ve had in the past.”

Still, despite all the answers Syracuse and Foti think they have, this season rides on answering the same old question: can the Orangemen keep the wheels on for the home stretch?

‘We’ve had a lot of good teams in the past,’ forward Kirk Johnson said. ‘We’ve really fallen apart at the end. I think this is the year we change that.’

Published on August 27, 2002 at 12:00 pm