It isn’t unusual for Peter Lamade to pick up the phone and find one of his former Duke lacrosse teammates on the other line, some eager to talk about the joys of the extra year of eligibility the NCAA granted them last spring.
This week, though, is an exception.
While some of Duke’s top players remained in Durham, N.C., Lamade found an opportunity at Virginia. And tonight, the midfielder’s past and present collide when the top-ranked Blue Devils (11-1, 2-0 ACC) meet the No. 3 Cavaliers (10-1, 1-1) at Klockner Stadium.
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” Lamade said. “It’s going to be an experience that a lot of people that play sports in college don’t get to experience.”
Those, though, are not foreign to Lamade.
He was at Duke during the program’s turbulent time two years ago when rape accusations that were ultimately declared false scuttled a season and led to the deposing of former coach Mike Pressler. In each of the two years surrounding the lost season, the Blue Devils fell a goal shy of Johns Hopkins in the national title game.
Surviving that ride would be draining for anyone, and like the rest of his fellow seniors, Lamade figured his career was over when he walked out of M&T Bank Stadium last year. But while on a trip with teammates, the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to anyone on the 2006 Duke roster.
Suddenly, Lamade was a free agent. He could stick around an extra year, or he could head anywhere else — even within the conference.
“Peter came in and said, ’Coach, I’m just done here. I’m looking at North Carolina and looking at Virginia,’ ” Duke coach John Danowski recalled. “I said ’Great.’ My position was we’re not going to recruit them. We’re not going to talk them into coming back. We’re not going to talk them out of coming back. It had to be something they wanted.”
Lamade wanted to collect a graduate degree in a year (he’s enrolled in a one-year education program at Virginia) and began to investigate the possibilities. Virginia quickly emerged as one, in part because of family history.
Ted Lamade played at Virginia from 2001 to 2004, a highly touted high school player who did not earn much playing time with the Cavaliers. It was Ted Lamade who initiated contact with an e-mail to Virginia coach Dom Starsia.
From Peter Lamade’s perspective, it was impressive how much his brother spoke of a positive experience in every way other than the size of his on-field role and the close relationship he maintained with Starsia. For Starsia, it was vital to know exactly what he was getting.
“It was a huge help just in the sense I didn’t have any doubt we was going to fit into our team and fit into this community,” Starsia said. “I always thought he should have come here anyway. I thought Peter was our kind of guy and those things don’t always work out.”
It did this time, in part because Lamade knew he would savor an extra year of school more than extra time in the work force.
“When you’re deciding to go to work or go back to school, you’re going to work for the rest of your life,” Lamade said. “There’s nothing like college lacrosse, and I think everyone knows that. Some of my friends, I’ll talk to them and they’ll look back and say they would do anything to walk back on the field.”
So instead of meetings and interviews, Lamade is a vital member of the Cavaliers’ first midfield. Lamade has six goals and eight assists, and Starsia credits him for making the offense run more smoothly thanks to his slick passing.
Lamade also played attack for three games early this season when Ben Rubeor was injured before returning to his natural position and will be certain to have an emotional evening tonight.
Then again, none of it was guaranteed, so Lamade is making sure he enjoys his second final season of college lacrosse.
“It’s been more fulfilling in the sense of the people I’ve met and playing for another coach that’s been great to me,” Lamade said. “We’ll see in May how fulfilling it will be. Only time will tell how that goes. It’s been very fulfilling, especially since it was unexpected to have it.”
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