Randy Staats stood in a group of teammates joking around at Syracuse’s Media Day on Jan. 5. He posed for photos, smiled and answered questions about his role on the attack. He did everything, that just a year ago, he could not.
Last season, Staats wasn’t at Media Day, because he wasn’t even enrolled at the university — less than one month before the season was set to start.
And when he did arrive to play for the Orange after finishing his classes at Onondaga Community College, he had just weeks to integrate himself into an offense that seemed just fine without him.
“I was so new,” Staats said. “I didn’t really know the offense to a tee. I didn’t know where to be and what spots to be in. It was everything, even little things.”
After not starting in the beginning of the season and missing two games in the middle, Staats eventually was able to make himself a staple of the Syracuse attack. It showed on April 8 when he scored five goals at Cornell, continued with five more at Hobart 11 days later and finished up with five goals against Notre Dame in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship.
He took over as the third attack for Derek Maltz, and found a niche scoring against opponents’ second- or third-best defenders. Staats played in 14 of SU’s 16 games and started in just nine, but was second on the team with 56 points. And now, a season after coming in with only a prodigious reputation, he’s expected to be an anchor for one of the toughest attacks in the nation to defend.
“If he’s going against their third guy, he’s going to beat their third guy pretty much every time,” attack Kevin Rice said. “It’s a nice option for us to have, and then if they start to respect him more than the rest of us, then we start to get opportunities.”
OCC head coach Chuck Wilbur said his team’s up-tempo, pass-heavy offense sometimes takes players months to get a grasp of. Staats, he said, grasped the concept within a few days.
When Staats got to Syracuse, he spent hours of his free time in the offices of SU head coach John Desko and assistant coach Kevin Donahue. Several times a week, they met and the coaches drew out aspects of the offense like clearing, riding and man-up situations.
“I think what helped get him on the field so quickly last year was how well he picked things up,” Desko said. “He’s really a quick study. And I think that helped him get out there and be so productive early on.”
Rice said Staats changed the dynamic of what Syracuse was capable of last year on offense since he offered more scoring options than Maltz, who was more of a crease attacker. Staats, on the other hand, could finish in close, and could also dodge and distribute.
Coming from a box lacrosse background, Staats is more adept at playing tight around the net on an actual field. He’s able to slow the game down more easily from the drop in tempo and has larger nets to shoot at.
After starting the season as a bench player and midfielder, he developed into a reliable and well-rounded attack who forced himself to stand apart from the rest last season.
“You can’t just come onto a team and expect to play like you’ve played with them your whole life,” Staats said. “It takes time. Like anything it’s practice. We got our practice done.”
This season, there will be no difficult transition to make. There won’t be a sense of urgency to learn an offense in a matter of weeks. And there won’t be a need to spend hours every week in the coaches’ offices.
This season isn’t about Staats redefining the offense. It’s about executing what it’s already established. Now, he comes in with a full season, a fall of practice under his belt and a trio of attacks in himself, Rice and Dylan Donahue that made up for more than half of the team’s goals last season.
“It’s unreal,” Staats said. “It’s unreal to be a part of it because there’s so many different things that we’re good at.
“It balances us out and makes us a stronger attack.”
