Consider Mike Powell an accredited lacrosse judge.

Sharing a backyard with two of the best to ever play the game will do that for you. So when he surveyed the field at the World Team tryouts last summer and then surveyed the list of players that made the team, something just didn’t add up.

His name was there. So was Syracuse teammate John Glatzel. But something wasn’t right.

“I personally thought Josh (Coffman) was one of the best,” Powell said of his teammate, best friend and neighbor. “It was some of the best lacrosse I’ve ever seen him play. I don’t know where they got confused with that, maybe it was politics, but I guess they’ve got a lot of players, and you have to look at everyone so …”

Coffman didn’t make it — then. But his hard work, and Powell’s impeccable lacrosse judgement, were validated yesterday when Coffman was belatedly named to the World Team in place of Navy’s Andy Ross, who will be deployed in May.

“I had been wondering about it,” said Coffman, who found out he was up for consideration about a month ago and found out he was selected Friday before he left for Princeton. “I was just excited.”

Terry Coffman remembers his son returning from tryouts. Then, no excitement graced the usual smile on his face. Only disappointment. The two-time All-American had been shut out at both attack and midfield.

But there were only so many spots open, and Army coach Jack Emmer — who by the way is the winningest active coach in NCAA history — made the selections. Coffman was right there, but the numbers game inevitably left someone out.

“He’s not much of a complainer,” Terry Coffman said. “He just said he played very well, that a lot of veteran players liked him because he got them the ball in the right place. He simply wasn’t good enough.”

Or so Emmer thought. Which gave Coffman plenty of motivation when Army came to the Carrier Dome on Feb. 23. Facing the same coach that effectively questioned his ability, Coffman exploded for seven points in the blowout victory.

And the motivation may have been deeper than the snub. Coffman said he’d heard a couple days before the game that there might be an opening on the team. So the Army-Syracuse contest marked a second chance of sorts.

“Josh is a heck of a player,” Emmer said following the game. “I was really rooting for Josh to make the World Team. In tryouts, I didn’t think Josh played as well as he is capable of playing.”

Funny enough, Coffman’s parents received a call three days following the game. Emmer told them there was an opening and that Coffman was up for consideration. Almost a month later, Coffman finally heard the news he’d been waiting for since the summer — he’d made it.

His first thought? He laughs now, but it was that he’d still be splitting time at midfield and attack, an annoyance he’s grown used to at talent-laden Syracuse.

He’ll join Powell in what is possibly only the second backyard combination in World Team history. The duo follows the Gait brothers, who played for Team Canada, as the only backyard combinations Syracuse head coach John Desko can recall.

But Coffman just laughs when considering how two kids from this tiny Upstate New York hamlet will be tearing up Australia.

“It should be interesting,” the Tewaaraton Trophy finalist said, offering a shrug.

Coffman replaces Ross, a three-time All-American from Navy, who will be deployed to the Middle East this summer for an entirely different patriotic duty – the ongoing war on terrorism.

The U.S. Team will defend its five straight World Championships all the same, in Perth, Australia, from July 5-15 against teams from more than 15 countries. And with the events surrounding Sept. 11, there’s extra motivation in representing America this year.

“That was a big topic at tryouts,” Powell said. “You have to think of yourself as you’re representing your country. And after (Sept. 11) happened, it’s kind of a reality check for everybody. It means something more now.”

Especially for Coffman, who rode the Emmer roller coaster just about as far as it could go. Now, he has a chance to make an impact, and Desko — validating Powell’s earlier assessment — believes it will be a big one.

“It’s well deserved,” Desko said. “He’s a good World player because playing our style it’s a little bit more upbeat, and he can play two positions. It’s a bonus for the team, and I guess it works both ways.”

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Published on March 26, 2002 at 12:00 pm