Princeton University Athletics
Four Score
March 11, 2005 | Men's Lacrosse
March 11, 2005
The memories sit now in dusty binders, easily hidden from those too young to have been there, easily lost to time and distance. Old negatives mostly, along with some newspaper clips and press releases. They proclaim Princeton as the 1992 NCAA men's lacrosse champion, the first of the six the Tigers have won.
Jason Doneger, the oldest current Tiger, was almost 10 on Memorial Day 1992, the day that Andy Moe scored in the second overtime to defeat Syracuse.
"This program has been built on discipline and blue collar values," Doneger says. "It's important that nobody ever forgets that."
To build more of a bridge between the current team and the teams that have preceded it, Princeton head coach Bill Tierney undertook a unique project this preseason. He instructed each Princeton player to research the legacy of his uniform number, focusing on a former player, though not the one who wore it directly before. Each player had to be ready to give his report at any moment. "It was a fun exercise," Doneger says. "It was also a great way to maintain the tradition. It made everyone think about the guys who wore their number in the past."
Doneger, the current No. 4, gave his report on Jeff MacBean, who assisted on Kevin Lowe's goal in overtime to win the 1994 NCAA championship. As for the rest of the team, there are seemingly endless connections to the past.
No. 20? Moe, the hero of 1992, to Andy Hubbard to Sean Hartofilis to Peter Trombino. Jim O'Brien, the current No. 16, knows that he is following Kevin Lowe and Jesse Hubbard, two of the greatest players in college lacrosse history. Michael Biles may have never seen them play, but he knows his No. 6 was worn by All-Americas Taylor Simmers, Chris Massey and Ryan Mollett. And on and on it goes, up and down the roster.
As for Doneger, he represents an important link to the past all by himself. Doneger came to Princeton in the fall of 2000, and he helped the Tigers to the 2001 NCAA championship. He took the 2001-02 school year off to study in Spain and work in Washington, D.C., and he came back to score 77 goals the last two years, giving him 86 for his career as he enters his senior season. He has twice been All-Ivy and honorable mention All-America, and he was a third-team All-America in Inside Lacrosse's preseason edition this year.
In addition, he has joined an exclusive group of Lowe, Tortolani, Moe, Scott Bacigalupo and Ryan Boyle as the only two-time captains in the last 15 years at Princeton. He has been an Academic All-America and Academic All-Ivy League selection, and he is also an accomplished piano player. He will autograph any ball, shirt, game program or other item for as many kids as ask, even after the toughest loss, and his modesty is ever-present.
"The way I describe Jason is that I've coached a lot of kids in my 18 years at Princeton, and Jason's in my top five," says Tierney. "And that includes my own two kids. He's one of the finest kids we've ever had here. Forget lacrosse. He's just a great, great kid. In light of his two brothers' history, I'm just glad he's not in a Blue Jay uniform."
Ah yes, Doneger's brothers, who all grew up in the family house in Hewlett, N.Y., and graduated from Lynbrook High School. The oldest of the three Doneger brothers is Adam, a first-team All-America who graduated from Johns Hopkins in 2003 and became the Major League Lacrosse Rookie of the Year. The youngest of the three is Michael, who is a freshman at Johns Hopkins. Michael Doneger will be the other No. 4 in today's game, though for the record, he would have preferred to be No. 14.
"Playing against Adam was always fun," says Jason. "Adam taught me how to play. As I got better, I taught Michael to play, though he actually started playing before I did, since he started when he was in first grade and I started when I was in seventh. It didn't matter what the sport was though. One winter, the backyard froze over and we played a lot of ice hockey. It was always a physical game. Our backyard was big enough to deal with three boys beating on each other."
Jason Doneger played football and lacrosse in high school, and he chose Princeton over Hopkins. He scored nine goals as a freshman, including one in the 12-11 win over Towson in the NCAA semifinals. He then scored at least one goal in all 15 games as a sophomore and the first 14 games a year ago, running a streak of 30 consecutive games - the second longest streak in school history behind Massey's 46 straight - before he was shut out in the NCAA semifinal last year against Navy.
For all of that, he has been somewhat overshadowed in his first three seasons, mostly by Boyle, twice a first-team All-America and twice the Ivy Player of the Year. Doneger himself has been second-team All-Ivy and twice honorable mention All-America.
"I don't play lacrosse for personal recognition," says Doneger. "It's the ultimate team sport. As much recognition as Ryan got here or Adam got, they were really team players first. Numbers weren't important to them. I consider myself a role player."
His role again will be goal-scoring. As he begins his final season at Princeton, he does so on a team with many more younger players than older ones, even if the younger players have some experience from last year. The attack unit, for instance, will feature Doneger and two sophomores -Trombino and Scott Sowanick-and a freshman, Alex Haynie. The first midfield has a freshman, sophomore and junior.
"Even with a five-year plan, it's gone really quickly here," says Doneger, who will work for Lehman Brothers next year. "I'm not ready to get out of here yet. I'm going to miss playing lacrosse and everything that goes along with it. I'm definitely regarded as the old man on this team. The freshmen see me and think I'm like one of the coaches, like they shouldn't do anything suspicious around me. My duty now is to instill on those younger players those values that make you successful, that you need to win a national championship and to be the best you can be. That's very important to me."
Spoken like a true family man, one from two great lacrosse families.