Our long suffering regional nightmare is over. The NCAA has finally granted the lacrosse phenom Cody Jamieson a waiver and he will be eligible to play this weekend against UMass, says a source to Dave Rahme. Rahme notes that Coach Desko nor Jamieson have confirmed this yet.
Jamieson is a junior with two seasons of eligibility remaining, counting this season. He led Onondaga CC to two undefeated national titles in 2006-07 while scoring 237 points, winning the 2007 JUCO Male Athlete of the Year Award and the 2007 Tom Longboat Award as the male Aboriginal Athlete of the Year.
How good was Cody at OCC? He scored 122 goals and assisted on 115 others for an average of 7.2 points per game in his two seasons there. He was originally admitted to SU to play last season but decided to sit out the year to ensure he could get two full seasons of eligibility. Unfortunately, the NCAA held up his eligibility due to credit waiver requests in the transfer. Not sure why that takes months to sort out, but its done it seems, so that's good.
Jamieson should be able to make a sudden impact at the left attack position. Dave Rahme sees great potential and immediate dividends paid once he steps on the field:
He isn't very big but is a powerful player who was nearly unstoppable any time he decided to go to the cage. Great hands, great stick, great vision and a great feel for the game. Not Mike Powell flashy but potentially just as productive.
Hopefully Cody can indeed step on the field against UMass this weekend. If he does, he'll be playing in the final regular-season game between the two schools for a while. The UMass rivalry is one of the games to be lost making room for the Big East schedule. Then again, according to Coach Desko there might some other reasons for canceling the series as well:
"I don't know if this game has been the healthiest game for both teams," SU head coach John Desko said. "So maybe a little time off might help that situation."
SU players have told horror stories of the treatment they have received by the fans at Garber Field, a venue in which they have to walk through the crowd to reach the playing surface. Desko admitted that the acrimony works both ways.
The teams have played each other every year since 1976 and SU leads the series 27-8.
Update: Cody's OCC coach confirms it, via the D.O.