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The communal trips to Riverdale Grade School for wall-ball momentarily stopped. The holes Tucker Dordevic ingrained in his wall by repeatedly bouncing a ball off it had been patched a few years earlier. The repetitive 10-ball — five right-handed then five left-handed — shot routine he had perfected was too basic.

When the pandemic began, Dordevic needed a change. He put on some sweats and a T-shirt and headed down the road, taking an open invitation to play on his neighbor’s turf field. Listening to up-tempo country, Dordevic worked on different shooting angles, ones he hadn’t experimented with before.

Dordevic’s extra work on unique shots has correlated into highlight reel goals, timely scores and an unmatched consistency for Syracuse’s attack this season. But coming from a non-lacrosse hotbed in Portland, Oregon, Dordevic’s prior domination in recreational games didn’t automatically translate to the club circuit. He had to put in hours of training — just like he did at the start of the pandemic — to help him gain an edge.

“I take a lot of pride from being from a non-hotbed,” Dordevic said. “There were not a lot of people in the same shoes as me growing up. Hopefully I can inspire some kids that want to play as well.”

Dordevic dealt with a lack of proper lacrosse coaching for most of his childhood, he said. When he started playing in first grade, parents were the only coaches, even ones who didn’t have experience with the sport.

Games were limited to recreational matchups around Oregon, with each town fielding around five teams, said Sam Handley, Dordevic’s high school teammate. The best players from each team could make select teams and then faced other Oregon-based select teams.

But the whole setup was confusing, Handley said. There wasn’t even a name for a statewide league. Without an extensive number of sticks in the state, it was the only way for kids to compete, though.

Dordevic and Handley’s third and fourth grade team immediately struggled at the select level. In their first game, Handley said their team lost 22-5, a much-needed “breath of fresh air” that showed them their skills weren’t on par with others in the state. But three years later, the pieces finally clicked as they beat that same team that handed them their first “embarrassing” defeat.

By then, Dordevic and Handley were head and shoulders above other players, Handley said. Their skills drastically improved from the countless hours in the spring they spent throwing a ball off a brick wall at Riverdale. A few other players from the team went to the school, too, heading over to Tillamook Creamery for $5 cookie dough milkshakes after showcasing their talents.

When Dordevic was in seventh grade, he started playing for West Coast Starz, a national club lacrosse program. But the West Coast Starz had its own challenges, Dordevic said. Jono Zissi, who had been a coach at the club since its inception in 2006, said other states like California had an “eight-year head start” with competitive leagues already established in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.

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And with trips to the East Coast for weekend tournaments, players from the West Coast in general were at a disadvantage, Zissi said. They didn’t have the time to adjust to the three-hour time difference for 8 a.m. Saturday morning games and had to rush home on Sunday nights just in time for the school week.

“Every sort of odds is against the West Coast kid,” Zissi said.

Dordevic didn’t earn a spot on West Coast Starz A-team but still continued with the sport. Getting cut left a “sour taste,” Dordevic said. At the start of high school, he began working with Josh Hunt, a specialized sports performance trainer. Hunt had trained Dordevic’s older brother, Max, who ran track at Texas.

Hunt spent four hours a week with just Dordevic, working on strength exercises, acceleration, deceleration and power. They would be in the weight room or at the turf field in Hunt’s Titan Elite Strength & Conditioning facility, working on resistance and overspeed exercises. Dordevic was small, Hunt said, but he bought into the program, becoming even more explosive.

“We wouldn’t throw around the ball or utilize the stick,” Hunt said. “We would work on the characteristics that support sport excellence.”

Dordevic said he completely bought into Hunt’s program midway through his freshman year. But Hunt said there was no “epiphany” working with Dordevic. He just slowly turned up the heat on Dordevic’s regiment, implementing more complex muscular movements.

‘Twas a good Morning…. #lax

A photo posted by duckertordevic

The work with Hunt resulted in a “jump” in Dordevic’s game his junior year, Zissi said. It helped him shoot in the high-90s with both hands, and Dordevic had a new confidence on the field, Zissi said. He finally made the West Coast Starz A-team before the winter slate, picking up a Syracuse offer, too.

In his senior year, Dordevic took his new abilities to the Under Armour All-America Game. All players at the game were college commits, and the attention was on some of the best East Coast talent, Zissi said. But the West Coast players like Dordevic took over the game, outplaying the kids from hotbeds.

“That sort of legitimized it,” Zissi said about Dordevic’s success. “That’s when it was stamped.”

Now at Syracuse, Dordevic still continues to play wall-ball as if Handley or others are around him, boomeranging the ball off a metal gate where the football team enters before games in the Carrier Dome. On the road, he does the same, though he said certain spots like the uneven brick walls at UVA don’t provide the same experience.

Dordevic doesn’t need music like he did during the pandemic — the rhythm of the ball bouncing off the wall is enough. But when he goes home over summer and winter breaks, he falls back into his old routine, training with his former club players who are now at Division I programs.

The group itself doesn’t play outside as much as they used to, but Dordevic still plays wall-ball at Riverdale, talking to his mom instead. And now he’s coaching youth players from his old teams too, showing the next generation the unique path that landed him in Syracuse.

“These kids are ambassadors for the West, for Tucker to go back and give back, that’s what it’s all about,” Zissi said.

Published on April 13, 2022 at 10:44 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu