Duke men's lacrosse underclassmen Smith, Lindsay look to build on U19 gold medals

This summer, Duke’s athletes in Rio were not the only ones representing their countries. Two rising stars for the Blue Devils held that honor as well.

Midfielders Brad Smith and Terry Lindsay helped propel the U.S. national U19 team to a gold medal at the FIL U19 World Lacrosse Championships in July, competing alongside the best new talent in college lacrosse, including players from the nation’s other top programs—including defending national champion North Carolina and national runner-up Maryland.

“The experience was incredible,” Smith said. “The process was long and went over about eight months, so it was a long time coming, but once we got out there, just being with the guys, the coaching staff [and] the support staff. It was incredible getting to experience that with kids that you’ve known, or will remember and be friends with for the rest of your life.”

A 6-foot-2 sophomore who played in every game as a freshman, Smith tallied nine points in six games at the championships in Coquitlam, British Columbia, playing primarily the same role that he did for Duke.

As a second-line midfielder for the Blue Devils last year, the Mountain Lakes, N.J., native was Duke’s top freshman contributor, scoring nine goals and dishing out five assists. Smith flashed his potential with a pair of goals during the Blue Devils’ ACC championship game loss to Syracuse.

Duke graduated its entire distinguished first midfield line from last year, so the familiar faces of Chad Cohan and All-American performers Myles Jones and Deemer Class will no longer be present at Koskinen Stadium. Smith and Lindsay represent the new era of the Blue Devils’ offense, and their time spent together in Canada should help smooth the transition as part of a group of underclassmen hoping to take Duke back to the Final Four after two consecutive first-round exits.

“A different thing for me and Terry coming into this season is before I got to Duke, I had never played with anyone on this team before,” Smith said. “I had to start over and build chemistry from scratch with some guys that I had been friends with, but had never gotten to know on the field. Getting to build some chemistry, even just a building block with Terry, before coming to school made it that much easier once we got here to not only mesh on the field but to have people building around us.”

Lindsay, a Blue Devil commit since his sophomore year of high school, comes to Durham as a member of Inside Lacrosse magazine’s top-rated recruiting class. A star offensive midfielder at Georgetown Prep, the freshman found himself in a different role for the U19 team. Despite playing in six games, Lindsay did not register any official statistics, playing a different position for a loaded team—defensive midfield.

Stepping into a new role as well as training to become more of a two-way player is something Lindsay himself cited as helping to smooth his transition from high school to the college game.

After playing the first midfield line for seemingly entire games last season, Duke head coach John Danowski now boasts a deep midfield group that should offer more defensive versatility than the offensive-minded group that just graduated.

“[Ohio State head coach Nick] Myers said that we needed guys to put their egos aside,” Lindsay said. “We needed guys to step up and play their roles. Me and a buddy of mine, [Princeton midfielder] Austin Sims, we both played defensive midfield coming in…. I was coming in as an offensive midfielder but we both looked to our team, and that mattered more.”

The early connection made between Smith and Lindsay helped contribute to their team’s claim to the top prize in Coquitlam, as Team USA rallied from a six-goal deficit against Canada in the gold-medal game for a dramatic 13-12 win. 

The connections between Duke and the national team do not end there. 

Danowski coaches the senior men’s national team, and his son Matt, an assistant coach for the Blue Devils and former National Player of the Year at Duke, is a member of the squad.

“One of the reasons why I wanted to [coach team USA] was to gain the experience,” John Danowski said. “[I wanted to] work with players at the highest level. What can we learn from them? What can I learn from their face-off guys, from their defenders, from their offensive players? These are the best players in our country, so what can I learn? That was one of my biggest motivations for wanting to do this.”

Now back in Durham, the Blue Devils hope that those lessons and chemistry come to fruition when the team takes the field next spring in pursuit of the program’s fourth national championship.