M. Lax assistant does double duty

Matt Kerwick, a first-year assistant coach for the Penn men's lacrosse team, doubles as a professional lacrosse player for the Philadelphia Wings, the premier team in the Major Indoor Lacrosse League. When the Wings made the playoffs this year (which is hardly a momentous accomplishment -- the top four teams in the six-team league qualify), Kerwick's two jobs came into conflict. The first playoff game conflicted with Penn's match at Harvard. The championship game was at the same time as the Dartmouth contest. Kerwick said the decision -- to remain with the Quakers -- was easy to make. "It was disappointing because I would have loved to have played, but the reason I moved to Philly was to coach at Penn, so it wasn't a big loss to me," Kerwick said. "This is my full-time job. I'd much rather be with the Penn team." When head coach Terry Corcoran picked Kerwick -- a fellow Hobart College alum -- as his assistant, he knew he was picking a winner. A first-team all-American for the Division III Statesmen, Kerwick, a 1990 graduate, guided them to four championship years. Described by his Hobart coach, B.J. O' Hara, as a "tremendous competitor," Kerwick's first job was as an assistant at Randolph-Macon College, a Division III school in Virginia. He quickly became the head coach a year later -- "the right place, the right time," Kerwick said -- and led the Yellow Jackets to their best three-year record in school history. But Kerwick had an itching to do more than coach; he wanted to play. "My biggest motivation [for playing professionally] is the fact that I have a chance to run with some of the best players out there," Kerwick said. Unlike the major professional sports, money is not much of a factor for professional lacrosse players. Star or scrub, a player's salary is determined by years in the league, not ability. And the pay is not much -- a few hundred dollars per game. Kerwick, who was not picked in the two-round draft, telephoned the general manager of the Baltimore Thunder in 1991 and received a tryout. He impressed the coach favorably enough to make the team and, after recording 13 goals and 13 assists in a nine games, he was third in the balloting for rookie of the year. Kerwick played the next two years for the Thunder and ended with 51 points (38 goals, 23 assists) in his three-year stint. Unlike most players, Kerwick was exposed to indoor lacrosse in high school. A Rochester, N.Y., native, Kerwick played box lacrosse (as its sometimes called) when the hockey rink closed down for the summer. Also, he feels that his experience in hockey -- he was captain of the Hobart hockey team his senior year-- suits him well for indoor lacrosse. "It's very similar," said Kerwick, "in the way you move the ball around and in the way you react to the ball in certain situations." When Kerwick came to Philadelphia, he called Wings coach Tony Resch for a spot on the roster. The Wings, the two-time defending champions, are arguably the most successful team in the league -- on and off the turf. Sixteen to seventeen thousand fans regularly pack the Spectrum for their games. Resch, after asking those in the know, picked up Kerwick, despite the fact the forward had missed the tryout. "Ideally, it would have been nice if he made the tryout," Resch said. "But everyone I spoke to said he was a hard worker, a very good player and a good team player." It is no secret that the league tries to sell itself by stressing the violence?err, physical play of the game. Resch concedes the league attracts a large "hockey crowd" to its matches. "It's very physical," Resch said. "The source of it is that they play in a confined space and that cross-checking is legal. It can get pretty wild." The coach describes Kerwick, who at 5 feet-9, 165 pounds is small by lacrosse standards, as more of a heady than a physical player. But Kerwick could not not elude the game's physical nature when, in the middle of his third season at Baltimore, a hard check disconnected his collar bone from his rib bone. That was the end of his Maryland athletic highlights. "It's rough -- no question about that," Kerwick said. "There's a lot more [compared to field lacrosse] in terms of hitting. There aren't too many rules in the indoor game." For the Wings, Kerwick saw limited action, but still managed to score key goals down the stretch. Philadelphia went on to win the championship in a thrilling 15-14 overtime victory over the Rochester Knighthawks last month. Will Kerwick play next year as the Wings go for the three-peat? "I probably will," Kerwick said. "It depends on how many conflicts are on the schedule and how I feel physically -- but I'm feeling pretty good."